On September 16, 2022, the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, killed by the so-called “morality police” while in detention for “improper attire,” sparked the uprising of Iranian women against the theocratic dictatorship of the mullahs and led to the creation of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.
This movement, initiated by Iranian women, soon spread to the entire population. The Iranian people continue to resist despite the brutal repression ordered by Ayatollah Khamenei and carried out by the Revolutionary Guards: arbitrary arrests, torture, rape, executions, public hangings, regular internet shutdowns, and the use of surveillance cameras combined with facial recognition systems supplied by the People’s Republic of China.
But fear has changed sides, and this violence has failed to silence the courageous women and men who are waiting for us to support their struggle for freedom and democracy.
Following the day of mobilization on February 3, organized under the high patronage of Madame Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, at the initiative of Madame Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, Member of Parliament for Paris, together with the HamAva Association and Licra, we call on the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the United Nations to condemn and sanction the Islamic Republic of Iran for its repeated violations of women’s rights and its institutionalized policy of sexual discrimination since 1979.
We call on the European Union to provide Iranian resistance networks with the technical means to bypass internet censorship and to maintain communication with the outside world.
We ask the French Government to act with the member states of the European Union to sanction Iranian judges and lawyers who collaborate with Ali Khamenei’s regime and who zealously serve its repressive policy.
We urge the member states of the European Union, particularly France, to adopt stricter and more selective visa policies to ensure that members of the Revolutionary Guards Corps do not take advantage of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to travel to Europe.
Finally, we call on journalists and media leaders to continue their long-term efforts — by regularly reporting on the daily lives of the Iranian people, by remembering the names of the victims of repression, and by amplifying the acts of resistance of the women and men fighting for a democratic Iran — so that the Iranian mullahs do not win the information war.
Association HamAva (National Coalition for a Democratic and Secular Iran)
Licra (International League Against Racism and Antisemitism)