Dozens of Iranian activists at home and abroad have called on the international community to boycott the Islamic republic for committing "gender apartheid."
In a statement marking International Women's Day on March 8, more than 40 activists and groups hailed the growing defiance against the mandatory head covering in Iran as an "achievement" of the Women, Life, Freedom movement, which was born out of the deadly 2022 unrest that rocked the country.
More than 500 protesters were killed in the protests that broke out following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman who died in police custody after being detained for allegedly flouting the country's hijab law. Iran's brutal crackdown on the protests has been widely condemned by rights groups.
SEE ALSO: How Mahsa Amini's Death Became A Rallying Call For Thousands Of Iranians"This woman-killing regime has no legitimacy in Iran, and we ask the international community to also delegitimize the regime," the statement from the activists says.
In a separate statement, jailed Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi urged international rights groups to help the women of Iran and Afghanistan by pushing for “the criminalization of gender apartheid” committed by the Islamic republic and the Taliban-led government in Kabul through “systemic and targeted” discrimination against women.
Mohammadi, who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, has been convicted five times since 2021 on various security-related charges and has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.
On March 4, London-based activist Fariba Baluch, who has been advocating for the rights of women and the Baluch ethnic minority in Iran, was awarded the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award.
"This award is not mine, but for all the nameless, courageous girls and women in Iran who are fighting for their basic demands," she told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.
The United Nations' Independent International Fact-Finding Mission asserted in a report on March 8 that Iran's repression of the 2022 protests and "pervasive institutional discrimination against women" had led to serious human rights violations, "many amounting to crimes against humanity."
The fact-finding mission concluded that unless the Iranian establishment implements fundamental changes, member states of the UN Human Rights Council "should explore avenues for accountability at international level and in their domestic systems."
The Islamic republic has long been dismissive of concerns by Western states and rights groups about women's rights in Iran.
"The issue of women is a point of strength in Islam," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an address to a group of women in December 2023. "It should not be thought that we are supposed to be held accountable on the issue of women."