Iranian political prisoner sends message on the occasion of International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women

Iranian political prisoner sends message on the occasion of International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women

Iranian political prisoner Soheil Arabi

Reported by PMOI/MEK

Iran, Nov. 27, 2018 - Iranian political prisoner Soheil Arabi, who has been in the Iranian regime’s dungeons since November 2013, sent a message from the Greater Tehran Prison on the occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, describing the plight of Iranian women in prisons and the savage policies of misogynist mullahs ruling in Iran:

Talk about the struggle against violence against women!

About your struggle against tyranny, discrimination, and violence in society against women;

Talk about the violence against women in Qarchack prison or Evin, talk about hunger strikes;

Talk about the interrogator’s assaults and threats against women in prison;

Talk about teary eyes and hands in the short visits in prison;

Indeed, fighting the violence against women has always been a must for any freedom-seeking movement in the face of sexual discrimination;

Ruling systems have been always creating the impression that men own women and women are men’s property;

This belief made me break the silence;

Silence in front of violence is a betrayal;

Stand up and speak out:

Speak out that my mother does not deserve violence;

Speak out that my sister does not deserve discrimination, and I don’t deserve superiority;

Stand up warrior, and break the ignorant beliefs;

I salute everyone who has stood up against sexual discrimination and stands tall in front of violence against women, and especially salute those who have paid the price of such true beliefs, by suffering in cold and damp prison cells and bearing the pain of lashes, and even those who felt the noose around their necks.

I salute mothers who have given birth and have raised freedom fighters; those who saw the violence and stood firm against it.

“Violence” is a word that deserves to be eradicated, and society needs people who will fight for this cause.

Now, it’s time to stand tall against those aggressive fists targeted against women and freedom fighters.

So I stand up and shout alongside the great freedom-loving women of my country:

No to violence against women.

No to compulsory hijab

No to the silence in front of violence

Stand up to teach our children that human beings deserve the best.

Soheil Arabi

November 2018