Gissou Nia, Human Rights Lawyer 
Interviewer: Alyse Nelson, President and CEO, Vital Voices Global Partnership

MPW Next Gen 2022 - Women Led Revolution In Iran

Conferences

we're going to move on to a very important and timely topic. The death of an Iranian woman while in custody of the country's morality police triggered weeks of protests across Iran decrying the religious regime. Demonstrators have faced an increasingly violent response by state security forces. International activists are now taking the fight to the United Nations seeking to have Iran ejected from the U. N. Commission on the status of women. In our next interview, an international human rights lawyer lays out potential lovers to pressure the Iranian government to change its policies. Please welcome human rights lawyer interviewed by Elise nelson, the president and ceo of the Vital voices Global partnership. Good morning everyone. Um I'm so thrilled to be here and if we think about this topic it's I think so relevant for not only the theme right realizing our power nowhere in the world. Is that more on display than in Iran right now, where we are seeing women and girls, the average age of those arrested is 15. So women and girls not only as the spark but also as the engine um for this revolution that's going on there and that has led to solidarity protests around the world and today marks two months from the day that Masa Amini was um well died after a coma in you know after being in the custody of the morality police. So I'm so thrilled to be joined today by one of the world's leading experts on how we can um remove Iran from the commission on the status of women G Sania who is been an extraordinary partner to all of us at vital voices in this campaign, but before we get into that. So I wonder if you could give us a snapshot into Iran right now because obviously this is a country that's cut off from the world, even in a social media era. Um it's hard to get news that we can trust coming out of the country. Yeah, thank you Elise and thank you um to this conference for having me and focusing on this topic. So, um probably a lot of you in the audience have seen, you know, social media posts about what is happening in Iran or at least seen it somewhere in traditional media. Um but essentially this is a feminist uprising. Now the protests have spread to all 31 provinces in Iran. There have been almost 1000 recorded protests. And the significant thing is that this isn't an authoritarian state. So it's not like if we were organizing a protest here and we wouldn't necessarily need to worry about state security forces kill With bullets there these protesters are literally risking their life to talk about their demands for social change. There have been recurring protests in Iran since December 2017 with shortening spaces between each spate of protests. But the very significant thing about this current more than two months long protests is that it really came about because of the outrage around these restrictions on women. It came about because the people of Iran want respect for their basic human rights and dignity. And so it wasn't triggered because of economic considerations or because of water shortages or things that might have been relevant to the prior protests in the past. This is very much at its root a demand for social change and it's now being described as a revolution because with the prior protests, they would eventually peter out. State security forces would come and kill hundreds, if not thousands of people and the protests would end Now, people are in the streets and they're not going home despite the incredible risk. Um gen z is at the forefront of these protests. They were really out on the streets. A lot of people under the age of 25 were leading this and as we saw women and girls, even girls as young as 12, we're taking off their force to job that the state mandates that they wear a head covering um and basically saying death to the dictator, wow, wow! So in so many ways, what's happening in Iran is very much linked to what's happening in Afghanistan. What's happening even here in the United States, what's happening around the world, which is thinking about the fact that women are losing. We are losing if we haven't already lost that right of self determination, right to control our own bodies, our own lives, our own futures, our education, where we work, what we do, and can you talk a little bit about how women around the world have really stepped up um and supported this effort we and and and and I think the value and importance of that, we obviously came together with you um for freedoms, a number of other Iranian women leaders as well as women leaders from around the world. Nobel Laureates, former presidents, current current Heads of State um from Malala yusef side to descend Ardern to Hillary clinton to Oprah. Um And we put out a letter in the new york times. Full page spread in the sunday new york times. I think we have an image of it and that really said we we want the U. N. And Member States to remove the Islamic republic of Iran from the U. N. Commission on the status of women as Mahal said this is one of the most significant bodies um Within the U.N. but one of the most significant bodies where you know leaders and countries come together to look at the advancement and empowerment of women. So one why were they ever even on it in the first place? And why why would it be so historic to get them removed? Yeah. So they were the Islamic Republic of Iran was elected to this commission in 2021. And the thing is these are noncompetitive elections. So there are these different regional blocks at the U. N. They all advanced candidates. And then if there's no competition, everybody who's being advanced will get the open slots here. I think enough U. N. Member States and people who were part member States that were part of eco socks which is kind of the parent body to this this group that really dictates and governs the status of women's rights. Um I think they didn't care enough to come together and say let us encourage the ASia block which the Islamic Republic of Iran is part of to advance another candidate. They had Lebanon china Pakistan. A few candidates move forward. They could have recommended South Korea. They could have recommend there's another country. They could have really put their power behind doing that but it wasn't enough of a priority for them at the time. I think um what does need to happen now though is that the Islamic Republic needs to immediately be removed from the Commission on the status of women. They should have no leadership role in deciding what women's rights are globally and shaping those norms. Um The Islamic Republic is one of the only governments that mandates this sort of discriminatory gender framework to the extent that it does against women. If I was in Iran my testimony would be worth half that of a man in a courtroom. I would have very restricted rights when it comes to marriage, divorce custody, inheritance. I would be forced to cover my hair and wear loose clothing even if I didn't want to and the list goes on and on. Um so it's completely unacceptable. A lot of countries obviously have misogyny patriot. Those are global themes, but the Islamic Republic is definitely an outlier and that it's actually enshrined in their laws, so all of this is legal. Um and and that's very concerning now, what needs to happen is um the Islamic Republic started a four year term on this commission in March 2022. They absolutely need to be kicked off. But this is unprecedented. There has never been a member that has been removed from this commission in the past and there's never been any members that have been removed from any of the eight functional commissions that are part of the U. N. Economic and Social Council of which the CsW has one, but there's a first time for everything and they absolutely need to be king. And this letter definitely, you know, if it's signed by Oprah and Michelle Obama and Malala, it definitely turned attention to this issue. I think people around the world were surprised that the Islamic Republic would be on a commission at the U. N. Actually deciding what women's rights should look like. So we've gotten some very encouraging signs new Zealand Canada, the U. S. Government, the U. K. They have all announced that they intend to kick the I. R. I off the commission on the status of women and we need to make sure that they follow through with putting forward a resolution um to call for the formal removal. And so we'll make sure to do that and we hope to do that before the end of the year. And then we need what, half more than half of the votes 28 I believe of the 54 member states of the Eco stock would have to agree correct. So that's, you know, now it's the campaign and that would happen by when, Well, it could happen at any time. So last week, myself and some of the Iranian women signatories on the letter met with the president of her name is ambassador Story Eva we had a conversation with her, we delivered the letter to her and had a conversation. We've got an image of that as well, I think. Yeah. Um there we go. I think I'm not in there. But yeah, you were taking the photo but were there there was a conversation with her about when this would happen. And what's clear is that echo sauce doesn't need to have a regular meeting for their next regular meeting is in December seven for elections. But this can be done at any time. So it really just depends on the will of a country to want to invest in this and bring this forward. So when vital voices got engaged and I want to go out to all of you if you have questions, um we'd love to get your thoughts. So let me ask one more and then we'll go out to all of you. If you have if you have any questions, please be thinking about them. Um when we got engaged, one of the first things that we do, we work with women leaders around the world across 184 countries. We went out to our network and said, Okay, how can we be supportive? Because you know, you never want to do anything that could backfire our harm. Um and one of the greatest things that we heard was what all we need you to do is amplify our voices. Right? Retweet us repost talk about it. And there was also a feeling that there were not enough women leaders talking. And what was incredible is that as we went out and reached out to all these leaders who signed onto that letter. Now an additional 100,000 people have signed onto the letter to remove the I. R. I. From from the Commission on the status of women. But what was amazing is how quickly women wanted to sign on, which I thought was really interesting that they didn't ask who else has signed. It was like, yes, absolutely, I'm there. Why is that so important to a young woman right now? You know, in Iran probably coming home from a day of protests, why is it so important is that news getting in that things like this are happening. And really it's it's it's women supporting women, you know, the Vice President of the United States, obviously a woman tweeting about this really saying, you know, I'm going to play a leadership role. That was pretty huge talk about what that means inside the country. So it's really important. Um so Iran was an early adopter of the internet, I think they were the second country in the region to adopt the internet. There's a high level of internet penetration, there are disruptions of internet because the state is purposely cutting the internet off because they know that that's a way that people mobilized to protest obviously. Um but among the protesters, they're young girls, you know, 1920 21 they all have Tiktok accounts and it's just indistinguishable from any young person anywhere really. So the barrier between inside Iran and outside, Iran has actually gone away over the past decade, I'd say a decade ago, it was a lot more difficult for me to talk with people all over the country because I couldn't go inside the country and not be arrested. Um but now it's actually a lot easier despite these internet disruptions, everybody uses a VPN kind of circumvent the bands on different sites and they're pretty tech savvy. So they actually see what is going on outside and they're asking us to amplify this and I want to let everybody know that when you post and you share and you talk about it, it isn't this meaningless performative activism. It actually makes such a critical difference because the globe is crisis saturated right now. Um Ukraine Afghanistan reported food shortages. Climate crisis, there's a lot going on when there is a tension on Iran's women and girls actually elevates the priority level for the folks that I meet. So when I meet somebody in the government's foreign ministry or when I meet representatives of the U. N. Member State, it makes a difference to them and they know that they need to prioritize this file. So your shares are not meaningless. They're actually incredibly supporting these women and girls inside the country and those women and girls absolutely see what we're doing on the outside. Right. What what questions does anyone have in the minutes we have remaining. Yes. Sorry, coming to you with microphone, please introduce yourself. Hi, I'm Jacqueline Brown. Hi, I'm Jacqueline Brown from Workday. I have a question about the I understand the uh the protests and getting um ri off of this commission. How does that change the women's rights in this country by doing that. That's one question. And how do you protect the protesters out there in the meantime, as you go through this process? Yeah. So that's one strand of I would say a multi pronged strategy on how to help protesters on the inside of the country. There are so many different efforts to try to build an economic base for the protesters because a lot of the workers at oil refineries and whatnot are going on strike, but they can't necessarily afford to go on strike. Right? So there's that sort of like economic prom there are efforts to bring free and easy to access internet inside the country, can't give too many details on some of these things for reasons you might appreciate. But there are a lot of efforts to support the protesters and then there are the efforts that we can do from the outside that involve multilateral institutions like the U. N. So the thing about kicking the I. R. I. Off the Commission on the status of women is that the Islamic republic has used that body and that platform as a way to shape the norms from the inside. Their position is that women's place is only in the home and that we should only be in the domestic sphere. And so they hold a lot of side events at the U. N. In New york in Geneva and discuss this and I know it might sound a bit odd to us, but there are receptive ears across the world who say, yeah, you know, that's right, we kind of see the truth in that. So I think our aim is to ensure that they don't have a leadership position on a body that is influential in deciding what U. N. Women for example should work on the agency. Um but it's a separate effort from looking at how to support protesters in their daily effort to take to the streets and I should note that unfortunately there are more than 15,000 individuals who have now been arrested since the start of the protests two months ago. A lot of them are facing torture in custody. A lot of them are gonna be sentenced to long draconian sentences for nothing more than peaceful protest. And some of them are even being sentenced to execution and that's simply for exercising their freedom of expression, assembly and association. So we need to make noise for them and ensure that that doesn't happen. Thank you. Thank you for the very good question. Just I think in wrapping up um you can certainly all of you in this room you have power. You have voice, we need you to amplify the voices of these women. Um We need you to join this campaign. You can go to woman life freedom dot today or you can go to our website at vital Voices dot org. Sign on to the petition on our website. We also have content ready made content for you to post on your social media. Please do it. And what else can they do? So in these last minute or so what else can people do in this room to be supportive? Well if you're really motivated, you could write or tweet at R. U. N. Representatives or at secretary Blinken or at linda thomas Greenfield and say that you want the I R. I kicked off the commission on the Status of Women today. And if any of you live in other countries, please treat at your representatives as well. So that would help a lot. Great thank you and thank you so much. Thank you.