The world celebrated the 10th anniversary of International Day of the Girl on October 11, and while the world has paid increased attention to issues affecting girls, investments in girls’ rights remain limited, and girls continue to face a slew of obstacles to reaching their full potential.

Girls in Iran have taken to the streets

Today, young women and girls in Iran have taken to the streets to decide their country’s fate and effect change.  Iranian girls, according to the NCRI Women’s Committee, are the most innocent victims of the clerical regime’s brutal gender discrimination. The majority of the media coverage focuses on violence, suicide, forced child marriages, school dropouts, malnutrition, a lack of medical care, and child laborers.

Deprived of many of their rights, these young women and girls are like a compressed spring when released, full of energy and power. They are a formidable force, and this is exactly what is happening in Iran right now. Women are leading and inspiring protests, as well as providing energy to others.

The fact that young girls are leaving their schools, marching on the streets, and calling for the regime’s overthrow demonstrates the deep-seated, widespread discontent in society for schoolchildren and girls to act in this manner.

 

 

 

Iran’s young women and girls have a long history of fighting for their rights

Since the 1979 revolution, tens of thousands of young women and girls from the MEK and other dissident groups have resisted the regime despite knowing they would be tortured and executed.

Thousands of political prisoners were among the 30,000 who were massacred in 1988. Again, during the November 2019 uprising, the 14-year-old Nikta Esfandani was among those killed during anti-regime protests. They gave their lives to give their people and future generations freedom.

 

 

Nika Shakarami

Today’s rebellious and fearless generation is a direct descendant of those courageous souls. Nika Shakarami was a bright and happy 17-year-old with big dreams. Her friends described her as fearless during the September 20 protest. Her mother called her several times because she knew she was one of the protesters. She told her friends in a final phone call that she was being pursued by security forces.

Then she vanished. Her body was discovered in a morgue 10 days later by her family. Her skull and nose were said to have been smashed. Insiders told her family that Nika had been detained by the IRGC and interrogated and tortured for ten days.

 

 

Nika was tortured for ten days

The regime tried to claim that she committed suicide, but the initial death certificate stated that she died as a result of multiple blows to the head with a heavy object. They stole Nika’s body from her family and buried it in a remote village to conceal the scars of torture on her body.

The new generation of young girls, such as Nika, are well aware of what they want and do not want.  That’s why we are seeing thousands of them march through the streets, chanting “freedom, freedom, freedom!” That’s what they want, and they’re not going to accept anything less.

 

 

MEK Iran (follow us on Twitter and Facebook), Maryam Rajavi’s on her site, Twitter & Facebook, NCRI  (Twitter & Facebook), and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTub