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Overview
The digital image captures former Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman speaking at a protest held outside Parliament. Protesters stand around her, holding signs of the faces of women killed by the Iranian government, with red paint handprints overlaid on top.
The protesters are supporters of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, which originated in Iran.
Woman, Life, Freedom movement
On September 13th, 2022, a Kurdish-Iranian woman Jina (Mahsa) Amini was arrested and beaten by morality police in Tehran for improperly wearing her hijab. She later died in hospital as a result of her injuries on the 16th of September. The brutality of her arrest and subsequent passing sparked protests across Iran, beginning the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. This slogan, translated from the original Kurdish “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî,” was a rallying cry that originated in the Kurdish women’s movement. The protests were widespread across the country and were violently suppressed by the Iranian Government. Around 22,000 protesters and people connected to them were arrested from 2022 into 2023. Media and communications blackouts were also used to supress and isolate protest action.
In solidarity with the Iranian protestors, organisers around the world – including in Aotearoa New Zealand – staged their own protests against the Iranian government and the oppression of women’s rights in Iran. The global reach of Women, Life, Freedom movement in the wake of Amini’s death is attested to in the squares, streets, and parks named in her memory in cities such as London, Ottawa, Paris, and Vienna. Jina Mahsa Amini and the Iranian women protest movement were awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2023. New Zealand’s formal responses to events in Iran have included sanctions and travel bans on Iranian security forces.