Iranians have taken to the streets in rebellion. The vanguard are young women, but they have been joined by men and people of all ages. With courage and unarmed, they have kept coming, even as the regime has shot, hanged, tortured, blinded, raped, beaten, and arrested many thousands.
The spark was mandatory hijab, but the target of the uprising is the whole theocratic system. Their slogan is Woman, Life, Freedom. The goal they chant is “Azadi, Azadi, A-za-di,” meaning “Freedom, Freedom, Freedom.”
The Azadi movement addresses no demands to the regime, which it regards as fundamentally illegitimate and beyond reform. The protestors want theocracy and dictatorship replaced by freedom and democracy.
Nobel Prize laureates, former heads of state, retired military officers, business leaders, actors, authors, and human rights defenders forced into exile are among the luminaries and global voices in civil society, media, and government who issued a joint statement calling for the international community to take steps to increase and strengthen support for protesters in Iran.
Forum 2000 and a significant number of ICDR members support the Iranian struggle for freedom initiated by Freedom House along with several co-sponsors. We call upon all people of good will everywhere to join this initiative and help raise public awareness of the situation in Iran. Signatories to this call include members of our network such as Shirin Ebadi, Francis Fukuyama, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Svetlana Alexievich, Michael Ignatieff, and Timothy Snyder, among others.
Read and sign the "The Iranian Struggle for Freedom: A Call for Global Solidarity" here.
