Image “Women, Life, Freedom” by Javad Takjoo
The worrying news about the women’s rights abuse coming from Iran urge the international community to take a stand for the right to protest without the fear of state violence.
These protests started last Friday, 16th of September after the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who died that day in Tehran, three days after “morality police” arrested her for exposing too much of her hair in public.
According to the reports, 23 out of 31 Iranian provinces are now protesting. It is difficult to have a clear estimate, since the country has restricted the work of civic society, as well as taken actions to limit the use of social media to report the ongoing developments, with the perspective of a total internet shut-down.
Nonetheless thanks to activists on the field and to organisations like Amnesty International, which is currently monitoring the situation, it was possible to record the ongoing crimes:
“the deaths of six men, one woman and one child during protests on 19 and 20 September (…) . Of these, at least four died from injuries sustained from security forces firing metal pellets at close range. At least two other people have lost sight in one or both eyes. Hundreds more, including children, have sustained painful injuries amounting to torture or other ill-treatment due to the unlawful use of birdshot and other munitions against them.”
We join the pledge of the Iranian people and ask to end immediately any violence against the protesters. We also urge the United Nations and the entire international community to work on establishing an independent international investigative and accountability mechanism to address the prevailing crisis of impunity in Iran.
In Solidarity,
UNITED for Intercultural Action
