Comedian Bill Maher slammed college students Friday for ignoring Iran’s “war on women” as they participate in pro-Palestine protests on campus.
Maher told his audience that anti-Israel student demonstrators are supporting “the people who ruthlessly oppress women” in an episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
“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.”
“Not that I think it’s your fault being this poorly educated and morally confused. That takes a village,” he continued. “Shitty schools, overindulgent parents, social media, that priest who rubbed lotion on you. But three cheers to you for at least having the impulse to seek a cause in something biggest than yourself. Its just that the one you picked, you’ve missed the boat by a fucking mile.”
Maher suggested that college protesters take up the cause of “apartheid,” what he said they have “been shouting about with Israel for months.” The rise of anti-Israel protests on college campuses, which first garnered media attention at Columbia University and spread across the U.S., emerged months after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks against Israel by the Islamic terror group Hamas. (RELATED: ‘Oh, For F*ck’s Sake!’: Megyn Kelly Confronts Bill Maher On Democrat ‘Election Deniers’)
“Naturally, when you heard that Israel was an ‘apartheid state,’ it gave you such a boner, you literally pitched a tent,” Maher remarked.
Kids, if you want to change the world and not just tie up Monday morning traffic, this is the apartheid that desperately needs your attention: The #GenderApartheid. pic.twitter.com/0Ajep3JUnN
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) June 1, 2024
The “Real Time” host said college students “knew how wrong” racial apartheid was in South Africa. He suggested that demonstrators redirect their efforts toward “hundreds of millions of women” in Middle Eastern countries who “are treated worse than second-class citizens.”
“When you mandate that one category of human beings don’t even have the right to show their face, that’s apartheid,” Maher said. “And it goes on in a lot of countries.”
“For the last couple of years, women in Iran have been saying, ‘Take this hijab and shove it,’” Maher continued.
Maher told the story of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested “for wearing her hijab incorrectly” in Iran. Amini died in police custody, sparking protests among angry Iranians calling for an investigation into her death.
“This is an apartheid that desperately needs your attention. Gender apartheid,” Maher said. “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.’”
