Iranian Women Activists Set Out Demands For "Freedom, Justice"

A group of Iranian women's rights activists have released a statement demanding fundamental reforms that would bring "freedom and justice" in the country, amid more than five months of nationwide demonstrations against the country’s clerical establishment.

In their March 5 statement, released three days ahead of International Women's Day, the activists called the women-led protest movement a "glorious symphony of struggle and courage."

They emphasized that the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement is a cry for freedom that emerged from the daily lives of women who are “denied basic human rights, including the right to their body, the right to dress, the right to work, the right to travel, the right to divorce, the right to inherit, the right to custody [of their children], etc.”

The authors of the statement demand "the immediate cancellation of all death sentences and the unconditional release of all political prisoners."

They call for freedom of thought, speech, organization, protest, and an end to any form of censorship.

Their demands also include "the abolition of patriarchal and discriminatory laws against women and LGBTQI Plus individuals, the right to determine one's own destiny and lifestyle, free, public healthcare and education, and appropriate care for the elderly and the disabled."

The widespread protests triggered by the September death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of morality police are seen as one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.

The authorities have cracked down on the women-led protest movement, killing more than 520 people and unlawfully detained over 19,000, activists say. Following biased trials, the judiciary has handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters.