Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, incarcerated since 2021 in Tehran, urged in a letter on Friday to “criminalize gender apartheid”, denouncing “systematic and institutionalized segregation” against women in Iran .
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This letter was published on International Women’s Day.
“The Islamic Republic (of Iran, Editor’s note) uses the most deceitful policies and the most devious methods to apply gender apartheid,” she denounces in this letter.
“The religious and authoritarian character of the Taliban (in Afghanistan, Editor’s note) and the Islamic Republic of Iran imposes a perfidious orientation to systematic and institutionalized segregation against women,” criticizes Ms. Mohammadi.
In Afghanistan, since their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed their restrictive interpretation of Islamic law, increasing restrictive measures against women, a policy described as “gender apartheid” by the UN.
“It is time to criminalize gender apartheid,” urges Ms. Mohammadi in the letter. “We, the women of the Middle East, especially those of Afghanistan and Iran, expect responsible organizations and individuals to act urgently and provide effective support to women’s fight for democracy, freedom and human dignity,” she added.
“We, women of Iran and Afghanistan (…) demand that international institutions, feminist organizations, movements defending democracy, the media and especially the United Nations unambiguously support our fight for our human rights, for freedom (…) by immediately recognizing apartheid based on gender as a crime,” she continues.
Narges Mohammadi is one of the main faces of the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising, which broke out in September 2021 in Iran.
Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight for the promotion of human rights and freedom for all”, she has been repeatedly convicted and imprisoned for 25 years for her commitment against compulsory veil for women and the death penalty in Iran.
Incarcerated since November 2021, she has not seen her husband and her twins living in Paris for several years.