EŞİK Responds to Iranian Women's Call: We Stand With Your Resistance for an Equal, Free, Secular and Democratic Transformation!
January17,2026
As the Women's Platform for Equality (EŞİK), Türkiye, we see and hear the call made by feminists in the Iranian diaspora to feminists around the world, and we extend our hand in solidarity.
What is happening in Iran is not merely the result of an economic crisis; it is the result primarily of the systematic attacks of a patriarchal, theocratic, authoritarian regime against women and the right to life of dissidents. Street executions, the refusal to return bodies to their families, arrests, the cutting off of the internet and connections to the outside world, demonstrate the bloody extent of oppression and state violence. Crimes against humanity are being committed in Iran.
The Iranian people's resistance is a continuation of the uprising led by women in 2022 under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom.” This spirit of struggle, spearheaded by women, has never been extinguished.
As EŞİK, we call out to Iranian women: Your resistance gives courage to all women around the world who are oppressed, exploited, subjected to inequality, discrimination, and violence. Your struggle is our common struggle. No right was ever handed to women on a silver platter. Women have earned every right they possess through arduous struggles and at great cost. The history you write will be our shared history. And as you write this history, we will continue to hold our sisters' hands and say, “Woman, life, freedom.”
We embrace your demands for equality, freedom, pluralism, inclusivity, and a non-violent democratic transition. We stand with you against the imposition of an autocratic, patriarchal, authoritarian regime on Iran's future.
We call on women's organizations around the world to respond to Iranian women’s call for solidarity.
And we appeal to international mechanisms:
The systematic state violence, arbitrary executions, and heavy-handed policies targeting women and dissidents in Iran constitute crimes against humanity under international law. We call on all international mechanisms, particularly the United Nations, to act immediately in accordance with international law. In this context, we call on the United Nations Human Rights Council to strengthen the powers of an independent international investigation mechanism to investigate the serious human rights violations in Iran, on UN special rapporteurs to make the process visible through urgent country visits and public reports, and on international criminal justice mechanisms to open avenues for evidence collection and prosecution to ensure that the perpetrators do not go unpunished.
Although Iran is not a party to CEDAW, women's demands for life and freedom are universal. Not being a party to the Convention does not prevent the CEDAW Committee from making public statements, acting jointly with other UN mechanisms, or conducting assessments based on the prohibition of discrimination.
Furthermore, we would like to emphasize that our call to international mechanisms in no way legitimizes military or political intervention in Iran by any country, particularly the United States and Israel. We believe it is important that the Iranian people's struggle for freedom and democratic transformation be carried out independently of external intervention, according to the will of the Iranian people themselves.
We, women, will continue to be each other's voice, breath, and beating heart for freedom in this struggle that transcends borders.
EŞİK Responds to Iranian Women's Call: We Stand With Your Resistance for an Equal, Free, Secular and Democratic Transformation!
As the Women's Platform for Equality (EŞİK), Türkiye, we see and hear the call made by feminists in the Iranian diaspora to feminists around the world, and we extend our hand in solidarity.
What is happening in Iran is not merely the result of an economic crisis; it is the result primarily of the systematic attacks of a patriarchal, theocratic, authoritarian regime against women and the right to life of dissidents. Street executions, the refusal to return bodies to their families, arrests, the cutting off of the internet and connections to the outside world, demonstrate the bloody extent of oppression and state violence. Crimes against humanity are being committed in Iran.
The Iranian people's resistance is a continuation of the uprising led by women in 2022 under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom.” This spirit of struggle, spearheaded by women, has never been extinguished.
As EŞİK, we call out to Iranian women: Your resistance gives courage to all women around the world who are oppressed, exploited, subjected to inequality, discrimination, and violence. Your struggle is our common struggle. No right was ever handed to women on a silver platter. Women have earned every right they possess through arduous struggles and at great cost. The history you write will be our shared history. And as you write this history, we will continue to hold our sisters' hands and say, “Woman, life, freedom.”
We embrace your demands for equality, freedom, pluralism, inclusivity, and a non-violent democratic transition. We stand with you against the imposition of an autocratic, patriarchal, authoritarian regime on Iran's future.
We call on women's organizations around the world to respond to Iranian women’s call for solidarity.
And we appeal to international mechanisms:
The systematic state violence, arbitrary executions, and heavy-handed policies targeting women and dissidents in Iran constitute crimes against humanity under international law. We call on all international mechanisms, particularly the United Nations, to act immediately in accordance with international law. In this context, we call on the United Nations Human Rights Council to strengthen the powers of an independent international investigation mechanism to investigate the serious human rights violations in Iran, on UN special rapporteurs to make the process visible through urgent country visits and public reports, and on international criminal justice mechanisms to open avenues for evidence collection and prosecution to ensure that the perpetrators do not go unpunished.
Although Iran is not a party to CEDAW, women's demands for life and freedom are universal. Not being a party to the Convention does not prevent the CEDAW Committee from making public statements, acting jointly with other UN mechanisms, or conducting assessments based on the prohibition of discrimination.
Furthermore, we would like to emphasize that our call to international mechanisms in no way legitimizes military or political intervention in Iran by any country, particularly the United States and Israel. We believe it is important that the Iranian people's struggle for freedom and democratic transformation be carried out independently of external intervention, according to the will of the Iranian people themselves.
We, women, will continue to be each other's voice, breath, and beating heart for freedom in this struggle that transcends borders.
Woman, Life, Freedom!
18 January 2026
EŞİK - The Women's Platform for Equality, Türkiye
www.esik.org.tr/ iletisim@esikplatform.net