Strongly condemn the acid attacks on women in Iran!

The recent acid attacks on women in Isfahan are the latest incidents of the systematic backward and inhuman attacks against women in Iran. Experience shows that where the Iranian regime fails in its attempts to make women stay at home by legislation, it resorts to such outrageous behavior.

The Islamic Republic has tried, from the start of its establishment, to legislate discriminatory policies against women and has used the most inhuman tactics to put them into practice. Evidence also shows that women have been victims of the misogynous attitudes of the ruling clique and their hunger for power.

The failure of the regime's repressive policies and assaults on women to bring about the practice of veiling by force and its desperation underlie such horrible crimes. The recent events, such as forced segregation of civic workers, the announcement by motorcyclist thugs of their readiness to enforce compulsory veiling, provocative language by MPs and explicit threats by Imams and ayatollahs are some of the examples of the regime’s strategy to force women back home.

During the past thirty five years of Islamic rule, women have been fighting against fundamentalist laws and various forms of discrimination and have tried hard to protect their rights in very dire situations. They are still standing firm and will continue to do so. We are sure that they will come through the current hard and inhuman episode as well.

Support from the concerned and sympathetic male members of society helps to move on from this situation faster. The involvement of the large number of men in the past few days protests shows their solidarity with women.

We the undersigned strongly condemn acid attacks on women, and demand the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators and instigators of these crimes.

We ask all human rights campaigners, organizations and international bodies to support us and speak up against these inhuman attacks in Iran.