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As the New Year begins, our thoughts are with our brethren in Iran, Ukraine, Burma (now Myanmar), China and elsewhere who are suffering untold misery, injustice and death at the hands of ruthless tyrants and aggressors who have little value for human liberties or life.

At least one reader has berated us for not writing on the brave women and men in Iran who are protesting the tragic death of Mahsa Amini. She died following her arrest by the so-called morality police for allegedly donning her hijab improperly. Many have been beaten, imprisoned or killed for protesting Amini’s grievous death which authorities attributed to a heart attack! Her family said she had no history of heart problems. The United Nations Human Rights chief, in a speech before the Security Council on November 24, 2022, appealed to the Iranian authorities to stop "unnecessary and disproportionate" use of force against protestors. The brave Iranian soccer players in a show of solidarity with women who are being victimized refused to sing the Iranian national anthem at the FIFA games in their opening match against England. They risked imprisonment and worse for their act of defiance.

It’s not that we did not want to write about the regime’s brutal suppression of women’s and human rights. After all, Iran is the land from which Zoroastrianism originated. The ancient religion exhorts its followers to be on the side of the good, the just, and to fight evil. Many Iranians have been beaten, imprisoned and killed for doing just that.

So why then our silence on the atrocities committed by the despotic, theocratic regimes? So much evil is currently occurring in the world. Ukrainians are being slaughtered, maimed, tortured and raped by the armed forces of a delusional maniac. China is threatening the independent state of Taiwan while imprisoning the minority Chinese Muslim Uyghurs. The Dalai Lama has stated that the Chinese government "did everything possible to harm Buddhism… in a bid to destroy" the religion.

That India is not only siding with some of these brutal dictatorships but even profiteering from that relationship, is disgraceful. India abstained along with its partners in crime, Russia and China, on a draft resolution in the United Nations that demanded the oppressive Burmese junta immediately end violence and the arbitrary detainment of political prisoners and others. These opportunistic partnerships are a matter of great shame for a country that once advocated non-violence and non-alignment.

In India — the land that gave us refuge — the government continues to victimize Muslims, and to a lesser degree, Christians. The union home minister Amit Shah told a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers’ convention in Bangalore on December 31, 2022 that voters must choose between those who build temples and those who glorify the Muslim monarch Tipu Sultan. In her fortnightly column "Inside Track," senior journalist Coomi Kapoor stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s "unabashed Hindutva agenda has made many Muslims insecure about their future in India."

So how do we justify writing about the injustice in Iran while remaining silent on atrocities being committed at home and elsewhere? The Indian government argues their foreign policies are determined by self-interest. But is it really in our interests to support despotic regimes? A government is known by the company it keeps. If we do not support the victimized, who will come to our aid when our giant neighbor in the north occupies thousands of square kilometers of our land?

The Iranian revolt is basically against the subjugation of women. The government believes it has the right to tell women how to dress, how much of their bodies may be exposed to the lascivious male gaze. In Afghanistan, the government dictates how much (or little) education women may receive and where they can work (if at all).

For the present, the Iranian government has agreed to disband the "moral" force. But whether that ban stays in place or is replaced by something as sinister or more draconian remains to be seen. There is no rhyme or reason as to how despotic regimes act or react. In Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere, alleged protestors, especially if they are Muslims, have their homes or establishments flattened by bulldozers. So popular has this illegal ploy become that now the image of a bulldozer is selectively used in the electioneering and propaganda banners and literature of the ruling party. Another election ploy is the introduction of laws colloquially termed "Love jihad." It is used to target intermarried couples (read Muslim men who marry Hindus). Even a more civilized state like Maharashtra presently governed by a BJP coalition is planning to introduce such a legislation. Writing in the mid-day issue of January 2, 2023, columnist and senior journalist Ajaz Ashraf notes in an interfaith marriage where one party converts to the religion of the other (read Hindu bride to Islam), the district magistrate has to be notified. "These laws empower parents or siblings to lodge a complaint against your conversion."

In India, the Parsis continue to discriminate against women. Three courageous women have moved the courts to assert their rights, but the backlog in the courts means endless delays. Fortunately, most lawyers fight for the women without charging fees. But unlike the Iranian women who have taken to the streets chanting "Azadi (freedom)," removed the hijab and publicly cut their hair to protest the shabby treatment meted out to them, Parsi women opt to suffer the inequalities they face in silence. Most are bystanders, not even penning a letter to the editor to decry the discrimination, forget taking out processions or waving placards.

Of course, outside of the community, Parsi women in India and elsewhere do enjoy equal rights. They do not experience the humiliation and deprivation women of other minority communities or the Dalits and scheduled castes face. All the more reason for them to speak out.