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CHRI – A new petition launched by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) calls on European Union (EU) countries to support the women and girls of Iran, who are facing severe and violent repression, by summoning Iranian ambassadors in unison on International Women’s Day.
An official joint letter, endorsed by 39 women’s and human rights organizations from around the globe (printed in full below)—which has been personally delivered to European and EU governments including the United Kingdon, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy—urges the countries to summon Iranian ambassadors on March 8, International Women’s Day, and calls on the Islamic Republic to:
- Stop detaining and committing violence against women who are calling for basic rights and freedoms in Iran.
- End the physical and sexual violence against women detainees and protesters.
- Cease all executions of political prisoners and annul all death sentences against protesters.
“This action will one day be recorded as one among several important moves by world leaders who chose to stand on the right side of history and in solidarity with the future leaders of Iran: women and young people,” said CHRI Deputy Director Jasmin Ramsey.
“EU countries should support this action on March 8 to stand in solidarity with Iranian women and girls who’ve faced bullets, arbitrary imprisonment, and sexual violence simply for demanding basic rights,” added Ramsey.
The letter also urges Sweden, in its capacity as EU Council president, to publicly urge EU countries to summon Iranian ambassadors on International Women’s Day and echo the demands.
CHRI delivered the letter to several EU countries’ missions and embassies in person in New York and DC this week.
Iranian women and girls are among the more than 500 protesters who have been killed by Islamic Republic security forces since anti-state protests erupted around the country in September 2022 following the killing in state custody of Jina Mahsa Amini, 22, after she was arrested for her alleged inappropriate hijab.
Despite facing severe repression in both law and practice, and being shot dead, beaten, arrested, tortured and sexually assaulted for protesting state repression, women and girls across Iran have continued to demand their freedom and basic human rights.
“For decades, courageous Iranian women, including lawyers, activists, journalists, writers, poets, actresses, and mothers of the victims of state violence, have been demanding justice, freedom, equality, and basic civil liberties for all Iranians,” said the joint letter.
“We hope your government will take part in this simple action to show the Iranian government that the EU will stand with the women of Iran in their struggle for freedom and fundamental human rights,” added the letter.
The powerful visuals for this campaign—showing a woman’s braided hair, fashioned as a noose, being cut off by scissors to symbolize the cutting off of political executions in Iran—were designed and donated by the Sweden-based creative advertising agency, Volt, which also arranged for digital billboards in Stockholm to display the imagery with the tagline, “Cut the Oppression.”
On February 18, a full-page advertisement will run in the Swedish newspaper Expressen urging the Swedish government to act in solidarity with Iranian women on International Women’s Day and lead this call among EU member states. The ad will also feature a barcode that readers can scan with their phones to be taken directly to the online petition.
“By summoning Iran’s ambassadors in unison on International Women’s Day, EU member states will send a clear message to the Islamic Republic that they will not stand by as the Iranian government deploys violent force to muzzle Iranian women and girls and crush protesters’ calls for fundamental rights and freedoms,” said Ramsey.
Letter to EU and European Countries
*EDITOR’S NOTE: The political leaders and country names in each letter were changed according to recipient. (The letter reprinted here was sent to Sweden.)
The Right Honorable Ulf Kristersson
Prime Minister of Sweden
The Right Honorable Tobias Billström
Minister for Foreign Affairs for Sweden
Dear Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs,
We are writing to urge the Swedish Government to take action to support the courageous women of Iran, who have been risking their lives to protest for freedom and basic human rights, by summoning the Iranian ambassador and, in its capacity as President of the European Union (EU) Council, calling on other EU member governments to do the same on March 8, International Women’s Day.
Women and girls in Iran, including ethnic and religious minorities, as well as the LGBTQI community, who all face severe and systemic discrimination in both law and practice, have been at the forefront of the anti-state protests that erupted in Iran in September following the killing of Jina Mahsa Amini, 22, in state custody after she was arrested for her alleged inappropriate hijab.
Many of these women and girls have been shot dead in the streets as they peacefully protested, blinded by the live ammunition used against them by state security forces, violently detained without access to counsel, and sexually assaulted and beaten while in state custody. Still, the women and girls of Iran have persisted in their demands for basic rights and freedoms.
We are asking Sweden and EU member states to act in unison on March 8, International Women’s Day, by summoning the Iranian ambassador to demand that the Iranian government:
- Stop detaining and committing violence against women who are calling for basic rights and freedoms in Iran.
- End the physical and sexual violence against women detainees and protesters.
- Cease all executions of political prisoners and annul all death sentences against protesters.
For decades, courageous Iranian women, including lawyers, activists, journalists, writers, poets, actresses, and mothers of the victims of state violence, have been demanding justice, freedom, equality, and basic civil liberties for all Iranians.
Women political prisoners, some of whom have been jailed for years for engaging in peaceful rights activism, support this struggle for freedom even from behind bars, by calling for an end to the executions of protesters in letters smuggled out of the prison.
By summoning Iranian ambassadors on Women’s Day, Sweden would signal to the Islamic Republic’s authorities that it will not stand by as the Iranian government uses lethal force to crush peaceful protest.
We hope your government will take part in this simple action to show the Iranian government that the EU will stand with the women of Iran in their struggle for freedom and fundamental human rights.
Most respectfully,
Center for Human Rights in Iran
United for Iran
Justice for Iran
Iran Human Rights
Iranian Diaspora Collective
Siamak Pourzand Foundation
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
Kurdistan Human Rights Association-Geneva
Association for the Human Rights of the Azerbaijani People in Iran
Kurdpa Human Rights Organization
Rasank
Impact Iran
6 Rang
International Civil Society Action Network
Afghan Women’s Organization for Equality
Afghan Women News Agency Organization
Afghan Women Network
Association of War Affected Women (Sri Lanka)
ECPM (France)
PAIMAN (Pakistan)
Women for Justice Foundation
Woman Center for Development and Culture (Albania)
Women’s Peace Network (Myanmar)
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (Geneva)
Empatiku Foundation (Indonesia)
Coalition for Action on 1325 (Uganda)
Corporación de Investigación y Acción Social y Económica (Colombia)
Gender Equality Network (Myanmar)
Women Advocacy Coalition-Myanmar
Association Djazairouna (Algeria)
PEN America
Swedish PEN
PEN Germany
Danish PEN
Irish PEN
Fuuse
Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights
Peace Track Initiative
Equality Now
Sign and share the petition: https://www.change.org/supportIranianwomen
