[spectre] Fwd: Urgent Statement of Solidarity for Iran >>> زن زندگی آزادی (woman, life, liberty)

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Betreff: 	Urgent Statement of Solidarity for Iran >>> زن زندگی آزادی 
(woman, life, liberty)
Datum: 	Sun, 4 Dec 2022 19:24:46 +0100

Dear friends and colleagues,
I hope this email finds you well.

You may be aware of the dire situation in Iran, as the brutal crackdown 
of people who are simply demanding their very basic human rights is 
getting worse by the hour.
Now, a group of artists, writers, and cultural practitioners have 
written a statement to galvanize support and create a unanimous voice 
condemning state violence against Iranian people and demanding an 
immediate end to all threats, detentions, and killings.
We hope you will add your voice and sign the statement. Also, please 
share this urgent plea with all of your colleagues and friends, as 
nothing like a united international front can force politicians to act 
instantly.

Best regards,


https://solidarityiran.wordpress.com/


Urgent Statement of Solidarity for Iran

International Action Is Urgently Needed to Stop Further State Violence 
Against the Iranian People

November 2022

Led by women, Iranians from all walks of life have demonstrated 
determination in standing against state brutality in the past sixty days 
since the killing of 22-year-old woman, Zhina Mahsa Amini, at the hands 
of the Islamic state in Iran. What began as a protest against mandatory 
hejab and decades of systemic human rights violations has now turned 
into the “Woman, Life, Liberty” movement, demanding the end of the 
theocratic rule by an unelected clerical system in Iran.

We, artists, writers, academics, and cultural practitioners from across 
disciplines and various countries, support the call of our Iranian 
colleagues to stand in solidarity with their struggle against the 
repressive and despotic Islamic state in Iran. We, the undersigned, 
unreservedly acknowledge and support the courage of all the women, men, 
and children of Iran in their fight for fundamental human rights and 
their clearly expressed desire to renew the nation’s social contract.

We air our grave concern not only for our colleagues and students in the 
arts and cultural spheres who have stated their demands in several 
actions and open letters, including a recent statement signed by nearly 
6000 Iranian artists and scholars, but for citizens from all over the 
country who face an increasingly brutal, violent, and deadly state 
crackdown, with kidnappings, disappearances, imprisonments, and multiple 
forms of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, torture, and open 
threats of mass executions.

We recognise that the recent terror is not an isolated event. Over the 
last 44 years, the Islamic state’s machinery has resorted to all manner 
of social and cultural injustice, including the oppression of ethnic, 
religious, and sexual minorities, as well as legally sanctioned 
misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia. Since its inception, the 
theocratic system of law in Iran, controlled by the Supreme Leader and 
backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its network of 
oligarchs, has conducted the extermination of those who stand against 
it. Those acts must be recognised as crimes against humanity; their 
perpetrators must face the international courts of law.

Calling the International Community of Artists, Writers and Academics to 
Action

In unison and to support our Iranian colleagues; we, artists, writers, 
academics, and cultural practitioners from across the world, pledge to 
do our utmost to:

– boycott governmental institutions of the Islamic state of Iran and 
their covert affiliates, and prevent them from having any presence in 
international arenas of arts, culture, and education;

– stand against the regime apologists who misappropriate 
anti-imperialist discourses in the west or other parts of the world to 
deflect attention away from the well-documented state violence committed 
against the people;

– support our counterparts and collaborators who stand against the 
atrocities and abuses of human rights in Iran, using our intellectual 
and cultural leverage and capabilities;

– create networks of support for dissidents and those who are being 
targeted, face intimidation, or risk harm at the hands of the regime;

– raise awareness concerning the crimes against humanity committed by 
the Islamic regime in Iran.

In solidarity,


... to sign: https://solidarityiran.wordpress.com/