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Protest for women’s freedom and all those unjustly jailed in Iran

Join the International Observatory of Human Rights in protest outside the Iranian Embassy at 5pm on Wednesday 17th April to protest the Iranian regime’s infringement on women’s freedom of choice and to call for the release of all those unjustly imprisoned in Iran.

What: A protest outside the Iranian Embassy in solidarity with the White Wednesdays movement and those unjustly jailed in Iran.
When: 5pm to 7pm on Wednesday 17 April 2019
Where: Outside the Iranian Embassy, 16 Princes Gate, Knightsbridge, London SW7 1PT

The protest is calling on the Iranian authorities to:

• Release all those unlawfully detained and unjustly imprisoned
• Repeal all laws infringing on women’s freedom of choice
• Immediately repeal the use of torture and the lashing of Nasrin Soutodeh and other innocent prisoners

Read Open Letter to Ebrahim Raisi

The protest is being held on a Wednesday to support the White Wednesdays movement. The movement emerged in Iran in 2014 and consists of women wearing white clothing on Wednesdays to protest against compulsory wearing of headscarves. Using the hashtag #whitewednesdays, citizens have been posting pictures and videos of themselves wearing white headscarves or pieces of white clothing as symbols of protest.

Among the many innocent people jailed in Iran for practicing their civil rights is internationally renowned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh recently handed a new sentence of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes—an unusually brutal sentence even for hardline Iran.

Sotoudeh, awarded the Sakhrov prize by the European Union had represented opposition activists including women prosecuted for removing their mandatory headscarf, was arrested in June and charged with spying, spreading propaganda and insulting Iran’s supreme leader.

The students, women activists, and members of civil society who have confirmed attendance will also call for the release of British mom and charity worker Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, sentenced to five years in prison in Iran on fabricated espionage charges. The foreign office recently granted Nazanin diplomatic protection, meaning injury to her is now injury to the UK. Come Support Nazanin and Nasrin and all those unjustly detained.

Stand for Women’s Rights!

Before the 1979 Islamic revolution Iranian women were free to wear whatever they wanted, but this changed when the late Ayatollah Khomeini came to power. Women were not only forced to cover their hair in line with a strict interpretation of Islamic law on modesty, but also to stop using make-up and start wearing knee-length manteaus.

More than 100,000 women and men took to the streets to protest against the law in 1979, and opposition to it has never gone away.

Please show your support and join IOHR in London in a peaceful demonstration outside the Iranian embassy.

The action will be filmed so PLEASE wear white to show your support.

#WhiteWednesdays   #FreeRouhaniHostages