The KJAR (Free Women’s Communities of Kurdistan) Coordination has issued a call to the Kurdish people to take ownership of Ferinaz Xosrawani, the young woman who threw herself from a 4th floor balcony in Mahabad yesterday to avoid being raped.
The KJAR (Free Women’s Communities of Kurdistan) Coordination has issued a call to the Kurdish people to take ownership of Ferinaz Xosrawani, the young woman who threw herself from a 4th floor balcony in the hotel where she worked in Mahabad yesterday to avoid being raped.
Ferinaz Xosrawani threw herself from the balcony to escape from Iranian intelligence operatives who attempted to molest her.
The KJAR drew attention to the systematic violence meted out to women in the Middle East in particular, saying that attacks on women drew power from social backwardness and discriminatory laws. “Violence and sexual assault are a culture and mentality. Consequently, these attacks are not merely attacks carried out by an individual male or group of males,”
‘Iran has deployed Basij everywhere’
The KJAR statement drew attention to the role of the Basij Resistance Force (Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz'afin) [a volunteer paramilitary organisation linked to the Revolutionary Guards], saying Basij forces have been deployed everywhere in Iran, adding that the Iranian state ignores violence perpetrated against women.
KJAR also recalled the hanging of Reyhane Jabari and the murder of Kurdish student Shaida Hatami. “Women in Iran have absolutely no security of life and the law is based on the interests of the dominant male state,” the statement continued.
The KJAR condemned the attack on Ferinaz Xosrowanî and offered condolences to her family and stressed that the attack was directly linked to the state, and called on the Kurdish people, particularly women, to support the family of Ferinaz Xosrowanî, adding that the Iranian state was responsible for her death.
Kurdish women should take ownership of Ferinaz
The KJAR statement called on women to take ownership of Ferinaz Xorsawanî, adding: “If we do not want to live in a dishonourable way we must rise up against the systematic state policy of violence against women. We must ensure there is a similar reaction to the way Afghanistan took ownership of Farkhunda.”
Remarking that all methods of struggle must be utilised to punish and make an example of rapists, the KJAR statement concluded by calling for joint struggle against such attacks, adding that the KJAR and HPJ would strive to end the culture of rape.
