August 09, 2019
Fourteen women’s rights activists living inside Iran have sent an open letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi calling for him to resign for imposing “gender apartheid” on Iranians.
Two of the 14 signatories were arrested within 48 hours after the letter was published, The Independent of London reported.
The letter, dated August 5, argues that a “gender apartheid” and a “patriarchal approach” has suppressed the Iranian political climate for four decades and “erased” the rights of women.
The signers said Iranian women have faced an unfair disadvantage since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, according to a report from Radio Farda.
“Anyone who protested this gender discrimination has been subjected to insults, humiliation, beatings, imprisonment and, in some cases, to torture and execution,” the statement said.
“We, 14 civil rights and women’s rights activists, are determined to continue our combat until victory through civil and non-violent measures,” the campaigners wrote. “Like other pioneers, we go ahead by chanting, ‘No to the Islamic Republic’.”
They argued the country needs a political overhaul, including a new constitution – saying 40 years of “this theocracy” has eliminated the rights of half of the population – and called for others to get involved in peaceful, non-violent demonstrations to build a new society that demolishes “this anti-woman system.”
The activists wrote: “In a world where women in most countries move side-by-side with men in science, economics, culture, arts and politics, under the Islamic Republic women still fight for their basic human rights.”
Giti Pourfazel, a lawyer who is one of the signatories, told Radio Farda that while 14 women have signed the letter, 20 million other Iranian women could count themselves as the 15th signatory. Iran has a population of about 40 million women.
