Jin Jian Azadi

On 16 September 2022, a 22-year-old Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini, died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the religious morality police of Iran’s government, arrested Amini for not wearing the hijab in accordance with government standards. The Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran stated that before transferring her to the hospital, she had a heart attack at a police station, collapsed, and fell into a coma. However, eyewitnesses, including women who were detained with Amini, reportedly said she was severely beaten, and that she died as a result of police brutality, which was denied by Iranian authorities. These assertions, in addition to leaked medical scans, led independent observers to believe Amini had had a cerebral haemorrhage.

Amini’s death resulted in a series of protests, described by CNN as more widespread than the protests in 2009, 2017, and 2019, and by The New York Times as the largest Iranian protests since at least 2009. Some female demonstrators removed their hijab or publicly cut their hair as acts of protest. By 21th February, at least 530 people including 71 children have been killed by security forces confronting protests across the country; Amnesty International reported that Iranian security forces were, in some cases, firing into groups with live ammunition, and in other cases were killing protesters by beating them with batons…

Since Mahsa’s death in September 2022, Iranian artists, both inside and outside of Iran, have been using art as a way to express their anger, grief, and hope for change, to commemorate the deceased, and to give voice to the prisoners. In designs, photographs, drawings and music, they not only creatively portray the revolution in Iran but also use their art as a weapon against the Islamic regime. By doing so many artists have put themselves in great danger of becoming targets of repression.

We the group “Woman*, Life, Freedom Leipzig”, in collaboration with Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and a&o Kunsthalle, by organizing this protest art intervention, through the display of the activist work of many Iranian artists, aim to honor their work and raise awareness about this woman-led revolution and hopefully increase empathy, trigger reflection, increase dialogue and generate relationships.

Our Demands from the German government

We seek support from the German government in condemning the brutal use of force against protesters, in standing with the people of Iran in their fight for freedom and democracy, and in expressing active solidarity.

Please click on the button below to find our demands in details.  To support us all you have to do is add your name at the bottom, copy the text, click on one of the links which belong to politicians who are representatives of Leipzig in the German parliament, and paste it into the box and send it to them.

 

Contact us

Email: womanlifefreedom.leipzig@gmx.de
Instagram: woman.life.freedom.leipzig