International Women's Day: Women and mothers in Iran lead the fight against human rights violations

Tuesday, March 17, 2021 - On the eve of International Women's Day, the Human Rights Campaign in Iran celebrates all women who, despite hardships and suffering, are at the forefront of the fight against discrimination and inequality and strive for human rights, and honors their persistence on this dangerous path.

In Iran, courageous and progressive women, from lawyers and civil activists to journalists to mothers seeking justice, have consistently called for justice, equality, and basic civil liberties for all Iranian citizens, despite systematic human rights violations and ongoing government discrimination.

Efforts to ensure that women enjoy basic rights in Iran are constantly faced with many dangers and challenges, and women's freedom is becoming more limited and restricted every day.

- Peaceful advocacy for women's rights has been criminalized, and many women have been convicted and imprisoned for their activities in this regard.

- Women in Iran face systematic and legal violence;

•  Insufficient government protections against domestic violence
•   The continuation of marriage of girls under the age of 13
•  Women's lack of equal legal and financial rights in matters related to family life, as a result of which they always face blatant discrimination in the workplace and in political and public arenas.
•   Women political prisoners live in inhumane and unfavorable conditions, and the authorities are trying to silence their voices by resorting to all kinds of harassment; preventing prisoners from accessing health care and medical facilities, preventing prisoners from making phone calls to their children or prohibiting them from visiting them, and deporting women political prisoners to prisons far from their families and keeping them in solitary confinement for long periods of time has become a standard practice in dealing with women political prisoners.

The courage, resistance, and continued struggle of Iranian women are also seen among mothers who have lost their children to government repression. The mothers of Laleh Park and the mothers of Khavaran, along with the mothers of Aban, play an unparalleled and important role in leading and giving identity to the advocacy movement in Iran, despite the constant harassment and intimidation by security and government institutions.

Nahid Shirpisheh, whose son Pouya Bakhtiari was shot dead by government forces during the popular protests in November 2019, had previously told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: "My motivation for surviving is that my son's killers be identified, and in the next instance, that the person who ordered this horrific murder of Pouya and his family be punished for his actions."

In addition to continuing to discriminate and discriminate against women, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has also severely reduced the provision of social services and health care to underprivileged and needy women. For example, in March 2017, the founders of the “Sun House,” an NGO dedicated to reducing the harm of addiction among Iranian women, announced that they had closed down the non-governmental shelter due to “pressure and coercion.” The government has also reduced access to pregnancy care in government clinics.

The Human Rights Campaign in Iran salutes all the brave and courageous women of Iran who are fighting for justice, equal rights, and freedom for all Iranians, and calls on the international community to declare its full support for these women.

Source: Iran Human Rights Campaign