The following statement, was published on Mar. 8, 2023, on various Iranian media online, jointly signed by members of lit. and art communities and in defense of women’s right to education in face of Iran’s current chain chemical and bioterrorist attacks with a gas poison; in the statement, which begins “by the name of Woman, Life, Freedom,” the authors mention the historical background of defending women’s right to education since the emergence of the constitutionalist movement to the present time, and consider recent attacks and their targeted locations, that is, all-girl’s university dorms and schools, and the targeted community, that is, female students at various educational levels, from primary school to higher education female students, to be only the latest fundamentalist, reactionary, and yet all too familiar and long-recorded attempt to deprive women from this basic right and thus have declared their utter discord with such discriminative and right-violating attempts while reminding their unbending will to pursue this fundamental right; however, among the signatories of the statement, one can come across with such names of note in the literary community including Ali Babachahi, Hormoz Alipour, Abbass Mokhber, Saleh Najafi, Foad Naziri, Frzan Sojoodi, Abbass Shokri and many more. Even though IWAC has played no direct role in executing this statement, still, in line with its policy to collect, register, and archive such collectively produced statements by the independent literary community, is now publishing the Far-Eng bilingual version of the statement in question on its media outlets:
In the Name of Woman, Life, Freedom
The pain-honored history of women of this land testifies to their relentless try to achieve the right to education. Shattering sacrifices that, eventually, following the enlightenment at work in the course of the Constitutionalist Movement and by the support of a number of the constitutionalist figures for the basic demand of women’s right to education came to fruition and resulted in the establishment of the first female schools. Yet, this is a never-ending story and to this day, Iranian women have always been faced with all kinds of discrimination and restrictions, among which, gender discrimination implemented at the annual academic entrance exam would make a telling example. Nevertheless, they have not given ground, even for a moment, in pursuit of an educational status worthwhile to their undeniable potentials. Today, we witness a vast catastrophe, throughout the country, against this historical venture; young and adolescent girls at high schools and student dorms are exposed to mass organized attacks on a daily basis, with numbered breaths and in all frailty, sent to hospitals, and we can only witness these images, with breaths taken, faced with a toxic gas discharged into schools, a poison that has threatened the endeared lives of our school girls and students with jeopardy. And strangely enough, despite the previous installation of CCTV cameras and the security-oriented atmosphere ruling over schools and student dorms, still the agents behind these barbaric acts are left unidentified. For this reason, a number of the members of literature and art communities, decided to jointly sign this statement and declare their solidarity with school and university students and their parents to condemn this purposeful and inhumane act and demand the immediate identification of this Taliban-style acts to put an end to this disquieting situation. Also, we intend to remind that the right to education achieved by women and with immeasurable costs, will not be relinquished, whatever the cost.
Signatories (Directly Trnasliterated from the Alphabetically Ordered Farsi Version):
Afsoon Ebrahimi, Bahram Ebrahimi, Leila Ebrahimiyan, Ahmad Abolfathi, Hamed Aboomoaref, Sara Ehsan, Marah Ehsan’Manesh, Abdolvahhab Ahmadi, Ali AHmadiyan, Fatemeh Ekhtesari, Mohsen Akhavan Gooran, Maziyar Okhowvat, Sareh Arzpeyma, Saideh Asadi, Said Eskandari, Muhammad Eslami, Zahra Esmaili, Parimah A’vani, Shahram Eghbalzadeh, Fereshteh Eghbali, Farhad Akbarzadeh, Masoumeh Akbari, Ghasem’Rais Akbari Mahallati, Manizheh Ekramiyan, Shahriyar Alvandi, Narges Ilkayi, Sirous Amiri Zangeneh, Houshyar ANsarifar, Tahereh Ibad, Goodarz Izadi, Hadi Abadi’Khah, Alireza Abiz, Negin Aramesh, Muhammad Ashoor, Vahid Aghajani, Raziyeh Aghajari, Ali Amoukhteh’Nezhad, Ali Babachahi, Afshin Babazadeh, Zahra Babayi, Simin Babayi, Mahtab Bazargan, Masoumeh Baghiyan, Mi’ad Baghi, Zohreh Bakhtiyari, Mahnaz Badihiyan, Siamak Borazjani, Said Barabadi, Shabnam Bozorgi, Elham Basvit, Gholam’Reza Bashiri, Fanous Bahadorvand, Amir Bahadori, Behzad Bahadori, Maliheh Baharloo, Kobra Bahmani, Niloufar Behin, Mitra Bayat, Maryam Beyraghi, Mahshid Biyourman Sharifiyan, Mani Parsa, Raakhshandeh Paslar, Morteza Pashapour, Alireza Panjeyi, Sorayya Tajniya, Ahmad Tabatabayi, Shokouh Tajammoli, Said Tatuk, Said Turk, Amir’Hussein Tikani, Hamid Teymouri’Fard, Ali Sabati, Amir’Hussein Sanayi, Ehsan Joghatayi, Elaheh Jabini, Sepideh Jodeyri, Farnaz Ja’farzadegan, Zohreh Javaher’Kalam, Said Jahanpoulad, Negar Jahantab, Mitra Jahromi, Nader Chegini, Fariba Chalabi’Yani, Atefeh Chaharmahaliyan, Mohammad’Reza Haj’Rostam’Beyglou, Yousef Hajipour, Mehdi Habibollah, Bijhan Hejazi, Mina Haddadiyan, Alireza Hassani, Maryam Hussein’Zadeh, Shooka Husseini, Monireh Husseini, Maryam Haghighat, Yaman Hekmat Taghi’Abadi, Fariba Hamzeyi, Khadijeh Heidari, Maryam Heidari, ZOhreh Heidari Shahi, Reza Heyrani, Fatemeh’Mehr Khansalar, Nastaran Khazayi, Hussein Khan Yaghma, Hadi Khansari, Jamshid Khoshdel, Vahid Kheirabadi, Hamed Darab, Homa Davarkiya, Vazrik Dersahakiyan, Farid Derafshi, Soudabeh Darwish, Samira Darya, Ahmad Deris, Isa Dowraghi, Esmail Dehghan, Farideh Zakeri, Mehri Zabihi Atr’Goleh, Shahin Raki, Forough Raki, Hussein Rajayi, Farzaneh Rahmani, Jalal Rostam’Kalayi, Anna Rezayi, Tahereh Rezayi, Ershad Razaviyan, Muhammad Ramezani, Omid Ranjbar, Masoud Ravanshid, Touraj Reyhani, Reyhan Reyhani, Maryam Rais’Dana, Saideh Zadhoush, Iraj Zebardast, Mahmud Zamani Ghomi, Milad Zangeneh, Masoud Salari, Solmaz Sepehri, Farzan Sojoudi, Shahram Sadidi, Hamid Sarbaz, Sareh Sokout, Abdollah Soleimani, Peyman Soleimani, Peyman Salimi’Nejhad, Morteza Souraneh, Vahideh Sistani, Ronak Shah’Muhammadi, Maryam Shojayi, Kamran Sharafshahi, Avisa Sharafi, Asadollah Sha’bani, Hamidreza Shakarsari, Mona Shekar’Riz, Abbas Shokri, Azadeh Shakouri’Rad, Ayda Shams, Mazaher Shahamat, Shahnaz Shahbazi, Arash Sheybani, Shahla Sheikhi, Hussein Shirzadi, Sara Shiri, Leila Sadeghi, Masoud Sadeghi Boroujerdi, Ayoub Sadeghiyani, Mehdi Saremi’Far, Eskandar Salehi, Fatemeh Salehi, Nazanin So’oudi, Ali Saffar Dastgerdi, Nasser Saffariyan, Seyyed Mehdi Safayi, Hussein (Bijhan) Safdari, Alireza Taheri, Amir Taheri “Amordad”, Afsaneh Tabatabayi, Soheila Tabatabayi, Raha Zafar, Esfandiyar Abdollahi, Ali Abdollahi, Maryam Abdolmalekiyan, Mehdi Abdollah’Zadeh, Sakineh Arab’Nejhad, Farzad Azizi Kadkhodayi, Marziyeh Azimi’Niya, Nazi Azima, Mahmud’Reza Alayi, Hormoz Alipour, Maryam Ali’Khani, Farahnaz Ali’Zadeh, Shadiyeh Ghaffari, Mehrokh Ghaffari Mehr, Sima Ghafouri, Gholam’Hussein Farsi, Minou Ghassemi, Mana Ghareh’Khani, Anousheh Ghannatiyan, Narges Ghandil’Zadeh, Farzaneh Kargar’Zadeh, Afrouz Kazemzadeh, Mehran Kazemi, Sadigheh Kazemi Jourybari, Sommayeh Kazemi Hassanvand, Azadeh Kamyar, Beti Kabiri, M. Mehdi Karimi, Tara Kasrayi, Gholam’Ali Keshani, Sahra Kalantari, Hatef Kalantari, Rouzbeh Kamali, Ronaz Kamali, Shaghayegh Kamali, Elnaz Kouti, Sepideh Kouti, Ayda Kouchaki, Muhammad’Reza Keyvanloo, Elham Gordi, Kas’Agha Gaskari, Bahram Golmoradi, Leili Gallehdaran, Muhammad Gonabadi, Foad Goudarzi, Farhad Gooran, Mohsen Lak, Hassan Lak, Kameliya Mohebbi, Monir Mahlouji, Azin Muhammad’Zadeh, Firouzeh Muhammad’Zadeh, Javid Muhammadi, Zahra Muhammadi, Nasrin Muhammadi, Sayer Muhammadi, Abbass Mokhber, Maryam Mokhtabad, Sharham Modabberi, Mehrdad Moradi, Reza Mordad, Parisa Morakkabati, Behnaz Moshatiyan, Mozhgan Moshtagh, Masoud Mashhadi, Soroush Mozaffar Moghaddam, Rouzbeh Ma’adi, Mehdi Moarreff, Ma’soumeh Ma’soum’Zadeh, Daryoush Me’mar, Abbass Mo’ini, Shahya Mofarrah, Fereshteh Mowlavi, Jalal Mahdavi, Muhammad’Hussein Mirzayi, Fazilat Mir’Shekar, Mansour Mir’Shakkak, Hussein Miri, Masoud Miri, Mahtab Miyanchi, Ebrahim Nasseri, Sanam Nafe’, Amir Najafi, Saleh Najafi, Afsaneh Nojoumi, Fereshteh Nargessi, Sana Nassari, Solmaz Nasr’Abadi, Arash Nosrattolahi, Foad Naziri, Nazila Nowbahari, Zohreh Nowrouzi, Vahid Nowrouzi, Milad Niya, Muhammad Nikzad, Nader Nik’Nejhad, Nikfar Nik’Nahad, Nazanin Nikooseresht, Mahsa Yahya’Zadeh, Mahtab Yaghma, Esmail Yourdshahiyan, Sahar Yousefi, Sommayeh Yousefi, Zeynab Younesi.
