News Center- The Women's Press Union (YRJ), a women journalists’ organization based in northeastern Syria, issued a press statement on Monday in front of the Mihemed Şêxo Culture and Art Center, located in the city of Qamishlo, condemning the death sentences given to labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi and journalist Pakhshan Azizi by the Iranian regime.

The Iranian regime has been suppressing all the rights of all people, especially women, with its extremist religious ideology and reactionary patriarchal mindset for half a century, the statement said. “It has deprived all people, especially women, of their rights. Despite all kinds of oppression, Iranian people, led by women, never give up resisting this oppressive regime and demanding freedom. Neither executions nor imprisonment have been able to make the people take a step back, and the Iranian regime has not been able to break the strength and will of the struggling people.”

 No state can survive in the 21st century unless it is based on democracy, freedom, justice and equality, the statement said. “There are many examples of this, especially in the Middle East, and the Iranian state is not far from facing the same fate of its neighboring countries, and the ‘Women, Life, Freedom” uprising confirm this fact. The Iranian regime may say that it suppressed this uprising but it will not be able to extinguish the fire burning in the hearts of those seeking freedom and silence the women who cut their braided hair for freedom. Eventually, women will take revenge on the regime for their braided hair that symbolizes their lives. The Iranian regime has to change; it will collapse if it does not open its door to democracy, freedom and equality.”

The statement recalled the death sentences against Sharifeh Mohammadi and Pakhshan Azizi and said, “Thousands of women are tortured in the prisons of the Iranian regime for demanding freedom. Despite all the physical and psychological torture, they keep voicing their demands and never kneel down before the tyrannical Iranian regime. Varisha Moradi, Sharifeh Mohammadi and Pakhshan Azizi never bow to the Iranian regime.”

 In the statement, the YRJ condemned the death sentences against Sharifeh Mohammadi and Pakhshan Azizi, announcing that they started a petition with the motto, “No to executions” in Iran. “We collect signatures to express our support to Sharifeh Mohammadi and Pakhshan Azizi and say that we are in solidarity with them. The petition will last until August 19. We call on all human rights organizations, women’s movements and journalists’ organizations to support our petition and be the voices of women in Iran.”