Prominent human rights advocate Narges Mohammadi has called on Iranian women to flood the country's streets with female symbols to mark International Women's Day amid monthslong anti-regime protests sparked in large part by the government's treatment of women.
I ask you to to "conquer the streets with feminine and maternal symbols and signs, with the splendor and vitality of women," the Iranian activist wrote in a message on March 8 from Tehran's notorious Evin prison where she is serving a 16-year sentence for establishing and running a human rights movement that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty.
Iranians have flooded the streets across the country in protest since the death in September of Mahsa Amini while in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly, with women and even schoolgirls making unprecedented shows of defiance in what appears to be the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.
Mohammadi said in her March 8 message that the government’s brutal crackdown against the protests revealed the country's "significant gap" between the state and women.
“The core issue between the government and women is beyond the realm of politics...The fundamental conflict between the two is in a domain that surpasses the political sphere,” Mohammadi wrote.
“Mahsa’s death is a reflection of the truth and a vivid illustration of why we are battling against the authoritarian religious regime,” she added.
Several other Iranians also published messages on social media noting the added significance of International Women's Day in Iran this year given the prominent role women are playing in the protests.
“From the day when women became scouts, girls burned their scarves of captivity, and boys and men stood shoulder to shoulder, the breaths of the child-murdering government became numbered,” activist and journalist Masih Alinejad wrote on Twitter.
The authorities have responded to the unrest over Amini's death with a deadly crackdown that rights groups say has killed more than 500 people, including 71 children.
Officials, who have blamed the West for the demonstrations, have vowed to crack down even harder on the protests.
Several thousand people have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.
