Unsere Zeit: In Iran, the protests quickly changed from being about the murder of Mahsa Amini to being about the general situation of women. Can you briefly describe what that situation is? What are the restrictions on women’s rights apart from the obvious dress code?

Mohammad Omidvar: To understand the root and cause of the current uprising against the reactionary regime in Iran, it is essential to note that over the past two years we have been witnessing ever-increasing social unrest and protests. 

There have been a number of strikes across various industries, the most prominent being the long strike at the Haft-Tapeh sugarcane agro-industrial complex in Susheh, the strike at Hepco, the heavy equipment production company in Arak, thousands of contract workers in the oil and petrochemical industries, strikes and protests by teachers across almost all cities in Iran and protests by tens of thousands of pensioners. 

The leading cause of these protests was the worsening economic situation due to the regime’s neoliberal policies, which were backed and praised by the World Bank and IMF, and the sanctions imposed by the US. 

According to government statistics, over 40 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, and unemployment, especially among the youth in some provinces is as high as 70 per cent. 

This was combined with unprecedented corruption and widespread suppression of democratic rights and freedoms, especially after the sham elections of 2021 and the instalment of Ibrahim Raisi, one of the “death judges” in the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners in Iran, as president. Among the executed were hundreds of our party’s leaders, cadres and some of Iran’s most prominent writers, trade unionists and student activists. 

Over the past four decades, women in Iran have been subjected to the most inhumane treatment possible. Similar to what is imposed by the reactionary rulers of Saudi Arabia and the Taliban in Afghanistan, women in Iran have been denied their most basic human rights, including the right to control their bodies and choose their clothes. As well as the abolition of the compulsory headscarf, women in Iran are demanding freedom from medieval and reactionary laws imposed by the Islamist regime that discriminate against them in a wide range of areas:

- Marriage — the Islamic Republic initially lowered the age of marriage to 9 for girls. In 2002, the parliament raised it to 13.

- Divorce — a woman can only get a divorce in court with a judge’s order, while a man can get a divorce by declaring it verbally. 

- Child custody — custody is automatically given to the husband or his family. A divorced woman forfeits child custody if she remarries, even if her previous husband has died.

- Travel — a married woman cannot obtain a passport or travel abroad without her husband’s written consent. 

- Inheritance — a widow only inherits 12.5 per cent of her husband’s estate, but a widower inherits his wife’s entire estate. A son inherits twice as much as a daughter.

- Jobs — women are banned from entering the judiciary or standing for the presidency.

- Segregation — from schools to universities, as well as in healthcare, women are segregated from men. As far as access to women doctors is concerned, this has created significant health challenges for women, especially in rural areas. 

Many of Iran’s religious leaders in recent years have described women as “half of a man” as they do not have the same “brain power” as men.  

How do you judge the declarations of solidarity, especially by female politicians from the EU? Are they helpful in the struggle for women’s rights in Iran?

As far as our party is concerned, we strongly believe in the international solidarity of workers’ and communist parties, and progressive forces everywhere, with the struggle of the Iranian people and, in recent weeks, with the heroic struggle of women, youth and students against the despotic regime in Iran. 

We also believe that US imperialism and EU leaders do not have the interest of the Iranian people at heart. Their policies are aimed at fulfilling their strategic goals in the region. 

History, including the 1953 coup in Iran by the CIA and MI6 (aided by the BBC), which overthrew the elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh and reinstated the Shah’s puppet regime, and led to the execution and imprisonment of Tudeh members, has shown that, as far as US-led world imperialism is concerned, it wants puppet regimes in order to plunder the country and build military bases in the region to advance its hegemonic goals. 

Iran is seen by many people — regardless of the regime ruling there — as a bastion in the international anti-imperialist struggle against Nato, the EU, and the US. At the same time, progressive forces, not least Tudeh Party members, are suppressed and persecuted there. How do you see this complicated situation?

We believe that the current regime in Iran, from a class point of view, represents the interests of a big mercantile and bureaucratic bourgeoisie, serving a capitalist system. The political structure of this capitalist system in Iran is based on political Islam, where the regime’s Supreme Leader is the “representative of God on Earth,” and therefore above all laws and governing structures in the country. 

The regime, over the past 40 years, has been using “anti-imperialist” rhetoric to advance its regional and international goals. It is worth mentioning that prior to the widespread sanctions, most of Iran’s trade was with the West. 

During the 2003 imperialist war against Iraq, Iran backed the invasion and allowed US and Nato fighters to use Iran’s airspace. Even at the height of the revolution in the early 1980s, Iran’s rulers secretly met with Colonel Oliver North in Tehran and agreed to help the US fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua — the infamous Iran-Contra scandal. 

It is also worth mentioning that the regime’s leaders do not deny their desire to re-establish the “Islamic empire” in the region and beyond. The regime’s policies include supporting the most reactionary forces in the region, ranging from their interference in Iraq and supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan, to interference in some of the former Soviet nations.

In short, the regime in Iran is a reactionary capitalist one, its only interest is staying in power. Iranian leaders neither believe in nor accept the concept of “imperialism,” and have shown themselves to be strong anti-communist allies of the West when required. 

The attack on our party in 1983 was executed with the help of the CIA, MI6, and Turkey’s MIT. In mid-1982 two high-ranking officials of the regime were invited to Islamabad in Pakistan where they met British MI6 representatives who passed them suitcases of fabricated intelligence against the Tudeh Party’s organisation and activities in Iran. This intelligence was used to prepare the case for attacking our party on February 6 1983. The Times of London, in an editorial the following day, welcomed the suppression of the Tudeh Party by the regime.