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This image was taken at a rally organised by the Iranian Solidarity Group New Zealand and held at Wellington's Cuba Mall on 16 October 2022. Just a month earlier, the death of Jina Mahsa Amini had sparked protests in Iran and the global Woman, Life, Freedom Movement. In this photograph, a woman with the colours of the Iranian flag painted across her left cheek is lifted up to the sky by fellow supporters of the movement.
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 from her injuries in hospital 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 and was used alongside other anti-regime slogans. The protests, which were widespread across the country, were violently suppressed by the Iranian Government leading to the arrest of around 22,000 protesters and people connected to them from 2022 into 2023. Media and communications blackouts were another tactic used to supress and isolate protest action.
In solidarity with the Iranian protesters, organisers around the world – including in Aotearoa New Zealand – staged their own protests against the Iranian government, execution of protesters, and oppression of women’s rights in Iran. The global reach of Woman, 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 also awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2023 and featured on the cover of Time Magazine. To date, New Zealand’s formal responses to events in Iran have included condemnation and travel bans.