Comedian Bill Maher voiced strong criticism of college students on Friday, targeting those participating in pro-Palestine protests for neglecting Iran’s severe oppression of women. On his show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” he accused these student demonstrators of supporting regimes that “ruthlessly oppress women.”
“Well, now that summer is here and Hamas-backing college protesters have dispersed back to their summer internships at Goldman Sachs, I thought it might be a good time to say this,” Maher began. “I actually admire your youthful idealism, and our world would be poorer without it. Much like your parents, who just wasted 300 grand on that ignorance factory you call a college.”
He continued by expressing sympathy for the students’ lack of proper education and moral clarity, attributing their confusion to “shitty schools, overindulgent parents, social media, that priest who rubbed lotion on you.” Despite his critique, Maher acknowledged their impulse to seek a cause larger than themselves, though he argued they have “missed the boat by a f***ing mile.”
Maher suggested that these protesters focus on real “apartheid,” which he claimed they have misidentified with Israel. He pointed out the hypocrisy in supporting causes that overlook the plight of women in Middle Eastern countries, particularly in Iran, where women face severe oppression.
“Naturally, when you heard that Israel was an ‘apartheid state,’ it gave you such a boner, you literally pitched a tent,” Maher said sarcastically. He reminded his audience of the historical context of racial apartheid in South Africa and proposed that students redirect their activism toward the “hundreds of millions of women” in the Middle East who suffer under gender apartheid.
“When you mandate that one category of human beings don’t even have the right to show their face, that’s apartheid,” Maher asserted. He highlighted the ongoing struggles of Iranian women, who have been vocally protesting against mandatory hijabs and other oppressive practices.
Maher recounted the tragic story of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody in Iran after being arrested for improperly wearing her hijab. Her death sparked widespread protests and calls for justice within Iran.
“This is an apartheid that desperately needs your attention. Gender apartheid,” Maher emphasized. “This is what should be the social justice issue of your time. How about, ‘From the river to the sea, every woman shall be free.’”
In his critique, Maher urged student activists to broaden their focus and address the more pressing issues of gender oppression in countries like Iran, rather than fixating solely on Israel.
Excellent article!
Imagine that during the Second World War something had existed to make more people aware of the horrors that were being carried out in the Nazi concentration camps. Then imagine that these horrors were supported by our own government. Imagine that students at the time had protested these horrors. Would we have applauded those protests or reviled them?
The occupants of the Warsaw ghetto were imprisoned there by a people who had invaded their country and stolen their properties. The ghetto was an open-air prison camp. The ultimate goal of the captors was to eliminate the prisoners. The prisoners resisted and rebelled. We regard them, today, as heroes.