For Iranian women, this International Women’s Day will feel ‘significant,’ says Hamilton resident | CBC News
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Despite being raised in Canada, Negar Amedi says she has felt the impact on her family and community in Iran from the long rule of the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
With Khamenei now gone and uncertainty ahead, Amedi says this International Women’s Day is the right time to show solidarity for women in the Middle East and support their freedom and human rights going forward.
“It’s definitely a more significant day this year around, but it brings us a lot of hope,” Amedi said.
Amedi, who lives in Hamilton, is helping to organize an event Saturday, one day before Women’s Day, highlighting the rights of Iranian and Afghan women.
Two local groups, the Iranian Cultural and Social Association of Hamilton and Afghanistan Association of Hamilton, are collaborating to put on the event at the Stoney Creek Municipal Service Centre from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“We’re trying to use this event to be the voice of people and to show the Iranian people that we are standing with them in solidarity, and we will raise as much awareness as we can to help them for the freedom of Iran,” Amedi told CBC Hamilton.
Saturday’s event will have several women from both the Iranian and Afghan communities in Hamilton speaking mostly in their native language about their experiences in and out of their countries. The event is free, but registration is required.
Since Saturday, Iran has been hit by a wave of airstrikes from the U.S. and Israel, targeting the country’s military, defence systems, navy and its top echelon of political leaders. Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years, was killed on Sunday, according to Iran’s state media. Since then, there has been much speculation — and confusion — about who’s in charge and who will succeed him.
The attacks have also killed Iranian civilians, including at a school for girls where at least 153 people died, among them dozens of children, according to Iranian media. Iranian officials blamed the attack on an U.S. airstrike, while the U.S. said it was investigating.
A Women’s Day that feels more hopeful
Amedi said with Women’s Day this weekend, this March 8 is going to feel different than previous ones for the women of Iran.
“We’re finally hopeful that we can have our basic human rights back in Iran,” she said.
She said for the first time in a long time, Iranian women abroad are also hopeful they might be able to return without fear of prosecution.
Amedi said while people in Iran know what they’re facing when it comes to foreign interference, “they rather that than the government they have going on.”
“Especially with the massacre that occurred back in January,” she said, referring to the thousands of Iranians who were killed in late-January during nationwide protests in the country.
Banafsheh Cheraghi, an Iranian Canadian activist who organized the Women, Life, Freedom rally in Toronto in 2022, says Iran’s uncertain future is a source of worry, fear, hope and joy all at the same time. She says Iran belongs to all Iranians, and having disparate opinions about the country’s future is a good thing.
Other Iranians in Canada have been calling the events over the weekend “bittersweet,” like Kimia Tehrani, an Iranian Canadian student and activist in Toronto.
“I’m incredibly happy that a dictator that has taken over my life and my country over the past 46 years has finally died,” she said.
“[But] I’m obviously very upset at the civilian lives that are at danger right now.”
‘Girls are powerful’
The event on Saturday aims to help people come up with and understand potential ways forward for the freedom of women in Afghanistan and Iran.
Hadia Yaqubi, a 20-year-old Afghan immigrant who has lived in Hamilton for just over two years, said she’s hoping those attending the Saturday event can take the time to really listen.
“They can come [to the event] and know that yes, girls are powerful. They are strong,” she said.
For Yaqubi, who said she had to leave Afghanistan just to get an education, awareness of what women face in her home country is pivotal.
“Everything is banned for girls. Girls are not going to school in Afghanistan. Girls are not allowed to go to university. Girls are not allowed to go to work,” she said.
“And this situation is getting worse day by day.”
Yaqubi hopes that, with increased awareness, girls not just in Afghanistan and Iran, but all over the world, will have equal rights.
“I just hope [girls] are able to do anything they want, and they can be free. I just hope for this,” she said.