JK Rowling. Image via The Associated Press
New Delhi: JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame has voiced her support for Iranian protests. She has joined a host of international figures expressing solidarity against the murder of Mahsa Amini.
JK Rowling tweeted, “I stand with all Iranian women silenced by a misogynistic, authoritarian regime. We must be their voice.”
With escalating protests and the increasing death toll of protestors being suppressed brutally by the regime, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi earlier this week condemned the chaos that has been triggered in Tehran, the Iranian capital and other cities led by a wave of protests over the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who was arrested by the country’s infamous ‘morality police’ and then died in hospital after spending three days in a comatose state.
“Those who took part in the riots must be dealt with decisively, this is the demand of the people,” said Raisi in a televised interview. “People’s safety is the red line of the Islamic republic of Iran and no one is allowed to break the law and cause chaos,” he said indicating that the brutal crackdown would continue as the protests grew.
Protests in the West Asian region, as and when they occur have rarely seen men coming out in large numbers to demand free and fair rights for women— those rights which in most developing and developed countries of the world are a given for modern women. This time round, videos emerging from protest sites in Tehran clearly show the involvement of men and also predict an end to the autocratic regime in the country.
“Woman, Life, Freedom!” has become the clarion call of the protesters as Iran continues grappling with the biggest demonstrations in almost three years, in which women have defiantly burned their headscarves and cut off their hair.
The hijab and chopped locks atop masts have become the enduring symbol of the protests, which have already claimed the lives of 76 innocent protesters fighting for basic rights for the country’s women folk.
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