Iranian women displayed greater courage and resilience over the past year compared to the previous year during the uprising
First, we’d like to congratulate all women of the world on International Women’s Day and pay tribute to the women who have championed the cause of equality, made sacrifices, and paved the way for others, ushering in a new era.
In this episode we’re going to discuss some of the issues covered by the NCRI Women’s Committee’s Annual Report 2024 which just came out on the eve of International Women’s Day.
The Annual Report focuses on the events spanning from March 2023 to March 2024, concerning the struggle of women in Iran for freedom, democracy, and equality.
Compared to the previous year, Iranian women faced even harsher conditions, yet demonstrated even greater courage and heightened resilience in the face of intensified oppression imposed by the clerical regime. They undertook various forms of resistance, including confronting security forces on university campuses, participating in street protests, seeking justice for fallen children, displaying resistance and bravery even in prison, and engaging in anti-repression operations despite the risk of severe punishment if caught.
The Annual Report portrays female political prisoners as symbols of remarkable resistance and bravery, even in the face of harsh conditions such as solitary confinement, attacks by security forces, and additional sentences for continued resistance.
Over the past year, Armita Geravand symbolized Iranian women and girls’ courage in defying the compulsory Hijab and other forms of violence by the regime, and at the same time, she embodies their innocence and the injustices they face under the mullahs’ rule. So, that’s why her image appears on the cover.
Armita Geravand was only 17 years old. She became a symbol of courage and innocence when she was allegedly attacked by Hijab patrols in a metro train on her way to school. The incident left her in a coma due to a brain hemorrhage, and the regime’s intelligence services swiftly intervened to control the situation.
They prevented access to her by her family, arrested a reporter trying to cover the incident, and pressured her friends and relatives to stay silent. The regime even tested social reactions by initially denying and later confirming her death to prevent protests similar to those sparked by Mahsa Zhina Amini‘s case in September 2022.
Although the Iranian regime did its utmost to clampdown on society and silence the people after the 2022 uprising, Iranian society did not remain voiceless. There were more than 3,000 protests by various sectors of Iranian society, demanding their rights from the ruling regime. Teachers, university professors, lawyers, college and high school students, nurses and physicians, farmers and merchants, workers and retirees, and almost all sectors held protests against the regime. And women participated and had a role in some 2,200 of these protests and demonstrations.
Now, in addition to these public protests, Iran’s young women and men of the Resistance Units carried out 3,000 anti-repression operations throughout the country in the year 2023.
The increasing participation of women and girls in the Resistance Units signifies a growing spirit of perseverance among women and youth in challenging all forms of the regime’s suppression. They assume leadership in the struggle against the dictatorship, aiming for freedom and a democratic, pluralistic republic.
The section reviewing the conditions of female political prisoners contains the story of Massoumeh Senobari, who’s charged with leading the protests in 2022, and is now being detained in harsh conditions.
Massoumeh Senobari is accused of leading protests and got 7.5 years in prison. She’s held alone in Fardis Prison’s women’s ward in Karaj. The court says she can’t talk to other inmates and has limited fresh-air time. During this time, others are removed so she can’t chat. Unlike other inmates, she has little time to call her family.
She was arrested during Karaj protests on December 13, 2022, and after interrogation, moved to Fardis Prison on January 4, 2023. On March 5, 2023, she was sentenced to 7.5 years for involvement in activities against the state and propaganda. Massoumeh Senobari is 36, with a daughter, and previously arrested twice in Tabriz in 2019 and 2020.