We are in complete solidarity with women, LBTQI+ and all human rights activists in Iran, Lebanon and the wider SWANA Region. Ongoing military strikes carried out by Israel and the United States have unleashed a dangerous regional escalation, intensifying militarization, restricting airspace, and heightening fear and uncertainty for millions of people.
As always, it is ordinary people (and often the most marginalized), who bear the heaviest burden of imperialist greed, war and militarism. In the past week alone, hundreds were killed in Iran - including 165 students in a bombing of a girls’ elementary school. In southern Lebanon, civilians once again face deadly Israeli attacks leading to loss of life, injuries, and the forced displacement of thousands. We mourn the lives already lost and stand with all those whose lives and futures are being violently disrupted.
Just prior to this wave of military aggression, the Iranian people have been protesting against economic collapse, demanding freedom from a violentally patriarchal regime that has cracked down on protests and caused internet shutdowns in. Even under these conditions, feminists and activists in Iran have remained, courageously and consistently, at the forefront of struggles for bodily autonomy, justice, and liberation.
There is an urgent need for feminist cross-border solidarity and mobilizations to resist militarization and advance feminist internationalist agendas that center on rights, justice and freedom from violence. At this moment, we join the global feminist community to amplify the analysis, voices and narratives from feminist movements in Iran, Lebanon and across the region; create safer spaces for connection, care, learning and holding complexity; share calls to action and mobilization, safety resources and solidarity initiatives.
Our collective and continued practice of solidarity in these ways is the only and most powerful antidote to attempts by violent and imperialist states to isolate, divide and distract us from our efforts. Together, we will build the power needed to resist oppression, to imagine and fight for futures grounded in justice, dignity, freedom from violence and collective liberation.
Solidarity actions