Mar 1, 2023
The right to life is an undeniable human right that is being violated in Iran by the patriarchal system, political Islam, and fascist rulers in various ways. Women and the queer community in Iran are deprived of their fundamental human rights, such as the right to choose their clothing, marriage, divorce, guardianship, and custody of their children, education, travel, choosing their place of residence, leaving the country, and granting citizenship to their children without the permission of the father, husband, father-in-law, or even other male family members, such as the grandfather. Women and the queer community are denied the right to determine their own destiny, and men are allowed to take their lives under pretexts such as honor and dignity.
The law and customs in Iran have stripped the true meaning of life from the lives of women and the queer community. However, they have not remained silent and have protested in various ways despite the pressure and repression. The murder of Jina Amini by the government sparked the Jina uprising and the revolutionary movement of women demanding freedom, which quickly spread to other opposition movements, minority nations, and other oppressed minorities. The regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has spent its entire existence indoctrinating children from a young age with Islamic ideology in hopes of ensuring its survival, found itself facing opposition from children and teenagers, especially female students, during the nationwide and revolutionary uprising of the Iranian people. The regime then decided to suppress them systematically. Since this patriarchal system sees its survival in the subjugation of women, it cannot tolerate the freedom and equality of girls and women and has targeted them for suppression in schools.
Systematic and continuous chemical attacks, primarily on girls' schools, have been used to create panic and have seriously endangered students' physical and mental health. So far, doctors have not discussed the effects of these chemicals, and school staff has remained silent due to security threats. During the revolution of women, life, and freedom, the regime of the Islamic Republic arrested more than 20,000 people, tortured them, and even executed four individuals. In contrast, the regime has handled the identification of the perpetrators of chemical attacks on girls' schools differently. These attacks have poisoned dozens of cities and thousands of teenagers. Sometimes, the regime attributes the crime to the playfulness of students, sometimes it calls it a "hysterical" attack, and at other times, it forces and coerces false confessions from individuals.
These chemicals should not be in the hands of military and government institutions. This clearly indicates the regime's involvement in these attacks, which are intended to instill fear, confine girls to their homes, exclude them from society, and cause physical harm to the younger generation that seeks freedom and equality.
While supporting the protests of students, their families, as well as activists and the public against these attacks, we request that the relevant international organizations respond to this crime against children and teenagers most directly and swiftly and oblige the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran to be held accountable.
*Statement by Iranian feminist activists condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran's chemical attacks on girls' schools.
Sign the petition here:
https://www.daadkhast.org/en/petition/2237/