KJK demands cancellation of death sentences issued against two Iranian activists

In a written statement, The Coordination of the Kurdistan Women’s Community (KJK) addressed the Iranian authorities' decision to execute women’s rights activists Bakhshan Azizi and Sharifa Mohammadi, who endured severe torture and inhumane practices during their arrest.

KJK stated that the women's struggle cannot be halted by executions and continued:

"Iranian and E. Kurdish women have brought their struggle for existence, identity, and freedom to light with the slogan 'Woman, Life, Freedom' in 2022. As we enter the 21st century, we have witnessed and are living through a process where our discourse about the 'Century of Women - Women’s Revolution,' which we often express through the Kurdish women's movement, has transitioned from being a claim to becoming a material reality. We, Kurdish women, have shown that we have a vision for a true women's revolution by turning this reality from being a dream and claim into a tangible fact. At this stage, the Rojava women’s revolution has become a concrete example of our demands, and this truth has inspired women worldwide. Today, women around the world resist policies of killing women, exploitation, inequality, enslavement, and the reality of a patriarchal state. In this sense, women have raised their voices and shouted the truth of 'Woman, Life, Freedom.'"

The struggle of women affects humanity like a ray of light:

While life has become a nightmare for women and people, women’s resistance has been growing stronger each day. This resistance continues to make it difficult to coexist with a male-dominated regime. The reality of women, which has become a source of fear for the authorities, now gives hope to the people’s struggle and provides strength and faith. Freedom will be achieved with women, and this truth gains deeper meanings and progresses. Globally and locally, all crises created by the patriarchal state try to suffocate life at every moment. They have turned life into a nightmare and destroyed its meaning in this bloody and repressive era. In such a period, women’s struggle impacts humanity like a beam of light.

In a process where organized evil is imposed on women’s lives within the male-dominated system and national state, seeking to destroy all social freedoms and rights, the Iranian regime has issued a death sentence to activist Bakhshan Azizi. The root causes of the crisis surrounding the world and the Middle East lie in the desire to solve problems through repressive methods. Therefore, every rejection developed by women against the regime is a solution to crises and democratic issues. However, hostility toward the people and women imposes democratic, liberatory solutions and insists on policies of repression, massacres, and destruction.

Death sentences against Bakhshan Azizi and Sharifa Mohammadi indicate escalation of chaos:

The death sentences issued against women's rights activists Bakhshan Azizi and Sharifa Mohammadi in E. Kurdistan signify an escalation of chaos. The reasons that drove women to revolution are fundamental human needs as essential as water and air. Today, women's struggle advances with determination and courage in many parts of the world.

The Iranian regime, hostile to women, punishes those participating in freedom protests, enforces mandatory hijab laws as a form of torture, imposes severe penalties on women who persist in their struggle, and enforces absolute subjugation of women. It retaliates against women with decisions like those against the activists. Women have taken to the streets in high-pressure areas. Kurdish women, who have fiercely resisted Turkish fascism for forty years, and the remarkable resistance of women challenging regimes hostile to women such as the Taliban and Iran, reflect this very truth. Countries worldwide attempt to develop moderate and extreme measures to protect their existence against the struggle for women's freedom, maintaining the balance of imposed inequality on women's lives in collaboration with state institutions. The source of inequality is the state itself. For this reason, women’s movements and their struggles for freedom, which oppose and hold the state accountable, are the greatest fears of governments.

The actions of a repressive, gender-biased, and occupying male-dominated regime cannot be an obstacle to women's struggle. The women who have risen against this regime and the struggle presented are the clearest signs of this. In the face of male backwardness and life conditions created by male-supporting regimes, women have no more tolerance left.

The power of women's struggle cannot be defeated by actions such as executions, bans, and torture:

We know and reject repressive practices, coercion policies, killings, arrests, and executions imposed on women's struggle as anti-women policies. The anti-women Iranian regime either does not see or ignores the fact that women have gained resistance power and that it cannot defeat the strength of women's struggle through executions, bans, pressure, and torture.

The struggle of peoples and women against these actions will defeat you. Women have never regretted their struggles and will not retreat. On the contrary, pressures have only made women's resistance stronger. Women in Kurdistan have proven with their determination and enthusiasm that they will not concede their rights through their resistance and are willing to pay any price for it. For this reason, we call on the anti-women Iranian regime to abandon these repressive practices imposed on women.

We emphasize that canceling death sentences and addressing women's legitimate demands is crucial for the very existence of the regime itself. The barbaric policy of executions will not be an obstacle to women's struggle. No matter what the authorities do, women will not abandon their struggle for freedom and democracy. Women's struggle and resistance will not stop despite the worst actions practiced throughout history; rather, it has spread widely. We currently call on all international institutions, democratic entities, women's movements, and democratic figures to express their stance and increase the joint struggle against the actions of the Iranian regime.

A-H

ANHA