Social sustainability and the situation in Iran
I mostly write about sustainability from the perspective of the planet. In my posts, I focus on how people are doing things differently to leave the world better off. Today, I want to talk about social sustainability.
Sustainability is not just about saving the planet. Sustainability considers three elements:
- Environmental
- Economic
- Social
Recently, I’ve been thinking more about the social element of sustainability. Here’s what I’ve come to: if there is no equity among people, there is no sustainability.
Protecting people for the sake of the planet
In my work world, I have had the privilege of helping some pretty amazing businesses and collectives share their stories.
One of those businesses manufactures plastic-free hair ties. I love this for obvious reasons. What I love even more is that they prioritize ethical ingredient sourcing and manufacturing. Their hair ties are organic and plastic-free, yes. But they also employ fair-trade workers and treat them with dignity and respect.
Another, a housing collective based in Vancouver, employs a diverse group of talented and super-smart research assistants from around the world. (This group is working to build social connection among residents of multi-family buildings. Social sustainability!) I’ve had the immense good fortune to interview some of these humans. Every time, I am bowled over by how humble they are about their work. All of them have advanced degrees of some kind. In the case of the international research assistants, they are here in Canada to further their academic studies! Recently, I interviewed a few young women who are originally from Iran and who moved to Vancouver to further their careers.
Being a voice
When the situation in Iran broke out, several of them spoke out to share their fears and concerns. All of them have left families behind and with the internet being shut off in the country, they have no way of finding out if they are OK. As you might imagine, they are stressed out beyond belief, at a time when they should be focusing on their studies.
Several of them requested that if we – the people in the west with working Internet, basic freedoms, and a more or less intact democratic government – have a platform, use it to give a voice to the people in Iran who are being silenced.
For some reason, this request hit me like a punch in the gut.
This is in part because I have personally spoken with several of the young women making these requests. I really enjoyed my conversations with them and my heart hurt to hear they were hurting. And also, this issue hits at the heart of what happens when we don’t consider the social element of sustainability.
The situation in Iran
Iran is in the news these days, for tragic and unthinkable reasons. A young woman, Mahsa Amini (22 years old) was killed in police custody after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for failing to properly don her hijab. The country erupted in protests as people condemned these actions. Protestors are being killed, the streets are unsafe, and the government has cut off the Internet and major social media outlets to prevent communications.
The protests are more than just about mandatory hijabs. They are a revolution in the making, working to achieve freedom, peace, and the end of dictatorship.
The lovely humans I mentioned earlier, who have been directly affected by the situation in Iran, offered up this article to read, as a portal into what is going on there right now. They shared it because, while our Western media do report on these issues, coverage has been very limited.
The protests have escalated and earlier this week, violence erupted at Sharif University as students held rallies, and staged walk-outs in protest of the regime that killed Mahsa. I didn’t know anything about this university, or the protests, but I now know that it’s one of the most prestigious universities in Iran, where scientists like Maryam Mirzakhani have graduated from.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/03/middleeast/iran-protests-sharif-university-crackdown-intl
I don’t know about you, but when I read these kinds of news stories, I feel like the world is falling apart. It feels like we’re so far away from things being equitable and the idea of social sustainability is just a far cry down a very deep well.
Why this matters
I don’t tend to write about these kinds of things because I’m usually fairly naive to the complexities of the issues and nervous that I’m going to say something wrong.
But this feels important. When I hear – from people that I’ve personally interacted with – mention that they are scared for their families lives and deeply concerned by the threat to human rights in their home community, it makes me furious.
If the people of this world are not able to express themselves, to be free and without the threat of persecution, then nothing we do in terms of planetary sustainability matters. Social sustainability is not even a possibility when people are dying for standing up for what they believe in.
Yes, people have, by and large, caused many of the environmental problems we face today. As it turns out though, many of our environmental problems have been wrought by people taking more than their fair share, by treating other humans as less than or “other.” One needs to look no further than the colonization of North America. Or, at the situation in Iran.
What is happening in Iran is unfathomable. And yet, unfathomable things seem to keep happening in our human culture. Somehow we believe that one belief is more important than another, that a certain colour of the skin is superior to another, or whole classes of people are deserving of rights more than others. This madness must stop. We need to find reciprocity again and remember that all beings are deserving of love, freedom of expression, and equal access. We need to sustain our people so that we can do the work of saving our planet.
What we can do
What does this look like? For me, it looks like learning and listening. Learning about situations outside of my little North American bubble, and listening to those who have experienced things that I have not.
I’m a white woman living in North America and have grown up shielded from the major atrocities of this world. I’ve never had to interact with any entity called the morality police. Wearing my hair loose, receiving an education, or standing up for what I believe in are all things I have never had to think about. I’m privileged and I know that. I can’t right the wrongs of those who came before me, but I sure can try not to do any more harm while I’m on this planet.
It is astounding to me that despite all of what is happening in Iran, the women I’ve spoken with remain hopeful for change. There are many tangible things our global leaders can (and should) do to help right these wrongs, but having hope in the face of sheer adversity is important.
If this is something that resonates with you, too, please let me know. If you have read an article or heard a story that’s been impactful, I would love to read it, too.
Wow! I know very little about any of this stuff and it is so cool that you have chosen to be a voice for this incredibly important topic that most of us in the Western part of the world cannot remotely understand on a personal level. Well done!