Statement of Solidarity with Iran

The Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta stands in solidarity with Iran’s nationwide social movement, largely led by women and students. This movement’s progressive motto of Zan, Zendegi, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom) represents Iran’s long quest for dignity, democracy, justice, and civil/human rights. The demands for gender justice and women’s rights are particularly prominent in the current movement in Iran.

The movement was sparked by the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was detained by so-called morality police, under the guise of the state’s forced hijab law, and pronounced dead at a Tehran hospital on September 16, 2022. Since then the security forces have brutally suppressed nationwide peaceful demonstrations by women, students, and other sections of the society, and arrested, injured, and killed some protesters. On October 12, 2022, the state security and plainclothes forces violently suppressed the peaceful student demonstration at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran; some students were injured and arrested.

The University of Alberta’s Department of Political Science joins the International Sociological Association, The Middle East Studies Association & The Association for Iranian Studies, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia, among others, to honour the people of Iran’s struggle for a better life and future. We support the rights of Iranian women to choose what to wear, the right to freedom of expression and the academic freedom of students and professors, and the autonomy of the university. We condemn the killing of protesters, and call on the Iranian state to release women, students, professors, and civil rights activists arrested for exercising their rights. Lastly, we acknowledge this is an exceptionally difficult time for our Iranian community members, students, and colleagues on campus. We stand in solidarity with you and honour your struggle for dignity, democracy, and justice.