Stand with the Women of Iran

We have been calling for an end of policies that are hurting women in Iran -- and now we have to amplify their voices even more

By Hanieh Jodat

With a heavy heart, I stand with millions of Iranians, particularly my brave Iranian sisters, who have taken to the streets of Tehran, and every corner of their country, protesting the death of Jina Mahsa Amini. Twenty-two-year-old Mahsa died in custody of the “morality police” after being detained for revealing strands of hair under her hijab. I stand today in solidarity with the courageous women in Iran demanding control over their bodies, while clenching their fists in their fight for self-determination and freedom.

While visiting Tehran from her home in Kurdistan province, Mahsa was picked up by this vigilante-like police force, who accused her of violating dress rules that mandate covered hair and loose-fitting robes for women. Photos and her brother and father’s accounts report that she was beaten in custody, while the Iranian government claims she died from a sudden heart attack and released highly edited video footage that only shows her collapse. This young woman should never have been detained in the custody of forces who continue to trample on women’s rights by means of religion that serves to justify an oppressive and patriarchal ideology.

Whether in the streets of Tehran, Mazandaran, Kurdistan or in the suburbs of the United States of America, it is unacceptable and unjust for a government anywhere in the world to dictate to women how they must dress or conduct their personal lives.

This is why we, in the U.S., are protesting the U.S. Supreme Court’s failure to protect women’s reproductive rights. In the case of Iran, a land I call home, I denounce government violence against the protesters, and I hope that the protests around the country will result not only in the elimination of the mandatory “hijab law” but also in the restoration of basic rights that the people of Iran are calling for.

While I take a stand for my Iranian sisters, I will be clear in my message that I do not want to see the hardliners in both the U.S. and Iran, or any part of the world, take advantage of this tragedy to further their agenda in sabotaging the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA). I want to be clear that as a result of unilateral and secondary extreme sanctions, Iranian women have been suffering from a lack of basic human necessities: food and medicine. This nuclear deal must be revitalized to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon that will entrench this government in power, and to move the U.S. government to lift the sanctions that have been making life so difficult for millions of Iranians.

I call on the Biden administration to immediately rejoin the Iran nuclear deal that Trump abandoned and to finally lift the sanctions crushing Iranian women and their families. A return to the JCPOA is vital to promote peace in the Middle East.

Hanieh Jodat is a co-host of CODEPINK Congress