On Amini Death Anniversary, Iran's Jailed Nobel Winner Mohammadi Urges Action Against 'Gender Apartheid'

By RFE/RL's Radio Farda September 16, 2024

Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi issued a plea on September 16 to coincide with the second anniversary of the death in police custody of Iranian-Kurdish student Mahsa Amini for international institutions and people to act to end the oppression of women in Iran and under other theocratic and authoritarian regimes.

Mohammadi said in the letter from Tehran's notorious Evin prison -- published via her foundation -- that "on the second anniversary of the 'Women, Life, Freedom' movement, we reaffirm our commitment to achieving democracy, freedom, and equality and to defeating theocratic despotism."

A mother of two and former journalist previously jailed for her criticisms, Mohammadi worked alongside fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi at the Defenders Of Human Rights Center for years before a series of detentions and convictions beginning in 2010 and continuing through her current lengthy sentence and reports of further prosecution for activities while in custody.

"I urge the United Nations to end its silence and inaction in the face of the devastating oppression and discrimination by theocratic and authoritarian governments against women by criminalizing gender apartheid," Mohammadi said in the statement.

"The liberation of women from the grip of oppression and discrimination is essential for empowering the force that drives peace and democracy."

In a joint statement issued on September 16 to mark the anniversary, the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain, and New Zealand said: "We stand with women and girls in Iran, and Iranian human rights defenders, across all segments of society in their ongoing daily fight for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

"We call on the new Iranian administration to fulfil its pledge to ease pressure on civil society in Iran and to end the use of force to enforce the hijab requirement."

During a news conference on September 16, Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian claimed he would use his authority to ensure that morality police do not "bother" women.

"Morality police were not supposed to confront [women]. I will follow up so they don't bother" them, he said, although it remains unclear how much authority he would actually have to make changes.

The 22-year-old Amini died on September 16, 2022, in a hospital after eyewitnesses and her family alleged she had been beaten while in police custody.

Amini's death sparked some of the largest-ever street protests against Iran's clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Women, Life, Freedom movement has persisted, despite the jailings of critics like Mohammadi and a harsh clampdown on dissent.

Sources close to Amini's parents told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that Iranian authorities had "surrounded" the family home in the town of Saghez ahead of the anniversary and ordered them to remain at home or face arrest, in addition to other reported measures to guard against public demonstrations of sympathy.

Amini's father, Amjad Amini, on September 15 expressed gratitude for Kurdish, Iranian, and other efforts to mount labor strikes to mark the anniversary.

Iranian authorities, who cracked down on the family and others a year ago, have sought to avoid public acknowledgement of the anniversary.

"In these two difficult and agonizing years, although the wounds have left marks on the bodies of those exhausted and tormented by oppression, discrimination, and tyranny, and despite the challenging road ahead, we all know that nothing is as it was before," Mohammadi said in her statement.

Family members of some of those killed in the state crackdown on the protests have been also arrested in recent weeks, and others, especially in Iran's Kurdistan, have been summoned by authorities.

The Narges Mohammadi Foundation said on September 15 that 34 female prisoners at Evin went on hunger strike to commemorate Amini's death at the hands of the morality police and mark the birth of the related rights movement.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-mohammadi-nobel-amini- anniversary-women-rights/33122011.html

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