Dozens of Activists Support Narges Mohammadi: The Islamic Republic Uses Sexual Violence as a Tool of Repression

More than 130 activists and civil society members inside and outside the country issued a statement on Wednesday, June 6, protesting the trial of Narges Mohammadi and expressing their support for the "Campaign for Solidarity Against Sexual Harassment" and the women’s ward of Evin Prison. This statement followed Narges Mohammadi's call for the public to join the "Campaign for Solidarity Against Sexual Harassment" and to narrate and judge the public regarding sexual assault and harassment, especially in the prisons of the Islamic Republic, by 170 civil activists who identify themselves as narrators of sexual violence and assault. The signatories of this statement declared, "In solidarity with other prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, we condemn the retrial of Narges Mohammadi and believe that sexual violence has been systematically used as a tool for the elimination and repression of detained protesters." The statement praised Narges Mohammadi's storytelling about sexual violence in prisons, stating that the charges of "spreading falsehoods" and "propaganda against the regime" against her aim to discredit the tradition of resistance through narration and testimony and to deny the violence that has occurred. It emphasized that Narges Mohammadi has "repeatedly made public the violence inflicted on women prisoners, from sexual assault and beatings to threats of rape." The statement further protested the trial of this political prisoner and human rights activist, adding, "Now she is to be tried for publishing these narratives on the charge of 'spreading falsehoods' and demands that the court be held publicly so that other witnesses of sexual violence can also have the opportunity to attend and testify." It explained that narrating against violence has been "a way of resistance" and that repression, assault, and sexual harassment are "tools for intimidating, double repression, and eliminating women from social and political activities." The signatories, who call themselves "the memory of the narratives of these violences," include a wide range of women activists who state: "Alongside the women’s ward of Evin Prison, we stand with the narrators of truth and continue to document and recount the narratives of sexual harassment of detainees from the 1980s to the present." Among the signatories are Atena Daemi, Mahnaz Mohammadi, Parastoo Forouhar, Parvin Ardalan, Asieh Amini, Mansoureh Shojaei, Fariba Balouch, Mehrangiz Kar, Monireh Baradaran, Niloufar Beyzaei, and Shahla Entesari. On Tuesday, June 5, Narges Mohammadi emphasized in an Instagram post that sexual assault and harassment can be used as a devastating tool by some political regimes against those who are perceived as "others," stating: "Now, assault, rape, and sexual harassment are tools of torture, threats, and governmental confession extraction that seeks to push back popular protest movements." The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner also referred to contemporary Iranian history, especially in the 1980s and the "Kahrizak disaster," and the acknowledgment by some Islamic Republic officials of the sexual abuse of prisoners, asserting: "The perpetrators and instigators of such atrocities have never been held accountable; instead, narrators and whistleblowers of sexual abuse in the Islamic Republic have always been tried and punished." Narges Mohammadi, who has been convicted three times for narrating abuse in court, is set to be tried for the fourth time in this regard on June 8, 2024. Thirty-six women political prisoners in Evin Prison requested in a statement on June 4 that the trial of Narges Mohammadi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and political prisoner, be held "publicly and with the presence of witnesses and narrators of harassment and sexual assault and with independent media present." Narges Mohammadi has been arrested and imprisoned multiple times over the past three decades, and in her most recent legal case, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of "propaganda against the regime" and is currently in Evin Prison in Tehran.