Two years have passed since the death of Mahsa Jina Amini and the magnificent and powerful movement of “Women, Life, Freedom.”

In these two difficult and agonizing years, although the wounds have been etched on the bodies of those weary and passionate from oppression, discrimination, and tyranny, and despite the challenging road ahead, we all know that nothing is as it was before. The people feel the greatest change in their beliefs, lives, and society. A change that, while it has not yet brought about a change in the Islamic Republic regime, has shaken the foundations of religious despotism.

This movement has made the reality of people’s estrangement from the government so tangible that a presidential candidate admits in a public debate that we are talking about the 60% of people who were even unwilling to go to the polls.

The “Women, Life, Freedom” movement has redefined the element of people for the despotic government, a definition that has imposed fear on the religious regime. People from Kurdistan to Sistan and Baluchestan and from Tehran to Azerbaijan and Khuzestan stood together, targeting the foundations of tyranny with a unified, multi-voiced stand.

On the second anniversary of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, we reaffirm our commitment to achieving democracy, freedom, and equality and to defeating religious despotism. We will make our voices louder and our wills more resolute.

I call on international institutions and people around the world not only to observe but to take active action. I urge the United Nations to end its silence and inaction in the face of the devastating oppression and discrimination by religious and despotic governments against women by criminalizing gender apartheid. Because freeing women from the clutches of oppression and discrimination empowers the driving force of peace and democracy.

Narges Mohammadi
September 14, 2024
Evin Prison – Women’s Ward