October 21, 2022 / Toronto
The death of Mahsa Jina Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, at the hands of the “morality police” has sparked widespread protests across Iran, speaking out against the curtailment of women’s rights, abuse of power and corruption, and demanding regime change.
As people and organizations on the frontlines of building welcoming communities and who do the work with refugees, immigrants and migrants, we support the ongoing protests led by women in Iran for social justice, and the important demands of basic human rights of women for life without discrimination and freedom. We call for an end to the systemic gendered state violence in Iran and stand in solidarity with protesters seeking women’s rights to bodily integrity and autonomy, and freedom of speech and assembly.
We believe that the acts of state-gendered violence against Mahsa Jina Amini are synonymous with the acts of gendered violence that operate along a continuum and are pervasive across the globe. Iran isn’t the only country that discriminates against women. In Canada, the acts of ongoing gendered state violence against Indigenous, racialized, refugee women and members of 2SLGBTQI speak to the pervasiveness and continued state and colonial violence. We support building critical consciousness of the ways in which power operates and how we understand violence against our communities without reproducing racism, hate and further violence.
We are deeply concerned about the brutal crackdown and violence by the Islamic regime in Iran in reaction to protests sparked by the killing of Mahsa Amini. Troubling reports and video evidence emerging over the past several weeks document the killing and detention of children and youth, hundreds of university students, and the recent shootings and fire in Evin Prison on October 15, speak of widespread crimes against humanity. We call on the Canadian government to demand an immediate end to this state violence and the immediate release of all political prisoners in Iran.