Times 2022: Heroes of the Year - Women of Iran

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.

These younger women are now in the streets. The movement they’re leading is educated, liberal, secular, raised on higher expectations, and desperate for normality: college and foreign travel, decent jobs, rule of law, access to the Apple Store, a meaningful role in politics, the freedom to say and wear whatever. 

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Congratulations to the Iranian voices: Woman Life Freedom (Dec. 14, 2022)

Congratulations to the Iranian voices that organized for this unprecedented victory and the advocates and officials who helped make it possible. This is a monumental, tangible achievement to punish the Islamic Republic for its mass abuses of women. It is an important realization of calls that came from inside Iran and, unlike some other forms of pressure, does not hurt ordinary Iranians.
UN MEMBER STATES VOTE YES AND MAKE HISTORY

Today we have made history. The United Nations and its Member States heeded the call of Iranian women to remove the Islamic Republic of Iran from the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, setting a new precedent in favor of women and girls, not just in Iran, but everywhere. 
Today’s vote marks a pivotal step forward with the U.N. Member States removing a country from the Commission with an appalling record on women’s rights from its membership.