WOMEN'S HEALTH IS NEGOTIABLE.

Predictably, Common Dreams contributor Nazaneen Shokri blames everything but the male-chauvinist primitivism of fundamentalist Islam for the ways in which it sucks to be female in Jihadistan.  Yes, she acknowledges that male-chauvinist primitivism exists.  "Women in Iran are disproportionately affected by the intensity of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with stricter restrictions on their dress, behavior, and livelihoods."

But in the matter of Common Dreams contributors, it's not the fundamentalist primitives' fault.

Policies presented as “strategic” or “necessary” produce predictable civilian harm. This damage is not coincidental or accidental, but structurally foreseeable. In Iran, sanctions limit access to medicines and equipment. In Palestine, specifically Gaza, blockade and military conditions restrict healthcare infrastructure and mobility. The common thread is not just genderized violence; it is the collapse of mobility, supply chains, and legal access to care, with women’s reproductive health among the clearest casualties.

We should reject the notion that this harm is unavoidable and that no one is at fault. Policymakers are aware of these outcomes. Reports, data, and firsthand coverage document these consequences, yet the policies continue.

End the misrule of the jihadis.  Seriously.  It takes a special kind of stupid to turn Mediterranean beachfront property into a slum, but how else describe Gaza, or what Hezbollah types have accomplished with that part of Lebanon they occupy?  It takes an even more special kind of stupid to turn a country with five millennia of Persian intellectual traditions into a pariah state currently existing at the sufferance of its neighbors and whatever "deal" the current American President fantasizes about.

The best this lady can do is the sort of anodyne statement you'd expect out of a faculty meeting.  "Societal acceptance of women as collateral damage should be challenged and dismantled, beginning with the recognition that no woman’s suffering is lesser than another."

First challenge and dismantle the sort of "decolonization" mindset that enables the jihadis.