New Delhi: The governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US have called on Iran to end the execution of women and girls in the country, and condemned the country’s renewed “Noor” hijab crackdown, a UK government release stated. The joint statement comes on the two-year anniversary of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died in police custody while being detained for not wearing the hijab properly.
In a joint statement issued by the Anglo-Saxon countries Monday, the countries urged the Iranian government to end the use of force to enforce the hijab requirement, allow civil society to function independently, and end the ongoing crackdown on protests.
The joint statement said, “Two years ago today, Mahsa Zhina Amini, a young Kurdish-Iranian woman, was killed while in police custody in Iran. Her death sparked a nationwide protest movement, led by women and girls, which was unwavering in its demand for a better future.”
“We stand with women and girls in Iran, and Iranian human rights defenders, across all segments of society in their ongoing daily fight for human rights and fundamental freedoms. At least 500 persons died and over 20,000 were detained in the Iranian security forces’ brutal crackdown on displays of dissent in 2022 and 2023. But the global “woman, life, freedom” movement remains united. The Iranian government has yet to address these allegations and has not cooperated with this internationally recognized mandate,” the statement read.
“In daily life, women and girls continue to face severe repression in Iran. The renewed “Noor” hijab crackdown, which enforces Iran’s law requiring women to wear headscarves, has spurred a fresh round of harassment and violence. The Iranian government has bolstered its surveillance infrastructure to arrest, detain, and in some cases torture women and girls for their peaceful activism. According to human rights organisations, Iran is one of the foremost executioners of women globally,” it added.