Letter from 11 Women Political Prisoners: Revealing 'Gender Apartheid' is Key to Fighting Discrimination

Eleven women political prisoners in Evin Prison, Tehran, announced in a letter that revealing gender apartheid can pave the way in the fight against discrimination and oppression. The account attributed to Golrokh Iraee, a political prisoner, on the social media platform 'X', published the full text of the letter, naming the signatories as Nasim Soltanbeigi, Anisha Asadollahi, Mahvash Sabet, Narges Mohammadi, Sepideh Gholian, Vida Rabani, Golrokh Iraee, Joanna Sene, Pakhshan Azizi, Fariba Kamalabadi, and Mahbubeh Rezaei. Part of the letter states: March 8, International Women's Day, 'reminds us of the history of women's struggles over the past hundred years. It is a day of global solidarity in the pursuit of equality between women and men and the fight against all forms of oppression, exploitation, and legal, economic, political, cultural, and social discrimination.' The eleven women political prisoners in Evin emphasized the situation of women, especially in the Middle East and countries like Iran and Afghanistan, stating: 'We are aware that there is a long way to go until we achieve freedom, liberation, and equality.' A large number of political and civil activists, labor and professional organizations, as well as opponents of the Islamic Republic, congratulated Iranian women on International Women's Day on March 8 and condemned the Islamic Republic's actions in suppressing women. Previously, Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate currently imprisoned by the Islamic Republic, called for the 'criminalization of gender apartheid' and its recognition as 'one of the examples of crimes against humanity' in a message published on her Instagram account on January 31. In this message, she referred to decades of 'women's lives in the shadow of the Islamic Republic' and stated that the Islamic Republic 'systematically and purposefully, using all government tools and powers, especially through legislation, has pursued a policy of subjugating women and depriving them of their human rights.' In this context, a group of United Nations experts recently called for the global criminalization of 'gender apartheid' as a 'crime against humanity,' emphasizing the severe oppression that women, especially under regimes like the Taliban, face; an initiative that Narges Mohammadi had previously requested the UN to consider. This five-member group of UN experts, including representatives from the United States, China, Mexico, Uganda, and Serbia, stated that the time to recognize gender apartheid as a crime is long overdue and that this type of apartheid is not explicitly defined in international law. Karima Benoun, a professor of international law at the University of Michigan, previously told Voice of America: 'Gender apartheid is derived from the legal framework of racial apartheid and emphasizes that gender discrimination is rooted within the government apparatus itself.' These experts are urging the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly to add gender apartheid to Article 2, which discusses the prevention of crimes against humanity and related penalties. According to one of these experts, 'Gender apartheid is not merely a theory or legal structure, but a real threat and a form of objective reality for millions of women and girls around the world.' Last week, Karima Benoun, an Algerian-American law professor at the University of Michigan and former UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, examined the legal dimensions of criminalizing gender apartheid in an interview with Voice of America. She served as the UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights from 2015 to 2021 and was a speaker at the UN Security Council in 2023 regarding gender apartheid in Afghanistan. The UN fact-finding committee deemed discrimination against women in Iran a violation of human rights and a crime against humanity. The United States called for the continuation of the fact-finding committee's mission regarding serious human rights violations in Iran. Canada sanctioned the CEO of Tehran Metro and a member of parliament due to the 'ongoing violation' of Iranian women's rights.