As women around the world are starting a new year on March 8, International Women’s Day, we are happy to bring you another Annual Report of the NCRI Women’s Committee.
This is an effort every year to shed light on the various aspects of women’s life and struggle in Iran and violations of their basic rights as stipulated in the CEDAW and BPfA.
This year, however, all the issues had been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, making it difficult to address them all.
As we are publishing our Annual Report 2021, the COVID-19 has exacted a death toll of at least 230,000 from our nation of 85 million. As the country is going through the fourth peak, the mullahs’ leader has banned purchase of vaccines from other countries, promising to start inoculating everyone next spring.
In the meantime, the economy is in shambles and poverty is spreading by the day leading to harrowing incidents, such as parents selling their liver and heart – yes, heart – to provide for the expenses of their families. Sometimes, they do not find any solution but to take the lives of their own children and then kill themselves.
But despite the misery the treacherous mullahs have inflicted on Iran’s great nation, there is great hope for change. The courageous women of Iran are holding up the beacon of hope in the dark of the night.
Women who demonstrated their heroism in five nationwide uprisings are now organizing resistance units and preparing for more protests and uprisings.
The mothers of execution victims and the victims of the November 2019 uprising as well as the families of the victims of the Ukrainian Airliner downed by the IRGC, remained vocal throughout the year, seeking justice for their children.
Their quest for justice spreads hope in society for prosecution of the regime’s leaders.
Women continue to have a prominent presence in all protests by teachers, nurses, pensioners, and defrauded investors.
We excluded all these issues and summarized the parts dealing specifically with women’s basic rights, and yet we ended up with a book double the size of the previous reports.
We hope to have brought to light the most crucial issues concerning Iranian women, namely the Iranian regime’s brutal attempt to suppress all and every voice of freedom, the various aspects of violence against women both sponsored by the state or promoted by state laws and policies, and the whopping gender gap in Iran as a result of gender discrimination in all fields.
As we begin another year on March 8, we are filled with hope and confidence that the courageous women of Iran will bring about regime change and realize the dawn of freedom on their homeland. And in this effort, they hope to enjoy the support and recognition of human rights and women’s rights advocates from around the world.
NCRI Women’s Committee – March 2021
