Support Woman, Life, Freedom Actions in Montreal

Hundreds of volunteers and dozens of groups of Montreal social activists have gathered together to organize protests and demonstrations to support the Iranian people. These protests are meant to create awareness about the crimes of the Islamic Republic and the nationwide uprising of the Iranian people.

The demonstration of 6,000 people on Saturday, September 24, the large human chain on Tuesday, September 27, the large worldwide demonstration on Saturday, October 1, with 12,000 people in Montreal, the Sit-in Protest and Performance of October 6, the Demonstration of Octobe 8 for Collective Placard Making, The Demonstration of 6000 people on Saturday October 15, Organizing the worldwide Rally of The Time Has Come on October 22 in Montreal with 14,000 people, The Demonstration and Performance of 1200 people on November 5, and the Collaborative Art Making for Iran on November 12 are worthy examples of the events organized by Woman, Life, Freedom Movement and Solidarity of Montreal, to support people in Iran.

These demonstrations require placards, banners, posters, sound systems, trucks, and many other items which are expensive.

Hence why we have started a GoFundMe. These events need monetary support, help us in raising awareness about the issue, and help us be the voice of the Iranian people.

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Protest Statement

We daughters of Iran, we Iranian men and women are the children of Iran.

Our brothers and sisters are being murdered day-in and day-out in Iran.

Student, labourer, Teacher, Nurse, Baker, Farmer, and any other class of society, anywhere in Iran, be it north, south, east, or west, regardless of dress, ethnicity, colour, and gender, are being detained, interrogated, tortured, and murdered.

Iran's regime's extreme brutality might sound unfamiliar… no… it sounds inconceivable to even fathom such extreme brutality in the 21st century. However, this has become the everyday norm for Iranian citizens. What the everyday people of Iran are experiencing currently is utterly unimaginable to the average western protester, who has every right to protest for his most basic human rights. The demands of Iranians for the recognition of their most basic human rights is met and answered by aggressive suppression and execution by the ideological discourse of an authoritarian and dictatorial regime.

Today Iran's regime, in the midst of its bloody repression, has restricted its citizen's access to the internet and will most probably, in the next few days, cut it out altogether. This signifies that the regime will soon commence a bloodbath inside the country.

The last time Iran's authoritarian regime cut out access to its citizens' internet was in November 2019. In less than four days, 1500 innocent civilians were murdered in the most barbaric ways. Iran's regime wishes to unleash once again the bloodbath it did in the November of 2019 and on countless other massacres it committed throughout its reign.

As we watch history repeat itself, in 1988, Iran's regime executed tens of thousands of political dissidents in a matter of weeks without holding any judicial proceedings. Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's current president, was one of the members of the notorious death committee of the aforementioned mass executions. Ironically, this same president was given a podium to talk about human rights on Wednesday while his citizens were out on the streets of Iran demanding their fundamental human rights. Meanwhile, Raisi's henchmen met the demands of the Iranian people with tear gas and bullets.

I want you to hear that these repressions have been going on for 43 miserable years.

Women have been at the forefront of Iran's degradative gender apartheid from the ascension of this regime. Consequently, women have had their most basic rights stripped of them. Rights such as bodily autonomy, the right to education, the right to move freely, child custody rights and countless other basic human rights. This collective trauma has created for each woman a unique and grim experience of oppression.

I am sure that today, we are graced by the presence of the families of the victims and survivors of the 1988 massacre. Their constant and endless suffering is also our suffering.

We are also joined today by people from various ethnic groups who hail from Iran. We also acknowledge the oppression that various ethnic groups undergo within this multi-ethnic country. Ethnicities that are prevented and thwarted by the government from living together in the peace they so deserve.

We are also joined by members of the Baha'i faith whose oppression we also view as our suffering.

The oppression of labourers who have been stripped of every right, the oppression of teachers who have been vocal about educational inequality, as well as the restriction of students' voices is also our plight.

Note that, every queer citizen in Iran is a step away from imminent death. All LGBTQ+ members are a breath away from the fate of Alireza Fazeli Monfared, Sareh and Elham.

However, today, the streets of Iran witness the indiscriminate oppression of all Iranian citizens. Today, any ordinary citizen is a step away from death.

Is there any word that can describe this level of brutality?

Mercenaries of Iran's Regime are now disguising themselves as civilians in order to infiltrate the ranks of the protesters of Iran. The extent of their evil is seen by their use of ambulances to kidnap protesters and take them to their deplorable and derelict prisons.

I ask you, dear protesters, once again, Is there any word that can describe this level of brutality?

I say to my fellow non-Iranian protesters; the people of Iran have always been the voice of the oppressed and marginalized people of the world. They wept for Afghanistan, they stood by Ukrainians, they shouted that black lives matter, and they showed solidarity with the men and women of the global south.

Now that your Iranian brothers and sisters are incarcerated by Iran's regime today, will you remain silent? Will you choose to turn a blind eye to their plight? Will you refuse to speak up for them and be their voice in their most dire hour of need?

Today, the people who have been the victims of 4 decades of oppression, corruption, discrimination, and segregation have risen altogether in protest. They no longer want this excuse of a regime.

Women are the flagbearers of this revolution against discrimination and oppression.

Mahsa and all the Mahsa's whose names we might never hear, hand in hand with millions of marginalized members who form the various layers of society, have initiated something that has and will forever be engraved in history.

All the aforementioned brothers and sisters are chanting today against oppression, discrimination, torture, and death. They chant "Woman, Life, Freedom."