As his troops slaughter civilians in Gaza, he claims to be standing up for Iranian women’s autonomy. He is far from the first warmonger to do so, says author Mona Eltahawy
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has invoked the Iranian regime’s heinous women’s rights record to justify his heinous war on Iran. This is the man whose genocide of Palestinians in Gaza killed more women and children in its first year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades.
“They’ve impoverished you, they’ve given you misery, they’ve given you death, they’ve given you terror, they shoot down your women, leaving this brave, unbelievable woman, Mahsa Amini, to bleed on the sidewalk for not covering her hair,” he told Iranians in an interview with Iran International.
It is incredible to hear Netanyahu call on the Iranian people to rise up against the very things he has subjected Palestinians to. But it is not surprising. I am all too familiar with the ways imperialists, occupiers and invaders weaponise Muslim women’s bodies and rights to justify their wars.
It was Netanyahu’s voice talking about reasons for striking Iran overlayed on top of images that were straight up propaganda. I’ll try to find the video somewhere and post it here if I do. It seemed like it was just trying to convince the American people that the strikes on Iran are necessary.
Islam is hell for women but this is a thin veneer of lies to justify something he already wanted to do. I hope one day no Muslim women exist because Islam hates women so deeply they realize no loving or reasonable god would create a system reliant on their subjugation and leave.
I really don't know how to fight the obvious propaganda. It seems like it would help if we had a news media that could and would call it like it is but we'll never see headlines like "Netanyahu uses blatantly hollow rhetoric to try to justify a genocidal war he started in a desperate attempt to stay in power".
I don’t know why obvious propaganda works on so many people. People I assumed had functional brains, just turn them off whenever the online. It’s fucking maddening, and I don’t see any way to combat it.