Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., drew comparisons between women risking their lives to protest Islamic law in Iran to women fighting for abortion rights in the United States.
During a campaign rally to re-elect Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Friday, Omar said pro-life Republicans are challenging women’s bodily autonomy, much like Iran’s oppressive clerical regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Dozens of people throughout Iran have been killed by police and thousands arrested in protests ignited by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
“As we watch the brave, incredible young girls in schools in Iran who are standing up to teachers, young women in buses and in public streets who are saying ‘no’ to the morality police – because there is no morality in trying to oppress women,” Omar said. “There is no morality in forcing people to participate in a religion they don’t want to. And there is no morality in believing government’s our God.
“So we know the women in Iran are bravely chanting, ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ for their rights, for their right to bodily autonomy,” she continued. “So, here in the United States, when the right extremists are challenging our bodily autonomy, we have to stand up and say, ‘Women, Life, Freedom.'”
Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on Sept. 29, 2022.
(Jemal Countess/Getty Images for We, The 45 Million)
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Omar made the comments in front of a raucous crowd of students at the University of Minnesota, where Ellison, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., were also in attendance.
“We are here to do one single thing, and that is to protect and preserve our democracy,” Ellison said, Minnesota Public Radio reported. “What is on the line is whether or not the United States, starting in Minnesota, will remain a democratic, multiracial society that respects everyone’s rights.”
Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison at a press conference on June 3, 2020.
(Reuters/Eric Miller)
Omar made headlines in July after she was one of more than a dozen members of Congress arrested by Capitol Police during a abortion rights protest outside the Supreme Court after it overturned Roe v. Wade.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
(Olivier Douliery/Abacapress.com)
“Today I was arrested while participating in a civil disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme Court. I will continue to do everything in my power to raise the alarm about the assault on our reproductive rights!” Omar tweeted on July 19.
Omar’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment Monday.
