A powerful and insightful statement for International Women’s Day was posted by OSYAN, collective of Iranian and Afghan women, Burn The Cage and others on March 5, 2025, currently signed by six groups and 52 individuals. The post calls for groups and individuals to add their names to the call. As of March 7, it has been posted in Farsi, Dari, English, German, and Italian.

On one side, "We will turn Gaza into a resort area" and "We prefer making a deal with Iran over bombing it!" (Trump). On the other side, "If they threaten us, we threaten them. If they carry out their threat, we will also carry out our threat." (Khamenei)

Who are you, to sit at the top of world power, making decisions for the future and lives of millions of people? What is this system of domination that, in the forced division of the world among a few great powers, considers the mass killing of humans in war as just a game, while threatening the existence of humanity and the Earth itself?

What is this ownership system that has monopolized the highest technologies and collective knowledge of humanity, using them against the people of the world? Who can consider this system legitimate?

The situation of women is not only worsening due to these threats of war in Iran, the Middle East, and across the globe, but the war against women is at the core of fascist and Islamic fundamentalist agendas. In Iran, women have forced the Islamic Republic to make temporary and relative retreat on mandatory hijab, but maintaining this position and making further progress requires daily struggle. This is happening under conditions where the Islamic Republic, in desperation, has only managed to stay in power through brutal repression and executions.

The lives of our people are threatened both by executions and by imperialist and reactionary wars! Women are threatened both by the ruling class in Iran and by the fascist ruling class at the head of global capitalism! In fact, war and patriarchy are inseparable parts of this system, which in times of crisis like today, intensify and are openly imposed.

Today is the time to have courage and to fight. It is the time to ask the big questions and seek the big answers. It is the time to draw clear and firm lines against the small and large criminals of the world who make decisions about the future of humanity. Nothing is as it once was, and our struggle cannot follow the usual path!

The struggle of women on International Women's Day, alongside all their comrades and allies of any gender and sex, is not a narrow identity fight for some rights within the confines of this system, which crushes the life and hope of humanity. A system that, with every breath it takes, reproduces patriarchy, racism, xenophobia, hatred of LGBTQ, war, genocide, poverty, hunger, displacement, and more in every corner of the world.

Women have lived under patriarchal oppression in class societies for thousands of years, and now, along with billions of others on this earth, they need to move beyond that. The oppression of women is so deeply woven into the fabric of the capitalist system that this old order can only be preserved through rabid patriarchy. The struggle against patriarchy has the capacity to uproot this entire system, along with all other forms of oppression, and its roots in the exploitation of humanity.

In these globally critical times, women must become the liberators of humanity, transforming from fighters in one arena to fighters in all arenas.

We, the rebellious women of Iran and Afghanistan, call on our comrades across the world to unite and stand together against the new wave of war against women and the imperialist and Middle East wars. Let's raise our political awareness about the roots of these tragedies and organize with greater strength to fight against this system and its agents.

8 MARCH 2025

Groups Signatories:

Osyan (Revolt) collective

Uxan media

Afghanistan Women's Social Equality Organization

Me Too Movement Iran

Burn the Cage

Daadkhast

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Individual Signers:

Angela Ghayour

Ashraf Ghiasi

Elahe Ejbari, Feminist

Iraj Ommati

Bahareh Soleimani

Jalal Seraji

Hojat Saangwa

Hossein Derakhshan, Social Activist

Hamid Saljuqhi

Khalil Abiyat

Raha Askarizadeh

Zaman Masoudi, international women's movement activist

Somayeh Kargar

Susan Golmohammadi

Simin Esfahani

Shabbir Saberi

Shamsi Riasatian

Shoresh Karimi, political activist.

Shahrzad Arshadi, artist and anarchist feminist

Shahrzad Mojab

Shahla Zendegani

Sabra Najafi

Sedighe Haj Mohsen, women's rights activist

Atefeh Hosseini, women's activist and former political prisoner in Afghanistan

Ezzat Mosala Nejad, researcher and senior expert at the Canadian Center for Support for Victims of Torture

Faramarz Jafari Behbahani

Fariba Borhanzehi

Farimah Habashizadeh (Justina)

Kaveh Milani

Maryam Sabetnia, radio presenter of Woman, Life, Freedom (WLF) on Radio Free Stuttgart

Maryam Jazayeri

Maryam Hatef

Maosoum Hatami

Mansoureh Bekish

Mona Roshan

Monica Soltani

Mahnaz Matin

Mina Khani

Nazi Oskouei

Nasser Mohajer

Nahid Taghavi

Negin Shiraghaei, Azadi Network

Vahed Roznord, Survivor, shot/blinded in one eye by police during WLF uprising

Hasti Amiri

Farzaneh Raji

Sareh Seddighi

Iman Nouri

Sedigha Mirzaei

Maryam Claren

Daniela Sepehri, journalist

Mehri Shahmoradi, feminist activist

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About the groups:

OSYAN Collective of Women of Rebellion - Iran and Afghanistan. We are rebels; the liberation of women and the liberation of humanity are our horizon.

Uxan Media's priority is human rights, social justice, and a homeland for oppressed nations, with a focus on the Gilak ethnicity in Iran.

Women Social Equality (WSEO)

Me Too Movement Iran “We are your voice in the fight against sexual violence.”

Burn The Cage, Free the Birds is a movement for freeing political prisoners in Iran, based in Europe.

Daadkhast, “Call to Justice,” is an online platform for promotion of petitions and demands.