CW4WAfghan Statement of Solidarity With Iranian Women
Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan stands in solidarity with the people of Iran, who are protesting the murder of Mahsa Amina, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman tortured and beaten to death by Morality Police in Iran on September 16th.
We share in the grief and outrage expressed by women and men in Iran, and by Iranians all over the world, who are courageously expressing through their protests and dissent that they reject being governed by a regime with so little regard for human life, for human rights, and for women’s humanity.
Employees of the ministry are deployed to the streets just like Iran’s so-called “morality police” and ask women to dress according to their norms. Afghan women had enjoyed relative freedom for the previous two decades, and are now more aware of their rights than before. They are also now standing by their sisters in Iran.
– Vajed Rouhani, 26 Sept. 2022, a journalist using a pseudonym writing about Afghan women’s solidarity with Iranian women
In a show of solidarity for women’s rights and freedoms, Afghan women are “standing by their sisters” in Iran. The women of Afghanistan know well the dangers of imposing a “morality” defined by a repressive patriarchal regime and we join them in their condemnation of the brutal response of the Iranian regime towards the protests, which has led to yet more loss of life and devastated families: at least 76 people have reportedly been killed in the protests, as of September 27.
As state-directed murders, these actions constitute crimes against humanity, and we call on the international community to mobilize international mechanisms to seek justice for the lives of Mahsa Amini and protestors who have subsequently been killed in the resulting outcry. We further call on the Government of Canada and on other states to support through all available means the movement for freedom and human rights led by Iranian citizens, and the free flow of information in resistance to Iranian state-imposed censorship. This is another opportunity for the Government of Canada to demonstrate movement towards the realization of the principles of the Feminist International Assistance Policy by abandoning rhetoric in favour of decisive action to protect and advance women’s inalienable rights and freedoms in repressive regimes such as Iran and Afghanistan.
The true feminists and women’s rights activists are those in Afghanistan and Iran who are stepping forward, at great cost, to resist the Taliban and Islamic republic. They are the true feminist leaders of the 21st century, risking their lives by facing guns and bullets. They will go on fighting against the regimes, and we who have the privilege to live in free countries should actively amplify their voices. This is the moment for women in the West to stand with Iran’s mothers, daughters and sisters.
– Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad, 28 September 2022 in Women are leading a revolution in Iran. When will Western feminists help?
There is no morality in torture and state-sanctioned murder, nor in the repression of women or in enforced dress codes. We stand with the women of Iran and salute the courage of the Iranian people in this latest chapter of their struggle for rights and their defiance of tyranny.