In recent days, Amnesty International reported, “Davoud Abdollahi, from Iran’s Kurdish Sunni minority, was convicted of 'corruption on earth' and sentenced to death after a grossly unfair trial.”
This comes after Iran’s repressive regime banned Mahsa Amini’s family the right to travel to France to receive the prestigious Sakharov Prize, which was awarded to her posthumously.
Sirwan Mansouri, a Kurdish journalist based in the Middle East, added: “The revolution of women, life, freedom in Iran started with the murder of Zhina Amini by the government and the gathering of Kurdish women in the Aichi cemetery in Saqqez city and with the chanting of the slogan 'Zhen, Zian, Azadi in Kurdish language which means Women, Life, Freedom'. At the same time, Kurdistan parties also issued a call for nationwide strikes, and this issue was extended to all of Iran. On the anniversary of the murder of Zhina Amini, a special prize of the European Parliament named the Sakharov Prize was awarded to Zhina Amini and the revolution of women, life, freedom.”
According to him, “It is very natural that the government of the Islamic Republic has always been afraid of Kurdistan and its parties and organized struggles, because Kurdistan has a history of very historical political and civil struggles in Iran, and because of the existence of political parties in this region of Iran, there have been organized struggles. And the government is afraid of this organization. The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran prevented the departure of Zhina Amini's family and did not issue visas to them to receive the Sakharov Prize.
"The government knew that if Zhina Amini's family went to the European Parliament, they would tell the truth and that would harm the government and influence the European Parliament members and public opinion more. Also, this issue could rekindle the flame of revolution in Kurdistan and Iran, which has a heavy cost for the government. The Kurds have always been organized and their struggle to achieve their legitimate rights has been accompanied by freedom and democracy.”
He added: “Today, the name of Zhina, as written on her tombstone, has become a code and has become immortal among people. The people know Zhina Amini's family as their family and consider her as national hero and like their family. It is natural that the government is very sensitive to this issue and tries to cut off people's connection with this family in any way. They are even so scared that they built a wall around her grave to separate it from other graves and broke her tombstone several times.
"The message that the murder of Zhina Amini gave to the world was the violation of women's rights in Iran by the government in various forms, one of the obvious symbols of which is the mandatory hijab, an issue for which Zhina herself was arrested and killed.”
Mansouri stressed: “Zhina Amini's family has always tried to keep this revolution alive in various ways during this one year. The awarding of the Sakharov Prize, which is an important prize at the world level, to Zhina Amini and the women fighters of Iran, once again showed that the revolution of women, life, freedom is still alive and will not stop until the will of the people and women of Iran is met. Even Saleh Nikbakht, the lawyer of Zhina Amini's family, who read the message of Amini's family in the parliament on their behalf and received the award, even after returning to Iran, his mobile phone, passport and commendation certificate of the European Parliament were confiscated from him and he himself was sentenced to one year in prison.
"The international community has a heavy responsibility for the women, life, freedom revolution and the crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and it must help the freedom-loving and democracy-loving movement of the Iranian people, who the women are at the forefront of this struggle, in every possible way, must avoid complacency about the government.”
This is not an isolated case regarding the repression of Kurds in Iran. Karzan Kirkuki, a Kurdish writer, stressed: “A few Kurdish activists were arrested recently because they asked the Iranian government to release an Iranian Kurdish Woman, Zara Muhammadi, who was sentenced to ten years in prison. She was arrested because she taught her students the Kurdish language."
"The Iranian regime arrested her because teaching in the Kurdish language is forbidden. The Iranian regime continues to bomb the Iranian Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan who escaped from Iran, and they force the Kurdistan Regional Government to hand over these opponents. Those Iranian Kurds refused to live under the totalitarian regime of the mullah; however, they cannot live in peace while they are displaced. The Iranian regime is continuing to arrest, prosecute, and execute the Kurdish activists in Iran, and this led to the move of numerous numbers of them into Iraqi Kurdistan and seeking refuge in other countries.”
Following this development, Fulvio Martusciello, head of the Forza Italia Delegation and member of the European Parliament for the EPP Group, asked the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell to ask about the plight of women and minorities in Iran and called upon him to take a stand on this urgent issue. Members of the EU personally called upon Mr. Borrell and the EU Parliament to take a tougher stance against the violations in Iran, especially those of the Azerbaijanis, who constitute the largest ethnic minority group in Iran. They demanded an immediate end to social, ethnic, economic and environmental discrimination against Azerbaijanis and other minorities.
Since the world has not clearly condemned the October 7th Hamas atrocities, in which Jews were the intended victims (they also managed to murder Thai workers and Arabs) and not even the horrific atrocities perpetrated that day against defenseless Israeli women, let us see if perhaps the oppressed Kurds garner some attention.
Rachel Avrahamis the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy and an Israel based journalist. She is the author of "Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media."