Zahra Rahnavard on the Eve of International Women's Day: The Hand-to-Hand Combat of Iranian Rulers with Women Continues

Zahra Rahnavard, a leader of the Green Movement who is under house arrest, stated in a message on the occasion of International Women's Day that the "hand-to-hand combat" of the Islamic Republic's rulers with women continues. In her message published on Friday, March 8 (17 Esfand), she wrote that in Iran, "humiliation, arrest, imprisonment, and execution are the lot of aware and freedom-seeking women who have not succumbed to ignorance and discrimination or interference in their private lives, such as mandatory hijab." Her remarks refer to the arrests and police actions against women who protested after the death of Mahsa Jina Amini in the custody of the morality police in 2022, in response to this incident and the violent enforcement of mandatory hijab, which continues to this day. This political activist, without naming the Islamic Republic, referred to the Iranian government as one of the "dictatorial regimes" that "shamelessly and boldly continue to sound their own trumpet of disgrace to their people while turning a blind eye to the bitter international realities, backwardness, poverty, and chaos that have plagued the country and its people." Zahra Rahnavard, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mehdi Karroubi, leaders of the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election, have been under house arrest since February 14, 2011. Rahnavard also referenced the protests of "Women, Life, Freedom" and the 2009 presidential election protests, stating that during both movements, "protesting artists have not been safe from the sharp blades of the rulers and have faced various pressures, from censorship, work bans, and travel restrictions to bans on holding exhibitions and publishing artistic works." She mentioned the execution of 74 lashes on Mehdi Yarahee, a protesting singer associated with the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests, calling the lashing the latest "example of medieval oppression and pressure." Rahnavard wrote that "the lash on the back of a standing artist like Mehdi Yarahee is a black stain on the foreheads of the rulers that cannot be washed away with Zamzam water and Kausar." The execution of the 74 lashes on Mehdi Yarahee has sparked widespread reactions from artists and political and civil activists, and many prominent figures condemned this ruling. However, the artist himself expressed gratitude to those who supported him and, referring to the lashing sentence, wrote: "He who is not willing to pay a price for freedom does not deserve freedom." Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, also wrote in a note published in Vogue magazine on the occasion of International Women's Day that feminists and women worldwide can believe and be certain that women "have the power to confront the toughest and most robust tools of oppression and domination." She added that "women, due to the severe pressures of the government imposed in all public and private areas of their lives, are like a spring that has been tightly and intensely compressed, and it is evident that in releasing the accumulated energy, they have appeared very powerful and capable."