Opposing a series of politically targeted arrests in Iran, 20 members of the Women’s Liberal Caucus have sponsored women and girls who have been arrested.
Sudbury Liberal MP Viviane Lapointe has sponsored Parisa Bani Asad, a pharmacy student at Tehran University. Lapointe is advocating for her release.
According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, Asad was arrested on Nov. 1, 2022, at the university’s medical sciences department. Her latest known status, according to the Student Trade Union Council, was as a prisoner at Evin Prison’s 209 Detention Centre.
Human Rights Watch reports that Evin Prison, built in 1971, is best known for holding political prisoners. Section 209 is “the most notorious holding area for political prisoners in Iran (and) has been in use since before the 1979 revolution.”
Nationwide protests were taking place at the time in response to the in-custody death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman arrested by Iran’s so-called “morality” police for, what Amnesty International described as “not complying with the country’s abusive, degrading and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws.”
Witnesses reported seeing her violently beaten in a police van, after which she was taken to hospital in a coma and died three days later.
Around the time of Asad’s arrest, Human Rights Watch reported that Iranian authorities had “escalated their assault against widespread dissent and protests through dubious national security charges against detained activists and grossly unfair trials.”
In early November 2022, officials said there had been almost 1,000 indictments issued for what they described as “rioters,” translated from Iranian.
“Iran’s vicious security apparatus is using every tactic in its book, including lethal force against protesters, arresting and slandering human rights defenders and journalists, and sham trials to crush widespread dissent,” Human Rights Watch Iran researcher Tara Sepehri Far said in a media release issued by the organization.
“Yet every new atrocity only reinforces why Iranians are demanding fundamental changes to a corrupt autocracy.”
In her media release, Lapointe said, “We will not let these brave women be silenced by the Iranian regime.”
“The women and girls of Iran have shown incredible courage and determination in the face of overwhelming oppression. As Members of Parliament and advocates for women’s rights, we stand with them and all those fighting for a better future in Iran.”
The following is the full text of the statement the Women’s Liberal Caucus issued on Jan. 9.
We, the Members of Parliament of the Women’s Liberal Caucus and steadfast advocates of the rights of women and girls both at home and abroad, hereby undertake the political sponsorship of a list of female individual detainees who are currently under threat by the Iranian regime for manufactured crimes against the state.
The widespread protests following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini—a young woman arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic of Iran’s compulsory veiling law—have evolved into a transformative national movement. Everyday acts of rebellion such as burning headscarves and cutting hair serve as symbols of resistance. The movement’s rallying chant of “Woman, Life, Freedom” echoes in all corners of Iran and across the world.
The Iranian regime has responded to these peaceful protests with brutal state retaliation and repression, including the execution of Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard and the arbitrary detention of countless other journalists, critics, artists, citizens, and human rights defenders. Many of these protestors remain at imminent risk of being sentenced to death without fair trial or judicial appeal. We stand with the United Nations Human Rights Council in calling for the immediate release of protestors who have been “arbitrarily deprived of their liberty for the sole reason of exercising their legitimate rights to freedom of opinion and expression, association and peaceful assembly and for their actions to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms through peaceful means.”
These protestors share the common background of being staunch opponents of the Iranian regime’s state-sponsored gender-based discrimination and violence. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of these protestors from the custody of the Iranian regime. Until their release is secured and their charges withdrawn, we will be their voice. We will continue to say their names, ensure the Iranian regime knows that the world is watching their actions, and we will monitor the status of these women closely until they are released.
In addition to our advocacy for the political protestors named above, we call on the Iranian regime to end its arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial killings, sexual and gender-based violence, and torture against all peaceful protestors. Further, we call on the Iranian regime to end its state-sponsored discrimination and violence against women and girls in public and private life.
As Parliamentarians, we will use our voices and digital platforms to seek justice for these political prisoners—as well as to amplify the brave calls for freedom coming from within Iranian society. International advocacy efforts such as this are crucial in ensuring that the powerful voices of protestors are heard across the world, given the Iranian regime’s restrictions on Internet and social media platforms which undermine the exercise of freedom of opinion, expression, and association by Iranian citizens.
In our mandate of advancing and upholding the rights of women and girls, it is our moral obligation as a caucus to speak out against the Iranian regime’s ongoing state-sponsored discrimination, persecution, and brutality against those women, girls, and allies who dare to seek freedom from the repressive Iranian regime.
We will use our collective voice to call for an end to the Iranian regime’s brutal human rights violations—and to support the Iranian people in their fight for hope and freedom
