Urgent Statement of Solidarity for Iran
November 2022
Led by women, Iranians from all walks of life have demonstrated determination in standing against state brutality in the past sixty days since the killing of 22-year-old woman, Zhina Mahsa Amini, at the hands of the Islamic state in Iran. What began as a protest against mandatory hejab and decades of systemic human rights violations has now turned into the “Woman, Life, Liberty” movement, demanding the end of the theocratic rule by an unelected clerical system in Iran.
We, artists, writers, academics, and cultural practitioners from across disciplines and various countries, support the call of our Iranian colleagues to stand in solidarity with their struggle against the repressive and despotic Islamic state in Iran. We, the undersigned, unreservedly acknowledge and support the courage of all the women, men, and children of Iran in their fight for fundamental human rights and their clearly expressed desire to renew the nation’s social contract.
We air our grave concern not only for our colleagues and students in the arts and cultural spheres who have stated their demands in several actions and open letters, including a recent statement signed by nearly 6000 Iranian artists and scholars, but for citizens from all over the country who face an increasingly brutal, violent, and deadly state crackdown, with kidnappings, disappearances, imprisonments, and multiple forms of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, torture, and open threats of mass executions.
We recognise that the recent terror is not an isolated event. Over the last 44 years, the Islamic state’s machinery has resorted to all manner of social and cultural injustice, including the oppression of ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, as well as legally sanctioned misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia. Since its inception, the theocratic system of law in Iran, controlled by the Supreme Leader and backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its network of oligarchs, has conducted the extermination of those who stand against it. Those acts must be recognised as crimes against humanity; their perpetrators must face the international courts of law.
Calling the International Community of Artists, Writers and Academics to Action
In unison and to support our Iranian colleagues; we, artists, writers, academics, and cultural practitioners from across the world, pledge to do our utmost to:
- boycott governmental institutions of the Islamic state of Iran and their covert affiliates, and prevent them from having any presence in international arenas of arts, culture, and education;
- stand against the regime apologists who misappropriate anti-imperialist discourses in the west or other parts of the world to deflect attention away from the well-documented state violence committed against the people;
- support our counterparts and collaborators who stand against the atrocities and abuses of human rights in Iran, using our intellectual and cultural leverage and capabilities;
- create networks of support for dissidents and those who are being targeted, face intimidation, or risk harm at the hands of the regime;
- raise awareness concerning the crimes against humanity committed by the Islamic regime in Iran.
Access to the original page of the statement through the link below:
