As a woman and physician dedicated to women’s health, I applaud the courageous Iranian people who have created the first women-led revolution in Iranian history. Fighting for a cause that has expanded over decades, they are now giving the clear message, they will no longer be silenced.
“Woman, Life, Freedom” has been chanted across Iran since the funeral of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died in the capital, Tehran, last month after being arrested by the country’s morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly exposing her hair.
Local protests began instantly and spread like wildfire across the country.
IRAN PROTESTS AGAINST REGIME REACH DAY 40 AS PROTESTERS FIRED UPON BY SECURITY FORCES
“Countless Iranian women and girls have been killed in their fight for basic human rights,” former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said.
This week, large crowds gathered to mark 40 days since the young woman’s death. The 40th day after someone’s funeral, known as “chehelom”, holds cultural and religious significance in Iran.
The unrelenting protests are taking shape to be one of the greatest threats to the country’s theocratic government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Similar to prior Iranian mass protests (2009 and 2019), brute police force has taken to the streets in an attempt to control and censor the protesters.
IRAN’S ELITE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY EMERGES AS HUB OF PROTESTS
Weeks into the recent protests, it is estimated at least 270 people have been killed and nearly 14,000 have been arrested, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran.
As protests continue, attention is turning to the doctors and medics tending to the wounded.
The grave of Mahsa Amini in her hometown of Saqqez, Iran. Photo obtained by Fox News Digital.
(Fox News Digital)
Iranians are finding that giving and receiving medical care for protest-related injuries can be dangerous for both parties. Protesters worry about health care workers reporting them to the authorities, meanwhile doctors and others risk their own safety and freedom for treating them.
IRANIAN TEENAGER DIES AFTER SECURITY FORCES BEAT HER FOR NOT SINGING PRO-REGIME SONG: ‘HORRIFIC’
Many with injuries are not seeking medical care fearful of being arrested because of the heavy police presence in medical centers looking for wounded protesters.
I am in awe of the devoted medical personnel, in Iran and elsewhere, who are going to great lengths to care for the injured and ensuring basic human rights are preserved.
Physicians are being arrested for fulfilling their Hippocratic Oath; helping the infirm and keeping their treatments secret. As I watch in terror as current events unfold, I can’t help but reflect on why I chose to become part of this healing profession.
The answer is clear: to care for those who need help.
Tehran, Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, Teheran: In this photo, taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, it shows police outside the Sharif University of Technology during a student protest sparked by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police.
(AP Photo)
While we as doctors are accustomed to death and injury as a consequence of the job, the concept of being brutalized for helping people is unfathomable.
This week, Iranian doctors objecting to the presence of police in hospitals where protesters are being cared for were met with police aggression and tear gas in Tehran.
The increasing brutality and chaos are largely playing out on social media as internet access has been restricted by the oppressive regime.
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“As a doctor and Iranian watching these doctors simply carrying out their Hippocratic Oath to treat people who are being wounded in peaceful protests and the doctors being beaten and arrested makes me sick to my stomach…I think more media coverage is needed in order to bring global awareness and pressure against the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Dr. Nima Sana, Iranian American doctor in Arizona.
Dr. Kayvan Mirhadi, an Iranian American doctor living in New York tweeted, “Doctors were beaten, shot at, and arrested during a “peaceful” protest in front of the medical council in Iran. They wanted to stand with the people, the injured protesters. Attendings and Professors, young or old, all with wounds and injuries.”
I am in awe of the devoted medical personnel, in Iran and elsewhere, who are going to great lengths to care for the injured and ensuring basic human rights are preserved.
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They are on the right side of history.
My heart is with them and those they are caring for.
