Iranian Regime Detains More Peaceful Protesters

NCRI – To mark International Women’s Day, women in Tehran gathered and held a peaceful protest outside the Labour Ministry building in the country’s capital. They called for more rights for women in a country where women are systematically and brutally oppressed.

Reports have indicated that several of the women have been arrested and put in prison.

Unfortunately, this is to be expected. Iranian authorities do not recognise the right to protest and see women, in particular, as a big threat to their rule.

Activists for the rights of women announced that on 8th March they would hold a peaceful protest. They said in a statement: “On this one day, out of an entire year, we as women of this country should be able to make these cities our own, stay in the streets, and return to our homes at days’ end, without having our bones crushed.”

Reports from inside Iran and information on social media indicate that the people, men and women, who participated in the protest were met by suppressive forces that attempted to disperse them. Around a dozen people are said to have been arrested and put in prison.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the main opposition group to the Iranian regime, expressed her concern about the recent arrests and called for all of the protesters that were detained to be released.

In a message on Twitter she said: “I strongly condemn the attack & the beating and arrest of the courageous women by the misogynist mullahs regime at the gathering outside the Labor Ministry in Tehran on IWD [International Women’s Day] and call for their immediate release.”

During the protests that started at the end of December last year, the Iranian authorities arrested thousands of people. There were also reports of numerous deaths as a result of violence on the part of the authorities and forces fired shots at unarmed protesters.

The Iranian regime attributed the deaths to violence during the protests, or suicide while in custody, and denied that anyone was killed by the authorities. However, witness accounts and information from families suggest otherwise.

The people initially took to the streets to protest against the poor economic and social conditions that they have been exposed to as a result of the Iranian regime’s corruption, but they quickly turned into anti-government demonstrations and calls for regime change.

Regime change is the only solution because the government has had ample opportunity over the past few years to prove that it is capable of reform. Any optimism that the people had has now dissolved. After failed policies of appeasement during the Obama administration, and the opposite approach from the Trump administration, the regime continues to wreak havoc across the Middle East and it has not slowed down on its domestic suppression.

The people of Iran have the unconditional support of the NCRI which is working tirelessly to ensure that the people of Iran are treated with the respect they deserve. It is time the international community did the same.