Let’s Resonate Sahar’s Protest against Gender Discrimination in Sport Field!
Sahar Khodayari lost her life at the dawn of Monday, September 9th due to self-immolation. With this tragic death, public conscience in Iran was deeply affected. She was burned in a raging fire spreading in the minds of Iranian women and girls. Sahar was burned and her life was taken by the Islamic Republic. Iran is the world's only country that does not tolerate the presence of women as viewers in stadiums. Liberty deprivation and trampling the most basic human rights, are rooted in the fabric of the Islamic Republic and are not inseparable from its very existence. Insults, humiliation, detention, interrogation, torture, and death, all are part of the government's behavior with women who are standing up against gender discrimination. Although this has been the behavior in the Islamic Republic for forty years on a daily basis, however, the heart-rending death of Sahar is a blow that could lead the regime to give in this battle.
Deep sorrow and overwhelming regret form Sahar’s death can be valuable only if they lead to expression of rage and anger and public political protest. The Islamic Republic must not be allowed to recover from this self-created tragedy. Let’s associate stadiums with Sahar’s name. Let’s resonate the voice of athletes who adhere to the noble spirit of sport and have announced "Stadium bans". Another worth welcoming initiative could be inviting the audience in the stadiums chanting "Where are the woman?" Each sport-loving person can write name of Sahar and the “Blue Girl” on chairs and walls of stadiums and nearby streets. Discussion of gender equality in sports can be launched in schools, universities, offices, factories and in any work environment. Athletes can be called on to use their athletic positions to show opposition to the Islamic Republic's policy of gender discrimination. There are various and endless initiatives that can be exercised.
Iranians abroad have great opportunities to protest against the Islamic Republic disobedience to the covenants and rules of international sports bodies. In this context, letters and a petition of signatures can be sent to the "FIFA" and the "International Olympic Committee". Protest gatherings can be held and their resolutions sent to the Secretariat of these institutions. Let these international institutions hear the voices of millions of athletes and sport-loving people of Iran from Iranians abroad. It is necessary for them to know that people are unhappy and angry of the discrimination policy of the Islamic Republic, especially in the sports field.
The Islamic Republic took Sahar’s life with her hopes and dreams. But this tragic crime has displayed gender discrimination policies of the regime in the sports field in front of the eyes of the world more than ever. Now, more than ever, with the resounding name of Sahar, it is time to force the regime to retreat from violating values and rules of the world sport. The day will come when unfulfilled wish of Sahar will blossom in the stadiums of the country and her memory in the fight against discrimination will become a flag waving atop stadiums across the country.
the Left Party of Iran (People’s Fadaian) call on all citizens across the country, democratic institutions, anti-discrimination organizations, democratic societies and political parties, by holding mass and individual protests, not to allow the medieval Islamic Republic’s policy to continue. We must believe that if voices of the Iranian people, sport fans and athletes, artists and writers, men and women, and various classes of the society intermix, discriminatory policy of a handful of reactionary individuals overruling the country that has emerged from the depths of centuries, will be buried.
Political-Executive Bureau of the Left Party of Iran (People’s Fadaian)
September 11, 2019
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