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From the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now (IEC):

Actions Worldwide Marking Second Anniversary of Jina Uprising

Revcom.us editors’ note: We received the following from the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now (IEC). 

On the second anniversary of the state murder of Jina Mahsa Amini, police put her parents under house arrest to prevent them from going to the cemetery in the Kurdish town of Saqqez, where her funeral in 2022 inaugurated the uprising when women took off their compulsory headscarves and shouted “Jin Jiyan Azadi” (Woman, Life, Freedom). The regime even went so far as to open channel gates to flood the streets leading to the cemetery.

Women from Kurdistan remember murder of Jina Mahsa Amini.

 

Screenshot from Kurdish women’s video.     Video: @bidarzani

Amid this harsh repression, people found ways to express their resistance. In multiple cities in Kurdistan, shops closed in a general strike on September 15. The day before, a group of Kurdish women posted a video putting out the call for a general strike, while covering their faces with photos of Mahsa and imprisoned women. 

In some cities, like Tehran and Isfahan, four nights of “shouting in the dark” were planned, with people posting videos of the chanting coming from high-rise buildings. Posters, flyers and graffiti were also ways that people took part, and women posted photos of themselves defiantly showing their hair in public.

The most stunning expressions of resistance took place inside Iran’s hellhole prisons. Women political prisoners chanted and burned headscarves in Evin Prison on September 14, and went on hunger strike September 15 (hear the audio and read their statements here).

In the huge Ghezel Hesar prison, where the “Tuesday No to Execution” hunger strikes began in January (and have spread to 22 prisons), reportedly prisoners in the political Ward 4 held a ceremony commemorating Jina and other victims killed by authorities in the 2022 protests. They read poetry and sang, “emphasizing the right to seek justice, and opposition to execution.” Then they chanted:

Graphic from hunger strikers in Iran prisons

 

Graphic: Iran hunger strikers

Hot and furious in prison. 
Death sentences and execution.
Flames on the rise.
Death to Khamenei, damn Khomeini! 

(Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the current Supreme Leader of Iran; Ayatollah Khomeini was the first Supreme Leader)

They showed that even in center of executions and torture, namely Ghezel Hesar, they are not afraid of dictators, as they shouted in one voice: O Khamenei, we will bury you under the ground.

Demonstration on September 21, 2024, by women in Bakur Kurdistan protest violence against women. Posted on Instagram by @bidarzani

In Bakur in Turkish Kurdistan, women's demonstrations on the second anniversary of Jina's uprising protested against violence against women, according to this report from @bidarzani on September 21.

During the past few days, a large number of women in Bakur Kurdistan came to the streets with the slogan “Jin Jiyan Azadi” (Woman, Life, Freedom). The demonstration was formed in protest of the murder of a child by her uncle and the second anniversary of the Jina Uprising. In these demonstrations, Turkish police officers attacked the crowd of protesting women and blocked them, inciting violence and obscenity.

March in Frankfurt, Germany on 2nd anniversary of Mahsa Amini's murder.

 

A march in Frankfurt, Germany, where protests against executions are held every Tuesday in solidarity with prisoners’ hunger strikes.     Photo: @frankfurt_aktion

Marches and rallies were held in over 40 cities in at least 14 different countries. Most of these were relatively small compared to 2022, with significant numbers in Paris and Berlin, mostly Iranians in the diaspora. 

Banner drop for Mahsa Amini in San Francisco

 

Banner drop, San Francisco with inset of banner (with thanks to @QuemarLaJaula for graphic).     Graphic: @QuemarLaJaula,  Composite photo: IEC

In the San Francisco Bay Area in California, the IEC’s participation in a banner drop on September 16 was captured by an IndyBay report titled, “Women, Life, Freedom and Save Gaza!

The beautiful and heroic September 2022 uprising in Iran over the regime's killing of Mahsa (Jina) Amini put the fascist theocrats against the wall. In addition, worldwide support for the "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising shined a light on the regime, seeking to stop its murderous crime against political prisoners; this also helps to counteract the growth of the dangerous stupidity that stands out in the "leftist" movement that the Islamic Republic is an anti-imperialist / anti-US force. NO! The Islamic Republic is reactionary, and the Yankee imperialists are even more so. The people of Iran, mainly women and young people, have chosen another path and are fighting for it on the streets and in the prisons of Iran. They deserve our full support!

In Colombia, vertical banners with this call to stand with uprising of women in Iran appeared in early September. 

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