Music Credits: Baraye… (‘For’) by Shervin Hajiaghapour (Iranian musician, now arrested)
💔Welcome to Issue #10
There is so much going on in Iran at the moment. One of our founders is Iranian and our hearts are heavy with sadness, so we are dedicating this week’s newsletter to all the brave young revolutionaries of Iran. If you’d like a quick catch-up, click HERE.
If you’re not Iranian but want to stand in solidarity, please read on…
Imagine if for a moment you lived in a world where your smallest forms of expression were prosecuted and used as an excuse to beat you. If taking a walk, laughing a little loudly, wearing a color that’s not blue or black, or going out with your friends would be met with violence. If you lived in a world where your gender identity was a tool for complete control of you. A world where women have to sit in the back of the bus because with one look, men would get so horny their pants would combust into dust.
Imagine if you lived in a place where you need your husband’s permission to start a business, get a medical procedure, or leave the country for a trip because your tiny little woman brain isn’t mature enough.
Imagine if your father could legally kill and chop you to pieces because you disobeyed him; if a women’s safe house gives up your location to keep others safe from prosecution; if your male cousin takes you by the river and slits your throat like a lamb to slaughter as your whole family watches because you said ‘no’ to marrying him.
Imagine if your government barred women from becoming engineers because too many are getting an education. If police arrested and shot you in the parking lot of your Ivy League school because you protested for freedom. If 15-year old girls were getting shot for screaming for freedom.
Imagine if world class athletes and young musicians were hanged for speaking for justice. If every LGBTQ person was publicly hanged. If every day three people were hanged, slowly being tortured till they died, most of them under 30 years old, just because they wanted to be free.
Imagine if you took your dog out for a walk and someone detained your dog and put it to death because it’s ‘dirty’. If you were thrown in prison for wanting clean air, water, and environmental justice.
These are all crazy things to imagine right? Things that can’t possibly be true in one place…but they happen every single day in Iran.
On September 16th, Mahsa Jina Amini died in detention after she was arrested for a bit of her hair showing, while she was on vacation with her family. Since then, more than 75 people, many of whom are children, have died protesting her wrongful death.
🕊The Cliterati Chronicle is a love letter and a call of community to every person who has a vagina or identifies as a woman. That includes our sweet, young, innocent Mahsa. So today we write for her and every girl who ever wished to be just free.🫶🏽
✌🏽If you’d like to help do the following:
Follow the hashtags #mahsaamini and #مهسا_امینی
Follow other Iranian folks that are spreading information and news Maz Jobrani, Masih Alinejad, The Wellness Therapist - Azi, Shery M & others
Call or write to your government reps and urge them to pressure the Iranian regime to release activists and political prisoners.
Write to the UN General Secretary, António Guterres, and the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and urge them to expel the Islamic regime from CSW for crimes against women in Iran.
Email; https://data.unwomen.org/form/contact Tweet: @UN Women
Spread the word on social media
Lastly, sign any of the below petitions
Period Tips By Phase
*note: not all periods or phases are equal. You might spend a longer or shorter number of days in each of the phases than other women, girls, trans and non binary people you know that menstruate.*
💤Luteal (Day 15 - 28) → Here comes the PMDD
✮ This is the phase we’re usually feeling sad and depressed (PMS anyone?) so book a massage for yourself and have a relaxing time with some ginger or raspberry leaf tea.
Are you focused on fertility, have PCOS or endometriosis, are transitioning f > m, or want specific tips? Drop us a note and let us know so we can share info for you!
Know more about your cycle’s phases → Read
Track your cycle manually → Read
Track your cycle with apps, apps, and more apps → Download
Period Aesthetics
In this piece Jalz has layered the dancing women from Henry Matisse’s “La danse” (1910) on top of Iran’s famed Freedom Square. “It is rare to dare to use collages of naked designs,” Jalz told Hyperallergic. The nude figures contrast sharply with the hair coverings and loose “manto” overcoats that women are required to wear. When read aloud, the Farsi typography blazoned above them is the Kurdish phrase “Jin – Jiyan – Azadi,” or “Women, Life, Freedom,” a rallying cry heard in many of the protests.
To read the full article about how Iranian artists are amplifying this movement click here.
They have posted some cool creations that you can check out on their instagram.
Thought Provoking
Trigger Warning: You Might Be Sensitive to the Content of a Feminist Revolution in Iran → Read
Thanks for reading Pink Lemonade. Make sure to share us with all your fellow vagina havers and lovers to sweeten that time of the month. Be someone’s clit fairy this month. 🪄
Spotlight: Masih Alinejad, Political Activist
Who are they: Masih is an Iranian political activist and journalist. It was a picture of her hair in the wind that propelled Iranian women to let their hair down years ago. Now, the Iranian-American journalist is giving voice to the anti-hijab protests in the Islamic Republic through her social media.
You can learn more about her here.
Meme’s for days
Share your favorite memes with us at hello@thepinklemonade.shop to be featured
😺Thanks for Reading Issue #10!
We’re Lilly and Gaby. You are receiving this email because you signed up for Pink Lemonade’s The Cliterati Chronicle, a bi-weekly curated list of content about vaginas we thought was worth sharing with more people.
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