The summer of 1994 was uncharacteristically warm for Great Britain. Hot, sunny days were followed by close, sticky nights — and by the end of June, pressure had started to build. The last week of the month was an explosive one, meteorologically and culturally. On Friday June 24, an exceptionally severe thunderstorm hit the south east of the UK, diffusing so much grass pollen it triggered a sudden and short-lived asthma epidemic. Two days later, and after years of mounting speculation, the British press broke the news that Prince Charles had accidentally revealed his unfaithfulness to Princess Diana during an ITN documentary. (When asked if he had stayed loyal to his wife, the Prince of Wales nodded. “Yes absolutely,” he said before adding of his marriage “until it became irretrievably broken down.”)

On Wednesday June 29, the same day the program aired to 13 million viewers across the country, Diana emerged from the emotional wreckage to attend a gala in a gown so captivating it has since been known simply as “the revenge dress.”

Princess Diana wearing the black Christina Stambolian dress while attending a party at the Serpentine Gallery in London, June 1994. Credit: Princess Diana Archive/Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images

Black, off-the shoulder with a sweetheart neckline and a figure-hugging skirt that finished above the knee, the cocktail dress — designed by Christina Stambolian — was unlike anything Diana, or any other royal, had ever worn in public. “Diana wanted to look a million dollars,” the princess’ former stylist Anna Harvey said in “Princess Diana’s Dresses: The Auction,” a 2013 Channel 4 documentary. “And she did.”

The next morning, photos of her incendiary outfit were splashed across the British tabloids’ front pages: “Revenge is chic,” wrote the Sun. “Di last night showed Charles what he’s missing.”

Elizabeth Debicki, pictured here, will play Princess Diana in the new season of “The Crown,” recreating the legendary moment on-screen. Credit: Keith Bernstein/Netflix

After news of her casting broke, Debicki told EW the hallowed dress was among the first questions on many lips. “It fascinated me how entranced people were with that dress,” she said. “When it became known that I had the part, I received these text messages saying congratulations, (but) there was also a huge amount of text messages about the Revenge Dress. ‘Do you get to wear the Revenge Dress?’ ‘Oh my God, you get to wear the Revenge Dress!'”

Diana’s decision to wear the dress that evening was apparently an impulsive one. According to “Princess Diana’s Dresses: The Auction,” it had been sitting in her closet for three years before its fateful outing, for fear it was “too daring,” said designer Stambolian. Instead, the Telegraph reported Diana had been fitted for a Valentino dress — but a premature press release sent by the fashion house alerting journalists to the ensemble put her off. But while it may have been a snap judgment, the revenge dress created a legacy that would endure for nearly three decades, and counting. It was a moment of sartorial autonomy: a rebellion against royal dress codes and enforced notions of chastity and compliance. Instead of submitting to public shame or scorn, Diana told the world she would not go quietly.

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Michel Aoun, the 89-year-old Christian president who presided over Lebanon’s cataclysmic financial meltdown and the deadly Beirut port blast, vacates the presidential palace on Sunday, leaving a void at the top of a failing state.

Parliament has so far been unable to agree on a successor in the role, which has the power to sign bills into law, appoint new prime ministers and green-light government formations before they are voted on by parliament.

Like during more than half of Aoun’s time in office, Lebanon is currently governed by a caretaker cabinet as the premier-designate has been trying for six months to form a government.

Dozens of supporters gathered at Baabda Palace to say farewell to Aoun, wearing the orange associated with his Free Patriotic Movement party and carrying portraits of him as president and from decades ago when he served as army commander.

One 73-year-old man in the army fatigues he wore when serving under Aoun in the civil war told Reuters he wished Aoun could have three more years in office.

Therese Younes, a 16-year-old who had come with other teenagers, said she had backed Aoun since she was eight and was sad to see him go.

“If I was 18 years old, I would have left the country. There’s no Lebanon left after Michel Aoun,” said Younes.

Aoun is a deeply divisive figure, adored by many Christians who viewed him as their defender in Lebanon’s sectarian system but accused by critics of enabling corruption and helping armed group Hezbollah gain influence.

Aoun secured the presidency in 2016, endorsed by both Hezbollah and rival Maronite Christian politician Samir Geagea in a deal that brought then-leading Sunni politician Saad al-Hariri back as prime minister.

The six-year term that followed saw Lebanon’s army fight off Islamist militants on the Syrian border in 2017 with Hezbollah’s help, a new electoral law passed in 2018 and top energy companies begin exploratory drilling in offshore blocks in 2020.

In his final week in the palace, he signed onto a U.S.-mediated deal delineating Lebanon’s southern maritime border with Israel.

His fans have hailed those achievements but his critics say those modest successes pale in comparison to the 2019 financial meltdown, which has pushed more than 80% of the population into poverty and prompted the widespread anti-government protests.

Aoun’s term was also marked by the massive blast at the Beirut port in 2020 that killed more than 220 people. Aoun later said he had known about the chemicals stored there and referred the file to other authorities to take action. Victims’ families said he should have done more.

He told Reuters in an interview on Saturday that his presidential powers were not wide enough to address the economic crisis.

“He was by far the worst president in Lebanon’s history” said Michel Meouchi, a lawyer and father. “I prefer a void in the presidency to him.”

Aoun’s path to the presidency began in the 1975-1990 civil war, during which he served as commander of Lebanon’s army and the head of one of two rival governments.

He returned to Beirut after 15 years in exile, once Syrian forces withdrew under international pressure following the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

In 2006, the FPM formed an alliance with Hezbollah, which lent important Christian backing to the armed group.

In his interview with Reuters, Aoun credited Hezbollah for its “useful” role in acting as a “deterrent” against any Israeli attacks during the maritime border talks.

He said his departure on Sunday, one day before his term officially ends, was not the end of his political career.

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Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.

On the 40th day after Mahsa Amini died while in the custody of the Iranian regime’s intrusive morality police, protests sparked by her death grew even more widespread, more defiant, more determined.

They also added to the moral imperative for the rest of the world to do more.

In Amini’s birthplace of Saqqez, where the 22-year-old also known as Zhina is now buried, thousands of people defied the police and turned out to mark an important day in the mourning process, even as security forces fired live bullets and tear gas to stop them.

Demonstrations also took place in numerous other cities: In Isfahan, women waved black scarves in the air, chanting “Azadi, Azadi!” (“Freedom, freedom!”) in Farsi. In Shiraz, young women walked confidently on city sidewalks without veils, their hair flowing in the air in violation of Iranian law. In Amol, where authorities have already shot and killed protesters, unarmed men and women marched directly toward armed security forces, kneeled, put their hands up, and declared themselves ready to die for their cause.

While Amini’s death has become the trigger for this uprising, it is the mandatory headscarf, or hijab, that’s become its symbol, because her run-in with the morality police was so familiar to so many women. She was visiting Tehran from her hometown in Iran’s Kurdish region last month when she was detained for, allegedly, not properly wearing her hijab – a degrading experience familiar to Iranian women who are routinely harassed for minor clothing infractions. Authorities later claimed Amini died of an illness while at a “re-education center.” Her family says she was perfectly healthy.

In the weeks since, the regime has killed hundreds of peaceful protesters, among them many children and idealistic young women.

One of the teenagers whose bravery and death has become a rallying cry is Nika Shahkarami, a 16-year-old who disappeared last month after waving her hijab in the air at a protest in Tehran, and then setting fire to another headscarf in front of a small crowd.

Nika later turned up dead. Though Iran’s government and state media have claimed her death had nothing to do with the uprising, a CNN investigation found video and witness testimony showing she was hunted down by plain clothes Basiji militias – security forces utilized by the regime to crack down on demonstrators – following her protest. Eyewitnesses told CNN they saw Nika among groups of protesters being detained later that night. That was the last time she was seen, days before her battered body was returned to her grieving family. Now her mother, too, is rallying protesters.

The courage of Iranians, young and old, risking it all for a chance at freedom, is defying the predictions of jaded foreign observers. Recalling previous failed protests, many have argued that the strength of this one, with its shouts “Women, life, freedom,” was little more than a doomed social media mirage.

But the protests are persisting. Seven weeks in, they have lasted longer than any uprising since the 1979 revolution toppled the Pahlavi regime and brought to power today’s theocracy. And these protests are different from their predecessors. In 2009, the Green Movement supported a reformist candidate. In 2019, demonstrators called out harsh economic conditions.

This time, women, and the men who have joined them, are crying out, “Death to the dictator.” This is not about reform. This is about fundamental change.

Let’s be honest. From the first day of protests, this has been inspiring, but also terrifying to watch. We have seen what the Islamic Republic is capable of. We fear for the safety of these brave people, and it can seem irresponsible to encourage them. The odds, after all, are stacked against them. And yet, they have made the choice to continue the fight. They deserve our solidarity.

As a group of 12 female foreign ministers declared in an October 26 statement, “we have a moral obligation” to support this women-led movement. But the people demanding their freedom in Iran need more than symbolic backing – even if symbols matter.

The United States and other Western powers have always worried about backing Iranian protesters, because the regime already dismisses those who oppose them as tools of the West. The Obama administration allowed such concerns to muzzle its response during the 2009 protests. The Biden administration is trying to avoid making the same mistake. Already, Washington has spoken out repeatedly in support of the protest movement. On Wednesday, the State Department announced new sanctions against Iranians involved in repressing demonstrations.

That’s a good start. Anyone – regime officials, the Basiji militias, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – involved in crushing the protests should be banned from entering the US. Other countries should follow suit.

But much more can be done.

Germany this week announced that, given the situation, there can be no “business as usual,” with Iran, launching a wide-ranging diplomatic response that includes a review of bilateral trade and financial relations, support for nongovernmental organizations monitoring crimes against protestors and expanded protections for “particularly vulnerable Iranians,” among other efforts.

The US, its other allies, democracies across the world and any country that rejects the regime’s actions should join in isolating Iran diplomatically. Diplomatic relations should continue, but as long as Iran is killing protesters, relations should be downgraded. And Iran must be expelled from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Its presence there is a travesty.

Then there’s the matter of the abandoned 2015 nuclear deal – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA – which the Biden administration has been working to reinstate. Currently, negotiations to revive the deal, designed to delay Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon, are stuck because Iran keeps raising the stakes. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said he foresees no return to the JCPOA in the “near term.” Such phrasing likely means the goal of reviving it has not died entirely.

The US and its allies want to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon, an unimpeachable objective. But restarting the deal could bring hundreds of billions of dollars to the regime that is currently killing peaceful protesters, arming Russia with killer drones used to slaughter innocent Ukrainians and continuing to support terrorist groups across the Middle East. At the very least, the wisdom of reviving the nuclear deal must be reevaluated.

The relentless bravery of the Iranian women, of the Iranian people, is a timely moral test for the rest of the world. They deserve more than they have received.

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