Homeira Hesami Warns 1979 Iran Revolution Spawned Global Fundamentalist Threat

1 articles · Updated · The Dallas Express · Aug 20

Homeira Hesami, an Iranian American Muslim and former political prisoner, said Iran’s 1979 revolution replaced hopes for democracy with a theocratic system that fused state power with Sharia-based rule.
At 16, Hesami said post-revolution universities screened applicants for political beliefs, later barring her from study and jailing her for months while she researched women’s rights.
March 8, 1979 protests against compulsory hijab were, in her account, an early warning of the regime’s direction; mandatory hijab later became law for all women in 1983.
Hesami stressed Muslims have been among the regime’s main victims, citing a 1,000-page compilation documenting 20,000 MEK members and supporters killed and Amnesty’s estimate of about 5,000 executions in 1988.
She said Tehran’s model of Islamic fundamentalism has spread beyond the Middle East through international influence networks, arguing Americans should distinguish private faith from religion enforced through government power.