Statement
“From the beginning of the #WomanLifeFreedom [WLF] movement, women’s voices have resounded ever more powerfully in the public arena. This movement, which centers on protesting against government invasion of privacy and demands freedom, is built upon years of women’s struggle against oppression and discrimination alongside others from various sections of society. “Women, Life, Freedom” was able to challenge the bonds of government oppression with a cry of resistance that spanned the entire breadth of Iran and stood up against state violence with the power of life.
“Women, Life, Freedom,” spearheaded by women, is a testament to the maturity of the political demands and collective power of the Iranian people — a movement that was heard around the world and has become a model for struggle and equality.
The government’s fear of such courage and passion for life can be seen in the increasing street repression, the intensification of anti-women laws, the pressure on women political prisoners, and the effort to further control women’s bodies and what they wear.
In order to silence the movement, in addition to physical repression, the IRI has launched a psychological and propaganda war to smear and discredit the reputations and discount the humanity of the women activists. The attack on the women’s ward of Evin Prison, which has always been one of the centers and symbols of resistance, is a clear example of the systematic method of suppression by the government. Despite enduring long years in prison and undergoing horrendous repression by security [police] forces, women prisoners continue to echo the voices of the Iranian people. For this reason, the government is trying to silence these voices by imposing a second type of suppression: filing false legal indictments, issuing heavy sentences, sending them into exile, and even physical assaults.
What is characteristic of the current repression is the attempt to trample on the demands that are basic to “Women, Life, Freedom,” the bond that has united the people. In recent months, the government has repeatedly exploited some former or current prisoners to carry out plots to distort reality and discredit the women activists. These false displays and narratives attack the livelihoods and privacy of political activists as a means to suppress and destroy, and are a continuation of the old IRI policies meant to control the freedom of citizens and sow the seeds of distrust among them. This method of repression is now transparent to everyone, the fruit of years of struggle and political sacrifice.
Every citizen, while maintaining respect for others, has the right to choose their own beliefs, language, opinions, gender, and clothing, and this collective awareness and demand is the indelible achievement of the freedom-seeking movements of the Iranian people and “Women, Life, Freedom.” We looked into the eye of oppression and danced, and our mothers, in mourning for their children, celebrated their children’s lives together with the entire Iranian people.
We have regained within ourselves the political power of the innocence of the blood of Siavash [an Iranian legendary mythical figure whose innocence exposed the criminality of those who executed him], and truth is the harbinger of a future that lights our hearts in the darkness of these days. No, we are not afraid, because we have heard the voices of the Nikas [the youth in the WLF uprising].
What worries us is not merely the collaboration of some political prisoners with the government—which has always been a tool used to divide and conquer—but the cooperation of some media outlets and political trends with this strategy of oppression. [This refers mainly, but not only to pro-US/Israel monarchists who spread rumors/lies against radical or left leaning prisoners]
We are aware of the very serious danger posed by such acts. While upholding our collective unity, we consider it necessary to stand shoulder to shoulder with our imprisoned sisters and comrades, and to warn that any attempt to discredit/destroy others is to discredit/destroy the women activists. Assaults on their privacy, and their bodies, mirror the ideology of the IRI in a new guise. [Emphasis ours]
We stand on the history and experience of political struggle that has taught us the consequences of deviating from the path of liberation. Women's resistance, both inside prison and in the public sphere, continues, and we will stand against the regime's conspiracies and security policies and against the power-hungry elements and trends.
We call on all people of conscience and political forces to be vigilant and, instead of falling into the trap of psychological warfare and division, to strengthen the pathways toward justice, diversity, and equality. With awareness, perseverance, and a clear determination, we must stand shoulder to shoulder with the women who have dedicated their lives for freedom. Woman, Life, Freedom!”
Signatories:
Yasaman Ariani
Bahar Kazemi
Bahar Soleimani
Zahra Sadeghi
Rezvaneh Mohammadi
Nazi Oskouei
Dina Ghalibaf
Nahid Taghavi
Alieh Motalebzadeh
Nahid Fathalian
Monireh Arabshahi
Saba Sheardoost
Nazanin Zaghari
Farzaneh Nazeranpour
Shahla Rahmati
Shaghayegh Moradi
Maryam Talebi
Parvaneh Ghasemian
Farzaneh Raji
Sahar Ahmadi
Sara Sedighi
Farideh Hamidi
Shokoufeh Salimian
Atena Daemi
Aras Amiri
Endnote: Following are cameos of some of the 25 former political prisoners who signed the 2/20/25 letter. For further info and profiles, please search websites such as ipa.united4iran.org.
Sahar Ahmadi: She and her husband were severely beaten after their arrest; near Sandandaj, the car they and their young son were in was shot at.
Aras Amiri: Dual British national. Artist affairs representative sentenced for “cultural infiltration.”
Yasaman Ariani & Monireh Arabshabi: Mother and daughter, sentenced to 17 years for "inciting and facilitating corruption and prostitution” by removing their veils on International Women’s Day, 2019. Yasaman was attacked in Qarchak Prison by nonpolitical prisoners, incited by prison officials.
Atena Daemi: Anti-death penalty activist, women and children’s rights defender; kept in solitary and interrogated for “blasphemy” and alleged “propaganda and collusion against the regime.”
Nahid Fathalian: Retired teacher and union activist; caught Covid-19 in prison; not separated from other un-tested prisoners.
Parvaneh Ghasemian: Kurdish activist arrested in 2020.
Farideh Hamidi: Young artist and beautician arrested in Jina uprising; after her release gave widely viewed interviews exposing the violence against prisoners during and after arrests.
Dina Ghalibaf: Journalist and student, reported violence and sexual abuse at hands of morality police, arrested April 2024 for noncompliance with mandatory hijab.
Rezvaneh Mohammadi: LGBT activist convicted of “assembly and collusion against national security to decriminalize and eliminate shaming of homosexuality.”
Shaghayegh Moradi: Journalist, repeatedly arrested.
Alieh Motalebzadeh: Photojournalist and VP of the Association for the Defence of Iranian Press Freedom, sentenced to 5 years for “assembly and collusion against national security” for attending a workshop of Women’s Empowerment.
Farzaneh Nazeranpour: Author and longtime teacher.
Nazi (Nazinin) Oskouei: Editor-in-chief of Nashr-e Digar, sentenced to 1 year for collaboration with Iran Writers Association in February 2021.
Zahra Sadeghi: Zahra, a UN employee who travelled to Sudan and Iraq for her work, arrested with her husband in January 2018.
Sareh Sedighi: LGBT activist; tortured repeatedly during a period of 53 days in solitary confinement following her arrest.
Saba Sheardoost: Journalist who covered the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising on social and exile-based media.
Bahar Soleimani: Arrested in October 2020 and was one of 4 other co-defendants of Nahid Taghavi and Mehran Raoof (he is only one of the 6 that is still imprisoned).
Nahid Taghavi: German-Iranian women’s rights activist arrested in October, 2020, sentenced to 10 years on charge of “organizing an illegal group”. Released in January 2025.
IEC wishes to share these posts with our readers due to their timely and important content on the urgent fight to free Iran's political prisoners and stop executions.
Excerpt of the video caption reads in part: “Tonight, Tuesday, Feb 18 is 'No to Execution Tuesday'. We stand in front of Evin Prison in support of the No to Execution campaign...Here, in front of Evin Prison, behind us are the hills of Evin. Inside the prison, inmates are on hunger strike to tell the world: No to Execution!...Woman, Life, Freedom! Varisheh, Sharifeh, Pakhshan! No to Execution! We stand until the death penalty is abolished”.
Message posted by @burnthecage 2/21/2025 [mechanical translation] “We Neither Forgive Nor Forget”
A direct line connects the killing of political prisoners in the 1960s and the summer of 1988, the killings of January 2017 and November 2019, the Jina [Woman, Life, Freedom] uprising, to the executions and repression of political prisoners in the current situation. The Islamic Republic reassembled the [1953-1979 US puppet-monarchist] Shah's repression apparatus and added Sharia law and the Sharia rule as the finishing touch on the makeup of [today’s] clerical executioner—and thereby increasing the terrifying dimensions of the security [police] apparatus—because according to Sharia law, the interrogator, torturer, and the entire Islamic Republic's repression apparatus are considered to be agents of “God” and consider themselves to be divinely responsible, and they justify the torture and killing of their opponents based on the principles of Sharia.
In this context, the struggle to abolish the death penalty and release political prisoners is not only a struggle for the right to life and freedom of individuals in prison, but also a struggle for the liberation and freedom of society held hostage by the Islamic Republic.