Fighting for Freedom, Fighting for Women’s Rights: StFX’s Office of Internationalization Hosts Booth to Raise Awareness of Violence Against Women in Iran
/“When one of us is in shackles, none of us are free” - unknown
The Office of Internationalization and Visible @ X teamed up to hold an information booth on the 8th of the 16 Days of Activism campaign. The booth was set up on 2 December from 2-4 pm on the third floor of the Students’ Union Building. I spoke with Lubna Rahman and Dr. Mahasti Khakpour, the organizers and facilitators of the event.
Dr. Mahasti Khakpour is an assistant professor at StFX. She teaches in the Interdisciplinary Health Program, with classes such as “Global Health, Equity & Innovation,” “Foundation of health,” and the Honours Health thesis class.
Lubna Rahman is an International Student advisor at the Office of Internationalization. She advises and supports international students here at StFX.
The booth was part of a global action “Women. Life. Freedom” (Zen. Zendegi. Azadi.) campaign “in solidarity with Iranian women and girls who are courageously demonstrating peacefully for their fundamental human rights” - WomenLifeFreedom.Today.
In my discussion with Ms. Rahman and Dr. Khakpour, I was first made aware of the ongoing situation in Iran. We then explored how a university campus can create awareness and spaces for people to learn about international issues, as well as how important these spaces are for international students and those with close ties to the places impacted.
The situation in Iran
“It has been at least four decades [that] Iranians [have been] fighting for equity for women in Iran,” said Dr. Khakpour. As the Islamic Republic came into power during the Islamic Republic Revolution in 1979, the hijab was deemed compulsory for women living in or travelling to Iran, regardless of faith, religion, or beliefs. This, along with discriminatory laws against women, has resulted in decades of civil unrest and sanctioned acts of violence against women in Iran.
“Apart from the violence against women, and all the discriminatory laws against women, the compulsory hijab was a sign, an obvious sign [of discrimination against women],” Dr. Khakpour stated.
“The Hijab itself isn’t the issue,” pointed out Ms. Rahman, “it’s the compulsory component that makes it discriminatory.”
Dr. Khakpour stated that, “about a decade ago, the One Million Signatures campaign was run by activists in Iran, requesting the basic and equal rights for women to their male counterparts. The rights requested for women during the campaign were the right to divorce, the right of equal custody of children, as well as the choice of where they want to travel, both internally and abroad.” She continued, saying that “in Iran, it is mandatory that the male figure of the family, whether it is the father or the husband, sign the travel document for women to be able to travel abroad.”
The signature-campaign started in 2005, and although it was a form of peaceful protest, it was met with retribution from the government. This only resulted in more civil unrest.
“Alongside this civilized way of requesting and demanding equal rights, there was a lot of arrests and imprisonments among the women activists in Iran. So, every single movement that was happening was being shut down by the government without giving the rights. In its own turn [the arrests and imprisonments] turned into new waves of the protest” said Dr. Khakpour.
In response to the continued discrimination against women and judiciary violence enacted on civil protesters, Iranian women started publicly removing the Hijab on certain days of the week. In 2017, “White Wednesdays” was launched, where Iranian women would wear white scarves instead of the compulsory Hijab or would remove their head covering completely. “It became a rather known movement,” detailed Dr. Khakpour. Women activists across the country were participating and posting on social media with the hashtag white Wednesdays.
Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a then 22-year-young Iranian woman, was met with Hijab police when travelling through Iran with her brother in early September of 2022. Mahsa was arrested and taken into police custody when the police deemed her Hijab inappropriate. In less than 24 hours of being in police custody, she was brought to the hospital, having suffered severe injuries to the head and falling unconscious.
“Her Hijab, like honestly when I saw those photos, was something that many of us wear. She had a scarf on head, a long dress on, so there was nothing revealing about Masha’s situation, that caused this conflict between the moral of the police and Mahsa and brother” shared Dr. Khakpour.
Mahsa’s story and a photo of her in hospital was shared by a female reporter and photographer, Niloufar Hamedi, who had happened to be passing from the same hospital ward as Mahsa. Mahsa had been non-responsive and brain-dead, before passing away two days later.
“As mentioned by her brother, Mahsa repeatedly asked the police to let her go as she did not know anyone in the capital city! We now tell Mahsa and her family, that the world knows about you. Everybody now is repeating your name, associating your name with woman, life, freedom, remembering that you were a woman who could not put trust in government, in police who were supposed to protect [you], and they were the ones who attacked you. As the epitaph says on her grave says “Jina, dear! You will not die! Your name will turn into a symbol,” ” said Dr. Khakpour.
The journalist who had photographed and shared Mahsa’s photo and story, Niloufar Hamedi, was arrested. The government started arresting anyone who passed on the news or talked about the news of Mahsa’s death.
“[The arrests of people going on the news or talking about the news of Mahsa’s death] made people “angrier and angrier,” and “people started coming to the streets,” stated Dr. Khakpour. She continued, saying that, “the movement continues because more people have been killed. About 19,000 people are in jail right now. More than 400 people have been killed, among them about 72 children have been killed. These are deaths that we are aware of. Many we are not aware of. The government of Iran has threatened killing all the 15,000 people they have arrested. This is a real danger to those people because they do execute people without courts and without the presence of an attorney.”
“The whole chant of “Women Life Freedom” became the big chant used in Iran, by repeating Mahsa’s name all the time as well as the names of the people who are being killed,” said Dr. Khakpour.
“Every day my news feed is telling me about a different young person, 19–20-year-old, protester who has been executed without due process and without informing families. The families are just being told where the graves are, and they’re dead, that’s it,” said Ms. Rahman.
The International Student body at X
Lubna Rahman, who worked with Dr. Khakpour to bring the “Women Life Freedom” booth to fruition, brought up the significance of the event to the Iranian community at X, the larger international student body, and the campus community as a whole: “Among the 16 days of activism, this was the only booth that was reflecting an international experience, which I think was very important, not just for the Iranian community, but also for our own community here to learn about something that’s happening beyond our borders. It’s so relevant to our own lives, and I think that was the biggest thing, is that isn’t just something that’s happening far, far away.”
Ms. Rahman also spoke about the international student experience and “authenticity”: “In terms of authenticity, international students are more than just people of different color, people of different language, people with different food…there’s so much more to it than that.”
“The other thing that was really beautiful that came out of this international representation is other international groups of students were saying ‘I love that you did this, and I’ve never felt seen on this campus until I saw that we could talk about what’s happening in our own places. And not just the beautiful parts of culture, where we want to share the food, the dance, but there’s so much more to who we are and where we come from. And there is pain that we want to share.’” An international student from Delhi, India, remarked, “events like these are what really go beyond the formalities that are often characteristic of big institutions like universities in the public eye. I know that I and I think that a lot of international students feel this way.”
“I think this is going to snowball into something really, really beautiful and create a campus that is more inclusive where people from different places can be here, are a part of our community and we can witness their pain and their difficulties along with the things that they bring to our community and the beautiful cultures that they bring into our community,” continued Ms. Rahman, “I think that in creating a campus where people can authentically be themselves, this is a really big step forward.”
After being approached by other groups of international students wanting to do something similar to talk about the issues that are happening in their own countries, Ms. Rahman is working to make this come true. “I am working towards creating a more permanent installation of at least once a month having an international booth in Bloomfield and I’ll be working with the Student Union to make that happen,” she said.
Ms. Rahman commented on the emotional strength required to bring attention to this issue here in Canada and at StFX, as well as the success of the booth.
“Even the event that we had the other day for the 16 days of activism was such an emotional labour for all Iranian students and for you Mahasti to bring [the situation in Iran] to the forefront, but it was important to do it. We had pictures and stories of the people who had lost their lives, at that time, in the peaceful protests to put faces to the numbers, because it’s so important that we do that, that this is not just an arbitrary number, these are young people who are losing their lives, literally risking their lives, to make this story known, and we wanted to acknowledge their bravery and their lives. We had their pictures and stories pasted on the walls behind us, in addition we had a few opportunities for people who didn’t have any idea what was going on to learn about what was happening. We were intentional about creating a space that is a non-judgemental space to learn and acknowledging that not everyone would be aware about what’s happening in Iran,” said Ms. Rahman.
The success of the booth can be attributed to the high level of engagement from the campus community, and the conversational learning that took place. Along with the photos and brochures of stories of the people killed during peaceful protests in Iran, the booth had other opportunities to engage. In other parts of the world, women have been cutting their hair to show solidarity with the women of Iran. At the display in the SUB, a jar offered the opportunity for anyone who wanted to participate to cut a piece of their hair. “Many women and men who came by the booth did [cut a piece of their hair],” mentioned Ms. Rahman. There was also an opportunity to write hand-printed messages to the protesters at the booth, “We saw messages like ‘we see you’ and ‘we hear you’ commemorating the bravery of the peaceful protesters [who] are risking their lives out there.”
“We had such a good turnout. We met lots of people who didn’t know at all what was happening in Iran and had people who were intentionally coming out to support, because they knew what was happening, and they are interested and wanting to be more [involved] in the movement for Iran.”
The Women Life Freedom booth in the SUB was one of many 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence events at StFX. The international campaign was started in 1991 and has since received a large amount of support from the global community, including the UN and other bodies like UN Women. Although Iran was voted out of the UN Commission on the Status of Women by the General Assembly due to its non-compliance with basic women’s rights, the UN and countries around the world are continuing to act in solidarity with the people of Iran.
