Tuesday, June 6, 2023
  • English
  • Français
  • فارسی
  • عربى
PODCASTS
NCRI Women Committee
  • Home
  • News
    • Women’s News
    • Articles
    • Statements
  • Publications
    • Monthlies
    • Documents
    • Reference Library
  • About Us
    • Women’s Committee of Iran NCRI
    • Gender Equality
    • Women’s Platform
  • Maryam Rajavi
    • Biography
    • Maryam Rajavi Speeches
    • Ten Point Plan for Iran
    • Ten Point Plan for Women
  • Vanguards
    • Fallen for Freedom
    • Heroines in Chain
    • Women of Iranian Resistance
    • Famous Women
    • Women in History
  • Events
    • IWD Conferences
    • IWD Speeches
    • Activities
    • Solidarity
  • Videos
    • Events
    • International Solidarity
    • International Women’s Day
    • NCRI Women’s Committee Presentations
    • Other Activities in Iran
    • Violence Against Women in Iran
    • Women in Iran Protests, Uprising
  • Podcast
  • Donate
  • Contact us
No Result
View All Result
NCRI Women Committee
  • Home
  • News
    • Women’s News
    • Articles
    • Statements
  • Publications
    • Monthlies
    • Documents
    • Reference Library
  • About Us
    • Women’s Committee of Iran NCRI
    • Gender Equality
    • Women’s Platform
  • Maryam Rajavi
    • Biography
    • Maryam Rajavi Speeches
    • Ten Point Plan for Iran
    • Ten Point Plan for Women
  • Vanguards
    • Fallen for Freedom
    • Heroines in Chain
    • Women of Iranian Resistance
    • Famous Women
    • Women in History
  • Events
    • IWD Conferences
    • IWD Speeches
    • Activities
    • Solidarity
  • Videos
    • Events
    • International Solidarity
    • International Women’s Day
    • NCRI Women’s Committee Presentations
    • Other Activities in Iran
    • Violence Against Women in Iran
    • Women in Iran Protests, Uprising
  • Podcast
  • Donate
  • Contact us
No Result
View All Result
NCRI Women Committee
No Result
View All Result
Home Articles
Resistance for freedom

4 decades of resistance for freedom by Generation Equality in Iran

Never before in history, had a dictator launched a genocide by releasing the photos of unidentified young women he executed.

June 19, 2022
in Articles
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

June 20 marks the beginning of the Iranian people’s resistance for freedom and democracy in 1981.  Iran’s women pioneer their people’s movement against the mullahs’ religious dictatorship.

Generation Equality has been playing a significant role in the Iranian people’s resistance for freedom from the Shah’s time until today. Women who sacrificed their lives for freedom in the 1970s opened the way for women’s largescale participation in the movement. Then came another generation of women in the 1980s whose sacrifices and unsubmissive struggle shook the foundations of the mullahs’ misogynous regime.

And then, the world saw the next generations of brave Iranian women and girls who pursued this tortuous and blood-drenched path during the uprisings in 1999, 2009, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Generation equality will continue to thread this path until the overthrow of the mullahs’ misogynous regime and the dawn of genuine freedom in Iran.

So, let us commemorate on this anniversary the tens of thousands of women who watered the sapling of freedom with their blood and persisted on their democratic demands since the beginning of the mullahs’ rule in Iran. They chose to honorably resist at any cost but not succumb to the dictator and turned into shining stars who lit the dark night of their nation.

Women’s largescale participation in resistance for freedom

Less than a month after the Iranian people’s overthrow of the Shah’s dictatorship, women were the first to hear the footsteps of another tyrannical regime.

Khomeini’s first fatwa on March 7, 1979, targeted Iranian women’s freedoms. By this order, it became mandatory for women to cover their hair and wear the veil in government offices.

Iranian women took to the streets the next day which coincided with International Women’s Day, March 8, 1979, to protest the oppressive fatwa against women in a massive demonstration.

Women’s largescale participation in resistance for freedom
Tehran, March 8, 1979 – Iranian women protest against mandatory Hijab
Less than a month after the Iranian people’s overthrow of the Shah’s dictatorship
Tehran, March 8, 1979 – Women demand a government based on gender equality

Hassan Rouhani, the regime’s incumbent president, has boasted that he was the one to ban the entry of non-veiled women to the offices and departments of the Armed Forces.

For 2.5 years before June 20, 1981, women and girls joined opposition groups, particularly the PMOI/MEK, and actively participated in resistance for freedom and efforts to stop the tyrannical advances of the new regime.

Dozens of schoolgirls who supported the PMOI/MEK opposition were killed and wounded in attacks by the regime’s agents and club wielders during this period. Nasrin Rostami, 16, in Shiraz, Mehri Saremi in Khorram Abad, Sima Sabbagh in Rasht, Sanam Ghoreishi in Bandar Abbas, Fatemeh Rahimi and Somayeh Noghre-Khaja in Ghaemshahr, and Fatemeh Karimi in Karaj were among many who did not succumb to the club wielders’ threats at the cost of their lives.

Fatemeh Karimi in Karaj were among many who did not succumb to the club wielders’ threats at the cost of their lives
From left, Somayyeh Noghre-Khaja and Fatemeh Rahimi in Gha’emshahr, Fatemeh Karimi in Karaj, and Sanam Ghoreishi in Bandar Abbas were killed in the streets before June 20, 1981.

On April 27, 1981, the Muslim Mothers’ Society which supported the opposition PMOI/MEK staged a demonstration in protest of the beating and killing of their children. 200,000 women participated in this protest rally. Their strong presence caught the mullahs by surprise and had a tremendous impact on developments in that critical period of Iran’s history.

The Iranian people’s resistance for freedom reached a turning point on June 20, 1981
Tehran, April 27, 1981 – Demonstration by Muslim Mothers’ Society

The Iranian people’s resistance for freedom reached a turning point on June 20, 1981, when half a million Tehran residents participated in a historic march for freedom.

On that day, Khomeini’s revolutionary guards opened fire on the peaceful demonstrators. Iran’s pioneering women, too, had to make a choice. They had to choose between the shame of caving into the mullahs’ suppression and the honor of resistance for freedom. Of course, they chose the latter and answered the call of history.

they chose the latter and answered the call of history.
Tehran, June 20, 1981 – Peaceful demonstration by half a million people against the religious dictatorship

June 20 bloody crackdown, women’s magnificent resistance in prisons

After cracking down on the June 20th peaceful demonstration, the clerical regime began its massacre of opponents. Ironically, the first group of victims comprised of girl students, 16-17 years of age, who had not given even their names to the regime.

Indeed, what was the message of these young women? Why was it that the first statement of the prosecutor’s office after June 20, bore the pictures of 12 under-18 girls who had not even identified themselves to the regime officials before being executed?

June 20 bloody crackdown, women’s magnificent resistance in prisons
The first statement issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office bearing the photos of 12 teenage girls who had been executed without establishing their identities, was published in the state-run daily newspapers.

Never in history, had a dictator launched a genocide by releasing the photos of unidentified young women he executed.

The mullahs’ murder machine started its endless and indiscriminate killings. Young teenage girls, pregnant women, elderly mothers, workers, farmers, doctors, engineers, artists, and athletes were killed en masse. Sometimes, all or five-six children of the same family were executed in the course of mass executions of the 1980s.

Women’s rights were half of men’s everywhere except in prisons where they had a double quota of torture merely for being a woman. The misogynist mullahs could not tolerate the women who opposed them.

The victims included Nafiseh Ashraf Jahani, 10, who was put on summary trial and sent before the firing squads. Maryam Assadi, 11, Afsaneh Farabi, 12, and 13-year-olds Fatemeh Mesbah, Shahla Ghorbani, Fatemeh Sajedi, and Fatemeh Jabbarzadeh Ansari, and Nassrin Nouri Mani, 15, were also among those executed in the 1980s.

Tahereh Aghakhan Moghaddam was executed while eight-months pregnant
Fatemeh Mesbah, 13, and Mother Zakeri, 70, were executed

Tahereh Aghakhan Moghaddam was executed while eight months pregnant. The names of at least 50 pregnant women are among those executed by the Iranian regime. Dozens of elderly women, like Sakineh Mohammadi Ardehali (Mother Zakeri), 70, stood up bravely to the mullahs and defeated their efforts to break them.

Women’s inspiring resistance and their double quota under torture
From left: Batool Alamzadeh Horjandi, Zohreh Bijanyar, and Massoumeh Azdanlou were pregnant at the time of execution

Women’s inspiring resistance and their double quota under torture

Hundreds of former prisoners have attested that women’s resistance in prisons and under torture was inspiring to the imprisoned men, as well.

By their resistance, Iranian women dealt effective blows to the medieval outlook promoted by the clerical regime.

So, the mullahs put women under tremendous pressure to break their high spirits. Long-term solitary confinement, Unit One, Cage, and the most brutal of these torture chambers, the residential unit where they sexually assaulted female prisoners, were designed to reach this aim.

Iranian women, however, were deeply aware of their great role and historic mission and were thus able to endure such inhuman tortures, imprisonment, and executions.

They were not just a few isolated examples but a generation of women who regardless of their age, education, profession, ethnicity, and economic class, chose the honor of resistance for freedom to defeat the enemy of their nation.

Various groups of women in resistance for freedom

Despite repressive conditions in Iran, secret executions, and all the dangers threatening those who have such information, the Iranian Resistance has been able to compile the names and information about 20,000 victims of execution.

Around 5,000 of those names belong to the women of PMOI/MEK.

The most general categorizations based on age, profession, and education attest to the reality of a Generation Equality born in Iran to determine the fate of their nation through their resistance for freedom.

Following are the categories:

681 women were killed under torture

50 women were executed while pregnant

789 teenagers were executed between 11 and 18 years of age

230 women had a high academic education

734 women had bachelor’s degrees

4,010 women were high school graduates

381 women were government employees

73 women were artists

The number of victims of political executions by the clerical regime is estimated to be 120,000, one-third of whom are women. The said figures are therefore but a small and incomplete part of the whole picture.

On the anniversary of the June 20th milestone in the history of Iran, we honor the memory of and pay tribute to heroines who fulfilled their responsibility towards their people, country, and history with utmost courage. Future generations will have a lot more to say about their role and values.

Tags: executionGeneration EqualityPrisonersThe girl childViolence against womenWomen's Leadership
Share13TweetPinShare

Related Posts

The Family of Zahra Jalilian Questions Suspicious Death of the Physics Prodigy

June 4, 2023
Mother of Zahra Jalilian Exposes the Suspicious Death of the Physics Prodigy

Zahra Jalilian had told her mother: ‘I have made a discovery that could win the Nobel Prize in Physics.’ Seven months after the suspicious death of Zahra Jalilian,...

Read more

Zohreh Sayyadi, a Cancer Patient, to Serve One Year in Evin Prison

June 4, 2023
Zohreh Sayyadi, a Cancer Patient, to Serve One Year in Evin Prison

Zohreh Sayyadi, a Cancer Patient, is to Serve One Year in Evin Prison A social activist, who has cancer and is in dire physical condition due to incomplete...

Read more

A female student was stabbed on campus to enforce the hijab

June 3, 2023
A female student was stabbed on campus to enforce the hijab

A female student at the Bahonar University of Kerman was stabbed for not observing the mandatory hijab. A member of Basij at the Bahonar University of Kerman attacked...

Read more

Detained teachers, Maryam Jalal Hosseini and Fatemeh Tadrisi, on a hunger strike

June 2, 2023
Maryam Jalal Hosseini Fatemeh Tadrisi

Maryam Jalal Hosseini and Fatemeh Tadrisi were arrested on May 9 during the teachers' protests Detained teachers Maryam Jalal Hosseini and Fatemeh Tadrisi began a hunger strike on...

Read more

May 2023 Report: Families Protest as Executions Soar in Iran

June 1, 2023
Families Protest as Executions Soar in Iran; Targeting Voices of Change

Families Protest as Executions Soar in Iran, Targeting Voices of Change Monthly-May-2023_ENDownload The month of May saw the executions of at least 146 prisoners in Iran, including three...

Read more
Next Post
Municipal agents raze down the shelter of a female teacher

Municipal agents raze down the shelter of a female teacher

Documents

WOMEN LEAD THE CHARGE IN IRAN’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

Women Lead the Charge in Iran’s Fight for Freedom

March 7, 2023

NCRI Women's Committee Annual Report 2023 Women's leadership of the revolution did not happen overnight. It has deep roots in...

The list of women and girls killed by the regime in Iran during the 2022 uprising

The list of women and girls who laid down their lives during Iran protests

November 25, 2022

The list of women and girls killed by Iranian security forces during the Iran uprising Women are leading a revolution...

Statement to support the Iranian women’s struggle for freedom and equality

Sign to support the Iranian women’s struggle for freedom and equality

October 10, 2022

The NCRI Women's Committee urges all human rights defenders, women's rights organizations and advocates to sign this statement to support...

Monthlies

Families Protest as Executions Soar in Iran; Targeting Voices of Change
Monthlies

May 2023 Report: Families Protest as Executions Soar in Iran

June 1, 2023
Authorities Turn a Blind Eye on Chemical Attacks on Iranian Schoolgirls
Monthlies

April 2023 Report – chemical attacks on Iranian schoolgirls

May 5, 2023
Escalating Clampdown on Opponents of the Mandatory Hijab
Monthlies

March 2023 Report: Clampdown on Opponents of the Mandatory Hijab

April 5, 2023
Uncovering the Horrific Gas Poisoning of School Girls In Iran
Monthlies

February 2023 Report: Gas Poisoning of School Girls in Iran

March 14, 2023

Articles

Mother of Zahra Jalilian Exposes the Suspicious Death of the Physics Prodigy

The Family of Zahra Jalilian Questions Suspicious Death of the Physics Prodigy

June 4, 2023

Zahra Jalilian had told her mother: ‘I have made a discovery that could win the Nobel Prize in Physics.’ Seven...

Iran's Oppressive Chastity and Hijab Law Strips Women’s Rights

Iran’s Oppressive Chastity and Hijab Law Strips Women’s Rights

May 30, 2023

Failure to comply with the mandatory Hijab is equated with "nudity" in the Chastity and Hijab Law and would result...

EU Reporter: international campaign to stop executions in Iran

EU Reporter: “The Iranian people are ready to overthrow the regime”, opposition leader tells MEPs

May 25, 2023

The EU Reporter reported on May 24, 2023, on a conference at the European Parliament featuring Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the...

The Fallen for Freedom

Sarina Esmailzadeh killed by blows of baton to her head
The Fallen for Freedom

Sarina Esmailzadeh

May 16, 2023
Nosrat Ramezani
The Fallen for Freedom

Nosrat Ramezani

May 1, 2023
Mahsa Amini
The Fallen for Freedom

Mahsa Amini

March 31, 2023
Maliheh Aghvami
The Fallen for Freedom

Maliheh Aghvami

February 10, 2023

ABOUT US

NCRI Women Committee

We work extensively with Iranian women outside the country and maintain a permanent contact with women inside Iran. The Women’s Committee is actively involved with many women’s rights organizations and NGO’s and the Iranian diaspora.
The committee is a major source of much of the information received from inside Iran with regards to women. Attending UN Human Rights Council meetings and other international or regional conferences on women’s issues and engaging in a relentless battle against the Iranian regime’s misogyny are part of the activities of members and associates of the committee.

CATEGORIES

  • Activities
  • Articles
  • Documents
  • Events
  • Famous Women
  • Heroines in Chain
  • International Solidarity
  • International Women's Day
  • IWD Conferences
  • IWD Speeches
  • Maryam Rajavi
  • Maryam Rajavi Speeches
  • Monthlies
  • NCRI Women's Committee Presentations
  • Other Activities in Iran
  • Podcast
  • Reference Library
  • Solidarity
  • Statements
  • The Fallen for Freedom
  • Uncategorized
  • Videos
  • Violence Against Women in Iran
  • Women in History
  • Women in Iran Protests, Uprising
  • Women of Iranian Resistance
  • Women's News

BROWSE BY TAG

Child marriage coronavirus education execution forced hijab Gender Gap Generation Equality Honor killings Iran Teachers Maryam Akbari Monfared Nurses Poverty Prisoners Protests rural women Saba Kord Afshari The girl child Violence against women Women's Leadership Women Heads of Household Zeinab Jalalian

The copyright of all the material published on this website has been registered under © 2016 the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. To obtain permission to copy, redistribute or publish the material published on this website, you should write to the NCRI Women’s Committee. Please include the link of the original article on our website, women.ncr-iran.org.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Women’s News
    • Articles
    • Statements
  • Publications
    • Monthlies
    • Documents
    • Reference Library
  • About Us
    • The NCRI Women’s Committee
    • Gender Equality
    • Women’s Platform
  • Maryam Rajavi
    • Maryam Rajavi Speeches
    • Ten Point Plan for Iran
    • Ten Point Plan for Women
  • Vanguards
    • The Fallen for Freedom
    • Heroines in Chain
    • Women of Iranian Resistance
    • Famous Women
    • Women in History
  • Events
    • IWD Conferences
    • Activities
    • IWD Speeches
    • Solidarity
  • Videos
  • Podcast
  • Donate
  • Contact us
  • فارسی
  • عربی
  • Français

The copyright of all the material published on this website has been registered under © 2016 the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. To obtain permission to copy, redistribute or publish the material published on this website, you should write to the NCRI Women’s Committee. Please include the link of the original article on our website, women.ncr-iran.org.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist