Following the end of the sham presidential elections, pressure on civil activists, especially women’s movement activists, has increased. The Islamic Republic, reeling from the heavy blow of the “Election Boycott Movement” and seeing the threat of widespread public anger, has resorted to retaliatory actions against civil movement activists and even political prisoners to instill fear and suppress any organizational and awareness-raising capabilities.
In this context, the campaign “Against the Sixty-Year Prison Sentence of Women’s Rights Activists in Gilan” released its third statement on July 16, 2024. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, in a post on the X media platform, wrote: Six women’s rights defenders have been sentenced to long prison terms, with reports of violent arrests, torture, and threats of rape and death during interrogations. I call on the Iranian government to release them immediately and stop the suppression of women’s rights defenders.
Forough Sami-nia, Jelveh Javaheri, Negin Rezaei, Shiva Shah-siah, Azadeh Chavoshian, and Zohreh Dadres have joined other women’s rights activists from Gilan, such as Sara Jahani, Yasmin Heshdari, Matin Yazdani, and Hooman Taheri, in Lakan prison in Rasht.
The Ministry of Intelligence accused these young activists of “preparing for riots in Gilan and Kurdistan” following their arrest. Banfsheh Jamali, a women’s rights activist, described these sentences as shocking but believes that security pressure will not prevent women from pursuing their trampled rights. She pointed out the cycle of protest movements and several waves of nationwide protests since 2009, saying: Women today fight against compulsory hijab in the streets and against domestic violence at home. This path is irreversible.
The current struggles against patriarchy and the misogynistic policies and actions of the Islamic Republic, led by women themselves, herald the realization of this judgment. The Mothers of Laleh Park also echoed this sentiment in their article “The Irreversible Achievements of the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ Uprising.”
Despite being at the forefront of the fight against the Islamic regime and decaying patriarchal traditions, the women’s movement has yet to organize and mobilize the mass force of women, especially working and oppressed women. A major obstacle to achieving this goal is the brutal repression of the Islamic regime in Iran. All of the regime’s brutal and repressive actions against women, including the inhumane death sentence for Sharifeh Mohammadi and the issuance of over 60 years in prison for young activists who merely organized a Telegram group, are part of this strategy.
The women’s movement, with civil disobedience actions by free-thinking and free-dressing women as one of its prominent areas, indicates that it has rightly determined its goal in the struggle against the Islamic regime. Advancing the fight to abolish execution sentences and other inhumane verdicts of the kangaroo courts aligns with the revolutionary movement of Zhina. Such a struggle will naturally go beyond the Islamic Republic and adopt a socialist orientation. This battle is ongoing and continues to expand. In this regard, the Mothers of Laleh Park wrote: Our brave and militant women have been consistently fighting against gender apartheid and all forms of discrimination in homes, society, and the streets for years. Through their continuous daily struggles, they have shown that despite the continuation of the regime’s brutal repression over the past 45 years, especially after the courageous “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising, they have no intention of returning to the past and will not allow themselves to be considered second-class citizens, nor will they let the patriarchal regime and society decide for them. Without a doubt, women are not alone in this decisive battle; they have the support of a vast number of free men who abhor oppression and repression against women.
The Republic made great efforts to push society back into a Taliban-like state but failed. Restrictions against women are challenged and defeated one by one in the battle in the streets, aware schools, and universities, thanks to the efforts of masses of women and free men.
