Woman, Life, Freedom - this has been one of the enduring slogans of the Iranian protests that erupted in September 2022, following the death of Jina or Mahsa Amini. The slogan originated as Jin, Jiyana, Azad in Kurdish and is widely used as Zan. Zendegi. Azadi آزادی زندگی زن in Farsi.
The Iranian protests and what is now being called a revolution now have a beautiful and moving soundtrack provided by Shervin Hajipour that he composed based on messages from Twitter in support of the protests in Iran.
There are now numerous videos and versions of the song and, despite his almost immediate arrest after releasing the song, it was reportedly viewed more than 40 million times on Instagram within 2 days, and has been viewed many millions of times since then around the world. The song is also now available sung by Rana Mansour in English here, in German here, in French here and another English version by Shelley Segal from Australia here.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, it has also been a very challenging year, especially for women who have seen almost all their rights and freedoms stripped away since the return of Taliban rule in August 2021. In the past couple of weeks, this has also included indefinite bans on Tertiary Education for women and for women working in the Humanitarian and Development sector.
We would like to highlight the exceptional work of Rukshana Media, an online news agency focused on covering issues that affect the women of Afghanistan, which was started in November 2020. Please click on the titles of any of the following articles to read more:
Family breadwinners being forced into begging on the streets after Taliban bans women from NGOs
'Being a girl is a heavy crime': Afghan women in despair over university ban
"We have been subjected to murder, gang rape, and torture": LBGTQ people after August 15
Please also read more discussion pieces and analysis about the current situation of Afghan women from Rukshana Media both here and here, and we would also like to refer you back to our earlier blog posts about Afghanistan from 2021. Please access them by clicking on the titles below:
Meena - Heroine of Afghanistan
Stories of Hope from Afghanistan
We would also like to highlight the video below from Al Jazeera entitled What Women in Afghanistan want you to Know
Due to massive internet restrictions, protesters in Iran have had to use very creative means to document the progress of their demonstrations and growing revolution. This article in the Conversation explores how many people have been using Tik Tok as a means of citizen journalism in order to share information about the ongoing events in the country. Embedded in the article is also this video presented and directed by BBC Persian's Jiyar Golmade that gives a more detailed and in-depth account of not only recent events but also the historical build-up of protests over the decades since the current regime came to power in 1979:
The protests in Iran recently passed the 100 day mark and this milestone was marked by the latest news from Democracy Now. Please follow the video below that has more details:
Please also find more stories about Iran from Democracy Now here as well as from Iran Wire, a collaborative news website run by professional Iranian journalists in the diaspora and citizen journalists inside Iran here, and from Iran Human Rights, a network of human rights defenders that started in 2005 and is now an NGO housed in Norway, here.
We dedicate this, our last post of 2022, to the courageous women leading revolution in Iran and standing for their rights in Afghanistan, as well as the many, many men standing with them in solidarity. Our greatest wish is for "Women, Life and Freedom" in 2023.
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