Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi on Sunday urged the United Nations to criminalize gender apartheid, in a message from prison on the second anniversary of Iran's 'Woman, Life Freedom' movement.
The protests erupted after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, died in the custody of Iran's so-called "morality police" on September 16, 2022. She had been arrested in Tehran for allegedly violating the country's mandatory hijab law. Her death, which came amid allegations of police brutality, ignited months of nationwide protests in Iran, led predominantly by women and young people demanding greater rights and freedoms.
"The 'Woman, Life, Freedom' movement has redefined the people's role in confronting tyrannical rule, imposing a new understanding that instills fear within this theocratic regime," Mohammadi said in her letter from Evin Prison.
On the second anniversary of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, Mohammadi's letter said, "we reaffirm our commitment to achieving democracy, freedom, and equality and to defeating theocratic despotism."
The Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate's letter was published shortly after thirty-four women prisoners including Mohammadi went on hunger strike in Evin Prison to mark two years since protests erupted in 2022.
In her Sunday letter, Mohammadi urged the United Nations "to end its silence and inaction in the face of the devastating oppression and discrimination by theocratic and authoritarian governments against women by criminalizing gender apartheid."
"The liberation of women from the grip of oppression and discrimination is essential for empowering the force that drives peace and democracy," she said.
The concept of gender apartheid emerged from Afghan women's human rights defenders in response to the Taliban's suppression of women's rights in the 1990s.
However, Iranian activists have been joining the campaign after widespread protests against compulsory hijab laws which have seen brutal crackdowns by morality police, including the deaths of women including Mahsa Amini.
Women such as Iranian-American dissident activist Masih Alinejad, have played a pivotal role in amplifying and broadening the campaign's reach. She has been the subject of multiple assassination attempts abroad by the regime as it continues to target dissidents both at home and on foreign soil.
In June, human rights group Amnesty International joined a campaign against gender apartheid amid continued nationwide oppression in Iran and Afghanistan. The group says it aims to strengthen efforts against “institutionalized regimes of systematic oppression and domination imposed on the grounds of gender.”