![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/Dr.Ryan_.jpg\" "\\"Dr.")
\nThe Iranian regime has denied basic human rights to the people of Iran, especially to women, argues human rights activist Maria Ryan in The Hill.<\/p>\n
“For 40 years, Iran\u2019s pro-democracy movement has remained active, despite frequent and often severe reprisals by the regime. The international community has witnessed hints of this movement\u2019s potential at various historical moments, such as the 2009 protests and the nationwide uprising that spread across every major city of Iran in early 2018,” Dr. Ryan wrote on September 12, 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n That Iranian women have played a unique role in these uprisings is not a coincidence, she points out. “The sharp edge of the mullahs\u2019 repression has targeted many of them with repressive, misogynistic laws and execution.”<\/p>\n Just last week a female soccer fan died after police arrested her sneaking into Tehran\u2019s main sports stadium dressed as a man; women are not allowed to enter stadiums during male sporting events. According to reports, the 29-year-old woman overheard officials discussing her coming prison sentence at the courthouse \u2014 and she set herself on fire and died from her injuries.<\/p>\n “I had the opportunity in July to travel to Albania \u2014 along with 350 political dignitaries from 47 countries spanning a wide range of political affiliations \u2014 as a sponsored speaker for the annual conference of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)<\/a>. We visited Ashraf 3, the new home to thousands of members of the main Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK)<\/a>.”<\/p>\n “The conference I spoke at was called ‘Women in the Iranian Resistance: Defying the Misogynist Regime, Paying the Price of Freedom.'”<\/p>\n “I met many brave women who survived the mullahs\u2019 brutal crackdown. Many said they had suffered in torture chambers for long years. They shared their stories with me, their personal suffering and the loss of loved ones. They explained that, while living in Iran, they were not able to choose their own clothes or their professions; a girl as young as nine years old could be married, they said, and a man could have multiple wives.”<\/p>\n Dr. Ryan said the women she spoke to were forced to leave Iran and were promised safety in camps inside Iraq, only to be targeted by bombs and gunfire. Several of them told her they lost many of their friends to these attacks.<\/p>\n “I videotaped an interview with four of the women. One of the women said she was jailed at the age of six because her parents were imprisoned for supporting the resistance.”<\/p>\n “Yet another woman of Iranian descent relayed a story of losing her best friend to a brutal attack in a camp in Iraq. She, too, has joined the resistance to the regime. She grew up in Tampa, Fla., so she knows what democracy and freedom are \u2014 and she wants those same principles for the people of Iran,” Dr. Ryan wrote.<\/p>\n “The conditions of daily life for many Iranians have become so difficult and demoralizing that growing numbers of the people there are ripe for addiction issues, according to the United Nations and other sources. In fact, the Revolutionary Guard reportedly is facilitating the heroin trade \u2014 in spite of Iran\u2019s publicly professed hard-core policies against drug trafficking and use. Other critics of the regime have reported unconfirmed stories of desperate Iranians selling kidneys, eyes or even unborn children in order to survive.”<\/p>\n “Despite all of this, the women I met inspired me with their sense of determination, loyalty, patriotism, and faith in their ideals. Their dedication to each other was astounding, as was their camaraderie.”<\/p>\n Women are crucial to resisting Iran’s regime | TheHill. A FIRST TIME LOOK AT THE BACKBONE OF THE IRANIAN OPPOSITION. IT GIVES YOU HOPE OF REAL CHANGE. https:\/\/t.co\/e3pW2PaQBS<\/a><\/p>\n\n