The death of Mahsa Amini has started a (mini) revolution. The 22 year old was seemingly murdered by the ‘morality police’ after not wearing her hijab sufficiently… errrr… well, she was wearing it but… simply not wearing it ENOUGH. So they beat her to death in a van. Seems fair. Just to summarise: wearing the correct headscarf but in an incorrect way is an arrestable moral crime in Iran whereas murdering a lovely young woman is presumably morally acceptable. It’s like the ‘fashion police’ on steroids and with guns.

But Mahsa’s death really is just a catalyst, just ‘the last straw’ for particularly young women who, in Iran, have no freedom, virtually no future and pretty much no life. I read of one woman who managed to escape Iran permanently, for her children. And the first thing she did upon arrival was to run through Heathrow airport. Because running is not allowed for women in Iran. I didn’t know that. They can probably run indoors. Isn’t that enough?

I know that Iranians are not allowed to listen to any kind of ‘pop’ or ‘western’ music of any kind, the inspiration for the Clash’s iconic ‘Rock the Casbah’ song, released in 1982. The Iranians wouldn’t know Will Young! Would never have heard Victoria Beckham sing (like the rest of us), missed all of Girls Aloud. You could never get that back.

So the murder has polarised the youth, particularly the female youth, into a cry for some ‘freedoms’ which we simply take for granted. Wearing a t-shirt. Sunbathing. Jogging. Driving. Going out without ‘permission’ from a man. Getting a proper education (they’re only allowed to study arts and humanities because they are ‘cognitively and physically weaker than men’. Have they never watched women’s rugby?

The problem is that they operate on a different value system. Which we may find deeply offensive from the lofty perspective of our liberal democratic society. Many Iranians are happy with their world. I’m guessing that’s the men. And people who don’t dig rock’n’roll. But for the young to see images in film and on social media of true freedom must be soul-destroying. And the Ayatollah is there to save souls, not destroy them, surely?

But without democracy you can’t have change, so they’re stuck. Unless they have another revolution. And currently, a bunch of schoolgirls burning hijabs is, though brave and bold and praiseworthy, insufficient to bring change. But good luck to them anyway.

“The Sandwich” has evolved from its humble origins during the pandemic. It has grown. In stature, in taste and in wonderfulness. But because it originated in a desperate time, it still is virtually calorie free.

Happy Monday

A xxxx