Conservative blogger Eleanor Duckwall notes that the women of Iran who are demanding democracy and freedom are empowered with university education but are suffocating under repressive cultural norms.

"When I watched the brave and often incredibly beautiful young Iranian women take to the streets in the last few days, I also thought back to how Dr. Nafisi's favorite students mocked a culture that allowed them a university education while attempting to confine them to gender roles more appropriate to 7th-century warring Arab nomads."

A Mumbai Mirror reader in India also points towards the reality of Iranian women's progress held hostage by lack of freedom. Writing to the editor, Rajendra Aneja says

"But a major lesson for the entire world from Iran is the dynamic role played by Iranian women. Even prior to the elections, women were leading the campaign for more freedom. After the results, Iranian women in the country and abroad are at the forefront of agitation and street protests…And now, women are leading and showing the way forward for change and fighting for it."

Maureen Callahan at The New York Post calls the women protesters "The Heroines of Iran" and notes the progress made by Iranian women in education and political activism.

"The women of Iran are on the verge. They are more literate and highly educated than men (63 percent attend university), and, as in the U.S., women comprise 50 percent of the vote. Ahmadinejad's challengers — even Karroubi, the cleric! — made a point of soliciting the female vote, appearing in public with their wives, or speaking to the need for more women in parliament or positions of power."

And the women on streets are not divided by economic class. Liana Aghajanian, editor-in-chief of independent Armenian magazine IANYAN, says

"At the beginning I thought this was going to be a fight between the lower class and the middle class. What I saw on Monday changed my mind completely. I saw many women, young and old, covered head-to-toe in black chadors shouting and chanting among the demonstrators and joining the young girls who were sitting on the ground in the middle of the street to stop the Basij militia from walking inside the crowd."

There are plenty of videos of the notorious Basij militia beating up protesters on YouTube. It is tough to verify the authenticity of the majority of the videos because of the environment of fear in Iran, but they offer those outside Iran a glimpse of events in the country.

Here is an unverified video of the Basij beating up women protesters.

Bhumika Ghimire