On September 16th 2022, the morality police in Tehran arrested and killed Zhina Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman who had committed no crime other than a perceived miswearing of her hijab. In the tradition of Kurdish women fighting for liberation, protests broke out at her funeral and quickly spread throughout Iran and the world. For months, people from all parts of the country and all belief systems have taken to the streets, decrying Zhina’s murder and the government’s policies. These protesters have been met with violence and imprisonment. They have been trapped and shot at and disappeared. Many have been killed in the street or executed through trials with forced confessions and threats to family. And yet they return, day after day, stronger and stronger.
For over 40 years, the tyrannical government of Iran has oppressed its own people and those it views as inferior throughout the region and world. The rulers command with impunity, harming women, children, families, and neighboring ethnic groups with no concern of repercussion. Protest after protest and reform movement after reform movement has fallen short, often because the world is unable to witness what is happening within Iran’s tightly controlled borders. Despite renewed limits on media and internet access, we see the atrocities being committed and stand solidly with the brave women and protesters in Iran.
As practitioners in global mobility and the creation of public spaces, Nelson\Nygaard recognizes the significance of our streets and sidewalks for gathering, exchanging ideas, and asserting the right to protest. We work for freedom of movement and choice for all people, and we condemn the current use of public space in Iran to terrorize, control, and harm those asserting that, “a country can’t be free unless the women are free.” As this collective resistance strives to be recognized, to assure basic rights, and to change the status quo, we invite you to join us in sharing stories and resources and showing support for the fight against Iran’s state-sanctioned violence against women, Kurds, and other ethnic minorities in the region.
You can learn more from our collection of background articles and recent news:
- Iranian protests: What caused them? Are they different this time? Will the regine fall?
- How Iran’s protests transformed into a national uprising
- Timeline: A modern history of Iran
- Iran acknowledges it has detained ‘tens of thousands’ in recent protests
- A whole generation revolts against the Iranian regime
- Stalked, tortured, disappeared: Iranian authorities have a playbook for silencing dissent, and they’re using it again
- Iran: Thousands of detained protesters and activists in peril
If you’d like to help the women of Iran through a donation, here are a few places to donate: