Issued by the NLG International Committee, Iran Subcommittee
Open this statement in Farsi (PDF)
We are lawyers and legal workers committed to collectively abolishing oppression and helping build the liberation of all people.
We support the will of Iranians and their movement for liberation. We stand with them as they demand, design, and implement their future and reality.
We see Iranians from all corners of Iran demanding liberation and facing militant state violence. We see Iranians disappearing, the death count growing, and the jails and prisons filling up. We see young people, older people, and people from different cities and provinces openly opposing the existing Islamic Republic regime, its policies, and infrastructure.
We honor the solidarity shared by marginalized people worldwide with Iranians and their liberatory efforts. Indigenous and first nation women of Turtle Island cut their hair as a statement of solidarity, the women fighters of Nubar Ozanyan statement of solidarity, the Afghan women marching in the streets chanting the anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal Kurdish women’s battle cry of women, life, freedom. We honor the shared struggle and solidarity of all women who want to live free from control and oppression.
We reject invasion, war, and exploitation of Iranians. We recognize the pattern and practice of the global north and its appetite for control and exploitation. We condemn the harm inflicted upon Iranians through exploitation, extraction of resources, coups, and sanctions. We reject the orientalist narrative that Iranians cannot progress without western involvement.
We demand the release of all protesters and political prisoners in Iran and the termination of any executions. More than 15,000 protesters have been arrested and detained while awaiting trials. Prisoners are subjected to inhumane and abusive conditions, including torture, rape, and forced confessions. In addition, many imprisoned youths are held in psychiatric facilities for reeducation. Those facing the death penalty are journalists, students, artists, workers, activists, advocates, medical professionals, and those who have expressed their displeasure with the regime. Recently, 227 members of Iran’s parliament demanded that the Judiciary issue death sentences for protestors.
We call on our local and global community of lawyers and legal workers to join us in demanding the release of all protesters and political prisoners. Furthermore, we demand that the Iranian Judiciary eliminate the death penalty.
