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In 1979 Iran, women wore jeans to university. Female judges presided over courtrooms. Divorce requires mutual consent. Then clerics won elections, and within months Judge Shirin Ebadi was demoted from judge to clerk because “women are tender-hearted.” Marriage age dropped to 9. Morality police beat women for showing hair. By 2023, Iran had executed 22 women for demanding autonomy.
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Iran pre 1979 revolution, Tehran, photographer unknown
The transformation took one year.
South Carolina Republican Rob Harris and 21 GOP co-sponsors just introduced legislation making abortion punishable by death from the moment of fertilization. Republican lawmakers in Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas introduced matching bills, creating ten states proposing death penalties for women in January 2025.
American women are living through 1979 Iran right now, watching Republicans copy the entire playbook from Islamic Republican Party: death penalties for abortion, purging women from professions, criminalizing clothing, crushing liberal opposition.
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Publicity photograph of Iranian film actresses Forough Zanani, Malousat, Setareh Jazayeri, and Noush Afarin. Iran, pre-1979 Islamic Revolution.
Death Penalty Architecture Mirrors Across Theocracies
Rob Harris, Freedom Caucus chairman and registered nurse from Spartanburg, told Rolling Stone that “Murder of the pre-born is harsh” when asked about proposing death penalties for abortion while calling his caucus defenders of “freedom.” His bill requires women to prove innocence when seeking life-saving abortion, meaning even those meeting exception criteria face criminal punishment as exceptions are rarely granted due to deliberately ambiguous language. Republican Representative Jordan Pace claimed the likelihood of death penalty was “infinitesimally small” despite South Carolina law explicitly making homicide of victims under 11 eligible for capital punishment, which means every abortion from fertilization qualifies under this legislation.
In Iran, 227 current Parliament members signed statements demanding the judiciary execute protesters for “waging war against God,” declaring they must be “dealt with in a way that would teach an example” to crush the Women Life Freedom uprising that erupted after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in custody of morality police in September 2022 for wearing “improper hijab.” Iranian authorities executed 834 people in 2023, with 22 women hanged, including 15 on murder charges, as NGOs warned that women who kill abusive partners risk execution while receiving no protection from domestic violence. Three female political prisoners received death sentences in 2024 for peaceful activism as Kurdish women’s rights activist Pakhshan Azizi and labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi were sentenced to death in July for their advocacy, while at least 481 demonstrators were killed during Women Life Freedom protests.
American Death Count Already Climbing
Josseli Barnica’s uterus sat exposed to bacteria for 40 hours while Texas doctors watched her cervix dilate at 17 weeks and refused intervention because abortion ban criminalized treatment. She died from sepsis three days after delivery in September 2021, leaving behind a toddler. Kate Cox, pregnant with a baby diagnosed with a fatal condition, fled Texas after Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened hospitals with $100,000 fines and felony prosecution despite a court order authorizing her life-saving abortion.
Texas maternal mortality jumped 56% after abortion ban compared to 11% nationally. At least 120 women died in hospitals during pregnancy or postpartum in 2022 and 2023 while state maternal mortality review committee refuses investigation. Nevaeh Crain, 18, died in October 2023 after three emergency room visits for miscarriage complications as doctors delayed treatment fearing prosecution. Candi Miller, 41-year-old Georgia mother of three, died in 2022 after taking abortion pills at home rather than seeking medical care because Georgia’s six-week ban made doctors refuse her. Amber Thurman died September 2022 from septic shock after Georgia doctors delayed removing fetal tissue for 20 hours as infection ravaged her body, fearing prosecution. Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick died in Texas July 2024 after miscarrying twins at 19 weeks while doctors refused intervention until her life was “sufficiently” endangered, but by then sepsis had destroyed her organs.
One Year Changed Everything in Iran
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Iranian women reading on a university campus in Tehran, 1971. Photographer unknown. Pre-1979 Islamic Revolution.
In February 1979, clerics Mohammad Beheshti, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Ali Khamenei formed Islamic Republican Party to consolidate theocratic power. In early March 1979, one million people attended the launch of National Democratic Front, a liberal party advocating political freedoms and individual rights, believing they could stop the clerics from consolidating power.
The theocrats won parliamentary elections in 1980, then banned National Democratic Front within months, suspended Family Protection Laws, and began systematic purges across government and society. Judge Shirin Ebadi went from presiding over courts to being demoted to clerk while marriage age for girls dropped to 9 and morality police enforced mandatory hijab for “all females, including girls in first grade.” Women’s legal testimony was devalued to half that of men while divorce authority transferred entirely to male guardians, and professional advancement disappeared through employment purges, educational restrictions, and legal barriers.
The liberals with one million supporters were crushed in under a year.
Vice President JD Vance: Women Belong in Violent Marriages
Vice President J.D. Vance, protégé of billionaire Peter Thiel who believes “freedom and democracy are incompatible,” argued that “this is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that like, ‘well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy, and so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that’s going to make people happier in the long term.”
Iran’s theocrats eliminated no-fault divorce and transferred all divorce authority to male guardians after defeating National Democratic Front, while Vance advocates identical family structure where women cannot escape violent marriages.
Vance told Megyn Kelly that “we are effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” He called childless Americans in the “leadership class” more “sociopathic” than those with children, claiming the country was “less mentally stable” because of them. He told Charlie Kirk that people without children have “no physical commitment to the future of this country” and argued they should “face the consequences and the reality” and not get “nearly the same voice” in democracy as parents.
Iran’s theocrats reduced marriage age to 9 and mandated reproduction as religious duty, while both theocratic visions strip women of autonomous choice over family formation and devalue childless women’s democratic voice.
Republicans Criminalize Women’s Clothing Like Iran
Missouri Republican Ann Kelley introduced a bill criminalizing women’s clothing that doesn’t “cover the female breasts” in public, while North Dakota Republican Terry Jones criminalized women’s yoga pants. Tennessee Republicans made drag performance a Class A misdemeanor punishable by one year in jail, defining “female impersonation” so broadly the law prosecutes women wearing pants.
Iran’s theocrats mandated hijab for “all females, including girls in first grade” and deployed morality police enforcing compliance, while American Republicans imitate Islamist dress code enforcement through criminal penalties.
Republicans Purge Women from Workforce
Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs opened doors slammed in women’s faces for decades. DEI required federal contractors to recruit women for engineering, technology, and construction while providing mentorship networks for hostile workplaces and forcing universities to consider qualified women candidates for STEM programs. DEI mandates made hospitals address maternal mortality disparities where Black women died at three times the rate of white women and funded research on endometriosis affecting 10% of women, uterine fibroids affecting 77% of women, pregnancy complications, and menopause.
Women’s health research climbed to 13.5% of NIH budget because DEI demanded it. Women secured federal loans up to $100,000 for nursing graduate programs because DEI protected nursing degrees as professional classifications eligible for higher borrowing limits.
Republicans eliminated everything. Trump terminated all DEI offices within 60 days. Department of Education declared any consideration of race or gender in admissions, financial aid, or hiring a federal violation, granting administration power to defund universities and prosecute institutions. Education reclassified nursing degrees as “non-professional” while medicine, dentistry, and law retained professional status, eliminating $100,000 in borrowing for predominantly female nurses. Federal agencies banned grants containing the words “women,” “trans,” or “diversity,” halting research on conditions affecting 77% of women.
Women’s health research dropped from 13.5% to 10.4% of NIH budget before Trump proposed 40% cuts. HHS froze $35 million, eliminating screenings for 834,000 patients.
Iran’s theocrats took one year to purge women from government and eliminate professional advancement. Republicans took 60 days to terminate DEI offices, reclassify nursing degrees, ban “women” from grants, and eliminate screenings for 834,000 patients.
Republicans Deputize Male Surveillance
Texas Senate Bill 8 deputizes private citizens to sue anyone facilitating abortion for a $10,000 minimum, while Trump pardoned 23 anti-abortion extremists convicted of assaulting clinic staff. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York doctor based on information from an unnamed “biological father” reporting a woman who received abortion pills, demonstrating how antiabortion advocates encourage men to report partners just as Iran’s theocrats encouraged male guardians to enforce hijab compliance.
Oklahoma introduced a bill requiring women to provide government with names of men who impregnated them before receiving abortion, creating a state database of women’s sexual partners. Missouri proposed a law making it a felony to help residents obtain out-of-state abortion, while Idaho made it felony trafficking for an aunt to drive her niece to an Oregon clinic. These laws deputize male relatives, romantic partners, neighbors, and strangers as a surveillance network enforcing pregnancy through the threat of prosecution.
Forty-Eight Percent Complete
Maternal mortality committees investigating deaths were disbanded while evidence documenting body count disappears and death penalties advance through ten state legislatures. Heritage Foundation tracks implementation, showing reproductive restrictions reaching 40% of Project 2025 targets, DEI elimination across federal agencies completed within 60 days, education restructuring underway, and healthcare research defunding advancing.
Both theocratic parties demand women’s execution for bodily autonomy after crushing liberal democratic opposition while systematically eliminating women’s economic independence through professional exclusion, educational restriction, and healthcare defunding. Both deputize male citizens as surveillance, refuse to investigate death toll, and criminalize women’s dress.
The Timeline Is the Warning
February 1979: Islamic Republican Party forms March 1979: National Democratic Front launches with one million supporters 1980: Islamic Republican Party wins elections Within months: Opposition banned, women purged, judges demoted, marriage age drops to 9, hijab mandated 2023: Iran executes 22 women for challenging authority
January 2025: Republicans propose death penalty for abortion in ten states January 2025: Republicans terminate all federal DEI offices within 60 days January 2025: Republicans reclassify nursing degrees as “non-professional” January 2025: Republicans ban words “women” and “diversity” from federal grants January 2025: Republicans eliminate cancer screenings for 834,000 patients
Josseli Barnica died from preventable sepsis while Nevaeh Crain died after three emergency room visits and Amber Thurman died from septic shock. Candi Miller died at home while Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick died after doctors refused intervention, and graduate nursing students lost $100,000 in borrowing access as women’s health research was defunded.
Republican Rob Harris and 21 GOP co-sponsors propose death penalty from fertilization while lawmakers in nine additional states introduce matching capital homicide bills, and Vice President JD Vance advocates that women remain trapped in violent marriages while childless women lose democratic voice.
In 1979 Iran, women wore jeans to university and female judges presided over courtrooms while liberals maintained one million supporters, believing they could stop the clerics. One year later, Judge Shirin Ebadi was demoted to clerk while marriage age dropped to 9 and morality police beat women for showing hair. In 2025 America, Tennessee Republicans proposed legislation eliminating age requirements for marriage entirely while Republican lawmakers across multiple states blocked bills to ban child marriage, and Vice President advocates women remain trapped in violent marriages while graduate nursing students lose $100,000 in borrowing access.
In 2025 America, the transformation is already underway with different theology but identical execution. The only question is whether Americans recognize the moment they're inhabiting before losing everything just as Iranian women lost theirs.
This is what Iran looked like in 1979, right before women lost everything. Republicans are executing that playbook here now.
Sources
Abortion and death penalty legislation in the United States
21 South Carolina GOP lawmakers propose making women eligible for the death penalty for abortion. South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023. Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
https://dlcc.org/press/icymi-
South Carolina lawmakers refile bill to make abortions punishable as homicide, including potential death penalty exposure. Fox Carolina.
https://www.foxcarolina.com/
State lawmakers across multiple states introduce bills treating abortion as homicide. The 19th News.
https://19thnews.org/2025/04/
Maternal mortality following abortion bans and denial of care. ProPublica investigative reporting.
https://www.propublica.org/
https://www.propublica.org/
Iran executions and human rights
Women being sent to the gallows in alarming numbers in Iran amid intensified repression. Center for Human Rights in Iran.
https://iranhumanrights.org/
UN experts call on Iran to halt death sentences against peaceful protesters. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/
Iran targets women’s rights activists with arrest, flogging, and death sentences. Amnesty International.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/
UN reports Iran executed more than 900 people in 2024, including dozens of women. Reuters.
https://www.reuters.com/world/
Women’s health and labor
They Came for Nurses. Nurses speaking on post-Dobbs care denial and legal risk. The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/
How abortion bans and politics distort women’s health research and care delivery. National Institutes of Health overview.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
JD Vance statements
JD Vance argues people should remain in violent marriages for the sake of family stability. 2021 remarks resurfaced during 2024 campaign coverage. Associated Press.
https://apnews.com/article/jd-
JD Vance “childless cat ladies” remarks on voting and family status. 2021 speech excerpts reported during 2024 cycle. Axios.
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/
Marriage legislation
Tennessee GOP bill eliminating minimum age requirements for marriage under certain conditions. Tennessee General Assembly bill analysis.
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/
Trump executive actions on DEI
Trump executive order targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in federal government. Federal Register.
https://www.federalregister.
Ending so-called radical DEI programs. Trump campaign policy position and executive action summaries. White House archives.
https://trumpwhitehouse.
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