“Woman, Life, Freedom” is the rallying cry of the movement to end the Iranian government’s repression of women’s and human rights. It has been shouted especially loudly since the deaths of Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old girl, who reportedly died after a violent altercation with ‘morality police’ enforcers on the metro in Tehran, and Mahsa Jina Amini, who died in Iranian police custody in September 2022.
Many people are concerned that the United Nations, an intergovernmental organisation created to maintain peaceful international relations, is not heeding the call to support Iranian women in their struggle for freedom.
While the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned Iran’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters, Ali Bahreini, an Iranian diplomat, has been appointed to chair the UN Human Rights Council 2023 Social Forum, which begins today.
As Mariam Claren, daughter of Nahid Taghavi, a German-Iranian human rights activist who is imprisoned in Iran, told DW, "I don't understand how a country with such atrocities and human rights violations can chair a UNHCR forum.”
Neither the UN nor Ali Bahreini has appeared to address the backlash.
The death of Mahsa Jina Amini in morality police custody in September 2022 sparked the longest sustained nationwide protests in the history of the Islamic Republic and was met with the most brutal crackdown by government security forces. Under pressure to respond, it marked a turning point in how the international community engaged with Iranian women's and human rights.
However, just over a year later, history seems to be repeating itself. Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old girl, has reportedly died after a violent altercation with morality police enforcers on the metro in Tehran.
The Guardian reported eyewitnesses saying that upon entering the carriage, Armita was heckled and pushed by an enforcer for not wearing a hijab, causing the schoolgirl to fall into a coma and hit her head against a pole. State-run media only published video footage from outside the train carriage, where she is seen being dragged out by women and put onto the ground. CCTV footage from inside the carriage has not been released.
UN human rights experts, including the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of assembly and association, human rights in Iran, on violence against women and girls, for human rights defenders, and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child have all condemned Iran’s use of excessive force and the detention of children.
A historic victory for human rights followed in November 2022, when the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted in favour of establishing an independent international fact-finding mission (IIFFM) tasked with the mandate to investigate the alleged human rights violations that began after the protests over Mahsa Junu Amini’s death. In December 2022, the Islamic Republic of Iran was removed from the UN Commission on the status of women.
Control over women’s bodies continues to be at the very core of the founding principles of the Islamic Republic. From its inception, this new system has been concerned with curtailing women's rights in the name of Islam. In 1983, the Veiling Act enshrined into law the compulsory hijab for all women and girls aged nine and over. The discriminatory law warrants that they must cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothes in public or face harsh, and disproportionate, repercussions.
The rise of social media has allowed Iranian women to take brazen steps to challenge this discriminatory law, and the system in its entirety. Different online campaigns have been created that raise awareness on Iranian women's plight against the compulsory hijab. Ranging from the #MyStealthyFreedom to the #GirlsOfEnghelabStreet and the #HijabNoHijab, spanning from 2014 to 2022, these campaigns carry a strong message to a global audience: listen to the voices of Iranian women fighting for our freedom.
Women involved in all of these campaigns have taken an incredible risk in doing so, as images of their acts of peaceful civil disobedience of removing their forced hijabs in public led to many arrests in Iran. Despite that, women in Iran continue to place their bodies on the line in the hope that the international community will hear them and act in their support.
While the Islamic Republic tries to suppress this story, hoping to avoid a repeat of last year, the UN must not wait for ordinary Iranians to bleed on the streets again, like last year, for it to act. To truly represent women's rights, the UN must ensure that the IIFFM has its mandate extended and that the incoming UNHCR chair is removed.
The message remains clear: stand with the women of Iran by amplifying their voices, not their oppressors.
When will we wake up to the plight of Iranian women?
