Protesters shout slogans as they try to march to Taksim Square during a rally marking the International Women's Day in Istanbul, Turkey, 08 March 2023 (IMAGE SOURCE, EPA)

International Women's Day: Istanbul women defy ban on protests
By Emily McGarvey, BBC News, March 8, 2023

Thousands of Turkish women have defied a ban on protests on International Women's Day and rallied in the city of Istanbul for what they called a "feminist night march".

Police prevented them from reaching Taksim Square in the city centre but allowed them to carry on with their march for a while, although later they used tear gas to disperse them.

Several people were detained by police at the march. The main opposition Republican People's Party marked the occasion by releasing a report that said that more than 600 women had been killed in Turkey by men since 2021, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan withdrew the country from the Istanbul Convention.

The treaty aims to combat domestic violence.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64897655

What explains mysterious poisonings of schoolgirls in Iran?
The persisting lack of clarity has led to wide-ranging speculation as to who is poisoning the students.
By Maziar Motamedi, Al Jazeera, 1 Mar 2023 Tehran, Iran

– Hundreds of schoolgirls in several cities in Iran have been mysteriously poisoned in the past three months, causing a wave of anger and confusion across the country. It all started in late November in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, when about 50 female students fell ill and had to be transported to the hospital. Most were released a short time later, but several had to be kept for observation for days. A lawmaker told an open session of parliament this week that girls in up to 15 cities have been affected but did not name them....

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/1/why-are-schoolgirls-being-mysteriously-poisoned-in-iran?traffic_source=KeepReading

Iran investigates poisoning of hundreds of schoolgirls with toxic gas
By Maryam Afshang, BBC Persian, Feb 28, 2023

Parents are afraid to send their girls to school and are calling for online lessons Almost 700 girls have been poisoned by toxic gas in Iran since November, in what many believe is a deliberate attempt to force their schools to shut. No girls have died, but dozens have suffered respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness and fatigue.

"It became evident that some people wanted all schools, especially girls' schools, to be closed down," the deputy health minister said on Sunday....

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64797957

How Iran’s Ayatollahs could lose to the champions of ‘women, life, freedom’

The movement that’s grown around Mahsa Amini’s memory is unlike any other in Iran’s history. Clerical rulers, and the world, are watching to see where it leads
by Sally Armstrong, Feb 4, 2023, The Globe and Mail

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-how-irans-ayatollahs-could-lose-to-the-champions-of-women-life-freedom/

Prof Ismail Mashal was detained on Thursday while handing out free books.

Ismail Mashal: Taliban arrests Afghan professor who backed girls' education

Prof Ismail Mashal was arrested while giving out free books in Kabul
By Tiffany Wertheimer, Fab 3, 2023, BBC News

A university professor in Afghanistan who is an outspoken critic of the Taliban's ban on education for women and girls has been arrested in Kabul.

He rose to prominence after he tore up his academic records live on television in protest against the Taliban's ban on university and secondary school education for women and girls.

Prof Mashal, 37, has been accused of "provocative actions" by the Taliban....

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64509867

Iranian women chant during a protest condemning the Shiraz attack and unrest in Tehran, Iran October 28, 2022
(photo credit: WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY/REUTERS)

Iranians stand firm in fight for freedom, wonder ‘where is the West?’

Iranians inside and outside of Iran about their determination to stay the course, support from members of the armed forces, and the Islamist regime’s secret fears of losing control
By Felice Friedson/Sara Miller, The Media Line, January 18, 2023

Western nations such as the members of the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US) and entities such as the European Union have imposed sanctions on the Iranian regime and officials within it due to human rights violations against the protesters. The United Nations also removed Iran from its Commission on the Status of Women in December 2022.

Yet 16 weeks is a long time in the global news cycle and except for particularly grave developments such as the execution of protesters, other world events have taken precedence on front pages. And while the world may be – as Iranians lament – largely looking the other way, Iranian protesters are still engaged in a fight for their lives, for their rights, and for their freedoms as their subjugators take advantage of the international ennui to crack down even further.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-728908

Iran protests: Jailed activist Sepideh Qolian describes brutality in letter
Sepideh Qolian says a wing of Evin prison has been turned into a 'torture and interrogation' building
By Feranak Amidi, BBC World Service, Jan 10, 2023

One of Iran's most prominent female activists has described how confessions are forced out of prisoners, in a letter written inside a notorious jail....

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64225902

Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Taliban orders all Afghan women to wear head-to-toe clothing in public Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan
Calling all Vancouverites!

Come stand in solidarity with Afghan women and join a protest rally this Sunday:
January 8th at 1:00pm
Vancouver Art Gallery

Join the rally to unite against oppression and violence faced by Afghan women under the Taliban.

https://cw4wafghan.ca/

______________________________________________

TIME 2022
HEROES OF THE YEAR
WOMEN OF IRAN

by Azadeh Moaveni, Time, Dec 8 2022

In the winter of 2017, a young woman called Vida Movahed stood on top of a utility box on Revolution Street, a busy artery of central Tehran, and dangled her white headscarf on a stick. As an act of dissent, it was strikingly peaceful, giving the appearance of a white flag of surrender. Still, by not wearing her hijab, Movahed was challenging the system’s dress codes. She stayed there for an hour, until she was arrested for breaking the law. Imagery of her silent, brave act raced around Instagram. A month later, a graduate student named Narges Hosseini performed the same defiant act on the same street. Soon, more women launched similar protests, and their movement took the name of where it all began: #TheGirlsofRevolutionStreet....

https://time.com/heroes-of-the-year-2022-women-of-iran/

Adela wants more Afghan men to join women in their fight for education

Afghanistan: Woman protests Taliban's education ban with single word of God
Adela protesting against the ban on women to get higher education

By Noor Gul Shafaq, BBC World Service, 30 December 2022

Adela held her protest in front of the gate of Kabul University but it was stopped within 15 minutes

"I did not feel any fear because I believed that my demand is just," said a defiant 18-year-old Afghan woman whose ambition to get a university degree has been frustrated by the Taliban's ban on women in higher education.

Angered at the prospect of seeing her future disappear, the woman (whose name we have changed for her safety) staged an extraordinary solo protest in front of Kabul University, invoking words from the Quran.

On Sunday 25 December, Adela stood in front of the entrance holding up a board with a particularly powerful word written on it in Arabic - iqra, or 'read'.

Muslims believe this was the first word revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by God. "God has given us the right to education. We need to be afraid of God, not the Taliban who want to take away our rights," she told the BBC Afghan service.

"I knew that they treat the protesters very badly. They beat them, hit them, use weapons - they used Tasers and water cannon on them. But still I stood in front of them....

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64129401

AVAAZ PETITION

Iran: Stop the Crackdown:
To the Organization of Islamic Conference, the Non-Aligned Movement, and all UN member states:

As citizens of Iran and countries around the world united in common appeal, we call on you to condemn the violent crackdown on peaceful Iranian protesters, and withhold recognition of any new government until the Iranian people's rights to peaceful protest, justice and democratic process are protected.

Click here to sign:
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/iran_stop_the_crackdown/

Revolt of the Year: The Iranian Women Uprising
The Islamic Republic’s theocratic elite are on the ropes
by Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani, New Republic, Dec 29, 2022

It takes a special kind of coward to kill a child and steal the body. To execute someone, and only tell their family afterward. To shoot at people chanting the word “freedom,” and shut off the internet in hopes that no one will find out. In the last three months, the Islamic Republic of Iran has done all of this and more.

It is hard to explain to those who have never lived under the Islamic Republic just how many ordinary things are illegal. If you are born a girl, from the age of nine, you must wear a headscarf everywhere you go. Men’s dress is policed too: no shorts, tank tops, or hair that is un-Islamic. You cannot dance in public, and if you are a woman, you cannot sing either. You cannot hang out with anyone of the opposite gender who you are not directly related to (and under the Islamic Republic, there are only two genders). Same-sex relationships are illegal, and leaders pretend that gay people do not exist. Music, art, and cinema is illegal if the regime decides it is. Half the internet is filtered by government censors, and virtual private networks, though prevalent, are illegal too.

And of course, do not forget the morality police. On September 16, Iranians were reminded yet again of their bleak reality, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, known to her loved ones by her Kurdish name Jina, died in police custody.

In English-language media, it is often written that Amini was arrested by the morality police due to her improper hijab. But by all accounts, she was wearing nothing out of the ordinary. She was visiting family in Tehran, and at the time of her arrest, she was with her brother. Her brother later shared a photo of what Amini was wearing. There were no bright colors. She was wearing a full headscarf, with only a bit of hair showing, and a loose, long manteau covering her body. Iranians, especially those in the capital, regularly get away with far worse.

But there is no logic in the Islamic Republic’s rules, or in whom the morality police chooses to target. And that day, the police decided to take Jina from her family.

Two hours after her arrest, Amini lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital. After three days in a coma, she died. Iranian authorities tried to blame her death on preexisting conditions, though Amini’s father said she had none. Later reports revealed that she had actually suffered repeated blows to her head, causing bone fracture, hemorrhage, and brain edema.

When Iranians learned of the news, their country changed forever. For the last three months, they have been protesting every day. A lot has already been written about how this uprising is different from any others the country has seen. Protests are taking place across the country, and led by provinces home to ethnic minorities like Kurdistan and Sistan-Baluchistan. Women and girls are taking their hijabs off and walking boldly down the street, as if the laws have already changed. And young people are at the forefront of every protest. The loudest chant since the very beginning has been an old Kurdish slogan against state oppression, which has also been translated into Farsi, thus recognizing the precarious lives of women and ethnic minorities in Iran: Jin, jiyan, azadi. Zan, zendegi, azadi. Woman, life, freedom. It is a simple chant, but it is a subversive one.

The Islamic Republic has responded exactly like a regime that knows it is at its end: with brute force and desperation. When a woman ate breakfast without a hijab in her neighborhood, she was arrested. When a rapper predicted the end of the regime, he was arrested. Two protesters have been executed, after sham trials and charges like “waging war with God.” When an actress in an Oscar-winning movie criticized the first executions, she too was arrested.

Hundreds of protesters have been blinded. Women in prison are asking for birth control because of mass sexual assault. Doctors helping injured protesters have been tortured and killed. And for every revolutionary photo of a woman, girl, or child defying the authorities, there is news of another one killed.

In its attempts to prove it did not kill Amini, the regime has killed at least 500 others, around 70 of them children. More than 18,000 people have been arrested. All of these numbers are expected to be higher, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. The two women who reported on Amini’s death, Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, were arrested some time ago, but earlier this month, so was their lawyer.

But the truth is simple: Everyone cannot be arrested. The prisons are not big enough, even if they burn them to the ground and rebuild them. And the people have been clear: For every person killed, there are 1,000 more behind them. Every funeral has turned into its own protest; every person killed becomes another reason to resist the state. And this cycle will continue, until the people’s demands are met.

For 43 years, since the very beginning of the Islamic Republic, Iranians have been living in fear. Not the fear you feel when you walk alone late at night, or the fear that someone may break into your house. The thieves are already inside the house. They are taking all your things, and you are searching for just one corner in which to stay safe. It is a fear that permeates every ordinary decision you make, and makes you feel a little bit uneasy anywhere you go. You hide your joys, your sorrows, your anger. Because if you are too loud, they will come for you next.

But for once, it is no longer the people’s turn to be afraid. Earlier this month, Iran was kicked off the U.N. women’s rights commission, a sharp international rebuke of this regime’s atrocities. Inside the country, there have already been three three-day total economic shutdowns, bringing everything to a standstill—and the pace at which the strikes are occurring is increasing. One of Iran’s most prominent political prisoners recently released a letter encouraging the people: “This revolution is inevitable.”

Amini’s death unleashed in all Iranians an anger that has been building for 43 years, because we knew she could have been any of us. She was all of us. She is Nika, Sarina, Hadis, and Mona; Kian, Khodanur, Mohsen, and Majidreza. She is every political prisoner, every Iranian who has been forced into silence or into the diaspora, every person who dreams of a better future. In the name of the God of rainbows, may this finally be the end.

https://newrepublic.com/article/169711/iranian-women-uprising-revolt-year-2022

“Women, Life, Freedom!” Protect the Protest in Iran
Amnesty International Dec 2022

“Please be our voice… We are standing firm in the streets. We are risking our lives on the street [protesting], please please stand up for us.” Protester from Esfahan, Iran

Sign and share the global petition.

Nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, are being met with a brutal and deadly crackdown.

Leaked official documents reviewed by Amnesty International outlined the Iranian authorities’ plan to systematically crush the protests at any cost. Security forces have fired live ammunition at close range, misused tear gas and water cannons, and severely beaten people.

Over fifty men, women and children have been killed and hundreds injured on the streets. Without determined collective action by the international community, countless more face the reality of being killed, maimed, tortured, sexually assaulted or thrown behind bars solely for their participation in protests.

On September 13, 2022, Mahsa Amini was arrested in Tehran by Iran’s so-called “morality” police for not complying with the country’s abusive, degrading and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws. Eyewitnesses reported seeing her being violently beaten in a police van.

Within hours, she was taken to hospital in a coma. Three days later she died. Mahsa’s death sparked widespread protests across Iran. “Jin, jiyan, azadi!” was the chant soon heard on the streets of Iran by marching protestors for “women, life, freedom” and an end to patriarchal control by the state.

While the protests now include broader demands for justice, human rights in Iran, and for the regime to go, the call to “Say her name: Mahsa Amini” echoes loudly around the world. The people of Iran are bravely defying security forces even in the face of Iranian authorities who continue to mobilize their machinery of repression to thwart any challenge to the establishment. And despite the cover of deliberate ongoing internet disruptions, reports and images of the deadly crackdown continue to reach us.

Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people around the world – including in cities across Canada – marched in solidarity with the protesters in Iran who are risking their lives to demand change. This global outpouring of rage and empathy must now translate into concrete actions.

What You Can Do

Sign and share the global petition calling on the United Nations to set up an independent mechanism to investigate and ensure accountability for the most serious crimes under international law in Iran. Show your solidarity on social media.

Despite the government’s disruption of the internet and forced blackouts, social media (particularly Twitter and Instagram) is vital as an alternative to state controlled media in countries like Iran. Share Amnesty’s latest press releases, social media graphics, images of local demonstrations and your personal messages of solidarity.

Take a selfie or group photo holding a sign or record a video saying “Women, Life, Freedom”. Use the hashtags #MahsaAmini #مهسا_امینی (the second one is her name in Persian). Although we were initially also using hashtags that referenced “protest” such as #ProtectTheProtest or #IranProtests, please avoid those for now.

Graphics and short videos can be found in this FOLDER.

Amnesty’s recent press release and reports are listed HERE.

Attend the ongoing demonstrations across Canada.

Stay tuned! We’ll add more ideas soon.

https://www.amnesty.ca/blog/women-life-freedom-protect-the-protest-in-iran/

Afghanistan: Male Afghan Students Boycott Classes, Protest Women's Education Ban
The male students have put forward a strong opposition to attending classes until they are open for female students as well.
World NewsAsian News International, December 26, 2022
The ban led to widespread protests and global condemnation.

Kabul: Following the Taliban's ban on university education for girls, the male students in the country have boycotted their classes condemning the suspension of higher education for women, Tolo news reported on Sunday.

The male students have put forward a strong opposition to attending classes until they are open for female students as well.

"We will continue our boycott and if the female classes are not reopened, we will also boycott our lessons and will not continue education," said Muzamel, a student over Taliban's ban on women's education in the country....

These restrictions culminate with the confinement of Afghan women and girls to the four walls of their homes.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/male-afghan-students-boycott-classes-protest-womens-education-ban-3638165

Protesters in Tehran (01/10/22) GETTY IMAGES

Iran protests: 'No going back' as unrest hits 100 days

Protests began in Iran's Kurdish region and spread across the country By Parham Ghobadi, BBC Persian, Dec 25 2022

A hundred days after they began, the longest running anti-government protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution have shaken the regime, but at a heavy cost to the people.

More than 500 protesters, including 69 children, have been killed, according to the Human Rights Activists' News Agency (HRANA).

Two protesters have been executed and at least 26 others face the same fate, after what Amnesty International calls "sham trials".

Although nationwide demonstrations have swept Iran before - once in 2017 lasting until early 2018, and another in November 2019 - the current protests are unique, as they involve people from across society and women are taking a lead role under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom"....

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64062900

Afghanistan: Foreign aid groups halt work after Taliban ban on female staff

The aid groups say the ban on female staff is a direct threat to their lifesaving work

By Natasha Preskey & Neggeen Sadid, BBC News, Dec 25 2022

Three major non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have halted work in Afghanistan after women were banned from working for them by the Taliban.

In a joint statement, Care International, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Save the Children said they would be unable to continue their work "without our female staff". The aid groups are "demanding" that women can continue to work for them. Afghanistan's ruling Taliban have been steadily repressing women's rights... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64090549

Afghanistan: Taliban bans women from working for NGOs
By Aalia Farzan, Neggeen Sadid & James FitzGerald
BBC News, Dec 24 2022

An order by the Taliban banning women from working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has been condemned by the United Nations, which said the move violated fundamental rights.

The Islamist rulers justified the move by saying female NGO staff had broken dress codes by not wearing hijabs.

The decree comes just days after female students were banned from universities.

The US Secretary of State also criticised the move saying it would be "devastating for the Afghan people". Female Afghan NGO workers acting as the main earners in their household told the BBC of their fear and helplessness.

One asked: "If I cannot go to my job, who can support my family?" Another breadwinner called the news "shocking" and insisted she had complied with the Taliban's strict dress code.

A third woman questioned the Taliban's "Islamic morals", saying she would now struggle to pay her bills and feed her children.

"The world is watching us and doing nothing," said another female interviewee.

The BBC is not publishing the women's names in order to protect them. Saturday's order came in a letter from the Ministry of Economy to both national and international NGOs. It threatened to cancel the licence of any organisation that did not swiftly comply.

By way of explanation, it said women were breaking Sharia law by failing to wear the hijab.

The move has sparked international outrage, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying he was deeply concerned, adding that it "will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions". "Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people," Mr Blinken said.

It was also described as a "clear breach of humanitarian principles" by a senior United Nations official. UN agencies have a significant presence in the country, carrying out relief and development work.

An urgent meeting of the Humanitarian Country Team was planned for Sunday to respond to the news. An employee of Save the Children told BBC News the organisation was planning to meet Taliban authorities, saying that if women were not allowed to work then some NGOs would have to close.

It is also feared that Afghan women could be left unable to receive aid directly, if organisations are only allowed to employ men.

Taliban rules prevent men from working with women. Female employees were "essential" for reaching other women and girls, explained Melissa Cornet from Care International. She added: "Without them, the humanitarian situation might deteriorate rapidly, in a situation where most of the country is already facing life-threatening levels of hunger." ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64086682

Taliban ban Afghan women from university education
Higher education ministry issues indefinite order three months after thousands sat entrance exams

Afghan female students take entrance exams at Kabul University in October Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty

Hikmat Noori and agencies in Kabul Tue 20 Dec 2022

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered an indefinite ban on university education for the country’s women, the ministry of higher education said in a letter issued to all government and private universities. “You all are informed to implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice,” said the letter signed by the minister for higher education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Ziaullah Hashimi, who tweeted the letter, confirmed the order in a text message to Agence France-Presse. female teacher and pupils in an classroom in Afghanistan ‘Robbed of hope’:

Afghan girls denied an education struggle with depression “My female students are distraught and I don’t know how to console them,” said Meena, 52, a lecturer in Afghanistan who used a pseudonym for fear of retaliation.

“One of them moved to Kabul from a remote province, overcoming so many hardships, because she got into a prestigious university here. All her hopes and dreams were crushed today.” ...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/20/taliban-ban-afghan-women-university-education

Iran: Famous Iranian actress arrested after supporting protesters Taraneh Alidoosti was jailed after she expressed solidarity with a man recently executed over protests.

Aljazeera, 17 Dec 2022

Iranian authorities arrested one of the country’s most famous actresses on charges of spreading falsehoods about nationwide protests that grip the country, state media said on Saturday.

The report by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said Taraneh Alidoosti, star of the Oscar-winning movie, The Salesman, was jailed a week after she made a post on Instagram expressing solidarity with the first man recently executed for crimes allegedly committed during the nationwide protests.

IRNA also said several other Iranian celebrities had ″been summoned by the judiciary body over publishing provocative content″.

It did not say how many or provide further details.

According to the report published on the state media’s official Telegram channel, Alidoosti was arrested because she did not provide “any documents in line with her claims”.

In her post, the 38-year-old actress said, ”His name was Mohsen Shekari. Every international organisation who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action, is a disgrace to humanity.”

Shekari was executed December 9 after being charged by an Iranian court with blocking a street in Tehran and attacking a member of the country’s security forces with a machete.

Speedy death sentences Last Week, Iran executed a second prisoner, Majidreza Rahnavard, in connection with the protests. Rahnavard’s body was left hanging from a construction crane as a warning to others.

Iranian authorities alleged Rahnavard stabbed two members of its paramilitary force. Both men were executed less than a month after they were charged, underscoring the speed at which Iran now carries out death sentences imposed for alleged crimes related to the demonstrations.

Activists have said at least a dozen people have been sentenced to death in closed-door hearings.

Alidoosti has made at least three posts on her Instagram account expressing solidarity with protesters since the demonstrations broke out in September.

Her account, which had some eight million followers, has been suspended.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/17/iran-authorities-arrest-actress-of-oscar-winning-movie

Iran: FIFPRO ‘sickened’ by Iranian footballer death sentence reports

The Iranian judiciary has said no sentence has been issued as footballers call for a stop to executions.

By Maziar Motamedi
Aljazeera, 13 Dec 2022

Tehran, Iran – The international football players’ union FIFPRO has said that it is “sickened” by reports that an Iranian footballer has been sentenced to execution, despite a denial from the Iranian judiciary.

“FIFPRO is shocked and sickened by reports that professional footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani faces execution in Iran after campaigning for women’s rights and basic freedom in his country,” the federation said in a tweet, calling for the removal of his punishment. ...

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/13/fifpro-sickened-by-iranian-footballer-death-sentence-reports

Iran protests: Family of football legend Ali Daei stopped from leaving
BBC News, Dec 26, 2022
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64097382

Majidreza Rahnavard: Iran carries out second execution over protests
By David Gritten & Sam Hancock
BBC News, Dec 12, 2022

... The judiciary's Mizan news agency said Rahnavard was hanged "in the presence of a group of Mashhadi citizens" and posted several pre-dawn photographs reportedly showing the execution.

In two of the photos, a man could be seen hanging from the cable of a crane.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Norway-based Iran Human Rights, said on Twitter that Rahnavard's sentencing was based on "coerced confessions, after a grossly unfair process and a show trial".

"This crime must be met with serious consequences for the Islamic Republic," he said, adding that there was a "serious risk of mass execution of protesters".

The women-led protests against Iran's clerical establishment were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, "improperly".

They have spread to 161 cities in all 31 provinces and are seen as one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution....

So far, at least 488 protesters have been killed by security forces and 18,259 others have been detained, according to the Human Rights Activists' News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 62 security personnel....

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63939428

The secret diaries of women protesting in Iran

BBC News, Middle East, Dec 11 2022

Since a young woman, Mahsa Amini, was killed while being detained by Iran's morality police for not wearing her headscarf correctly, the country has been rocked by daily protests.

Both women and men, who want a life free from the strict rules of the Islamic Republic, have been taking part.

We know Mahsa Amini's story, but what of the everyday risks and dangers that women face, as they continue to protest?

Over two and a half months, women have been sending their thoughts as voice notes, writing and drawings to the BBC's Saba Zavarei.

Here are their diaries, with names changed for their safety.

Directed by Kate Forbes, Produced by Kawoon Kamoosh, Edited by Paul Organe, Animation by Manuella Bonomi.

Follow BBC 100 Women on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Join the conversation using #BBC100Women https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-63920617 ;

The secrets shared by Afghan women
By Lyse Doucet and Zarghuna Kargar
BBC News, Dec 10 2022

"My pen is the wing of a bird; it will tell you those thoughts we are not allowed to think, those dreams we are not allowed to dream."

At times, voices of Afghan women rise from the streets of Kabul and other cities in small, loud, protests. Often, they ring out in speeches by women now far away, outside Afghanistan. But mostly, their thoughts are only expressed quietly, in safe places. Or they fester in their heads as they try to reconcile their lives with the increasingly rigid rules of the Taliban government. They restrict what women wear, where they work, what they can do, or not, with their lives.

In the months before the Taliban returned, in August 2021, 18 Afghan women writers wrote fictional stories, drawn from real lives, and published early this year in the book, My Pen is the Wing of a Bird. Many Afghan women felt let down and left alone by the international community. But these writers used their pens and phones to comfort each other and to reflect on issues now faced by millions of women and girls. Here, two writers in Kabul, with pen names Paranda and Sadaf, shared their thoughts written in secret.

'Is a pink scarf a sin?' ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-63638876

Iran carries out first execution linked to anti-government demonstrations

Iran says it has executed a prisoner convicted for a crime allegedly committed during the country's ongoing nationwide protests, the first such death penalty carried out by Tehran.

CBC Dec 8 2022
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2139082819706

ROSE is dedicated to the prevention of violence against women. ROSE is now being kept online in a limited capacity.

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By remembering our sisters everywhere we work together to prevent violence.