MCSDI Statement on International Women's Day - 2025

Every year on March 8, the world celebrates the International Women’s Day. This day honors the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women while calling for gender equality.

In 1910, at the International Socialist Women’s Conference in Copenhagen, a German feminist Clara Zetkin proposed the idea of an annual Women’s Day. The idea was simple: Every year, women in every country should unite to campaign for their rights. The following year, more than a million people marked the day across Europe, advocating for women’s rights to vote, work, and hold public office.

The United Nations officially recognized International Women’s Day in 1977, marking a turning point in the global fight for gender equality. Since then, the day has grown into a worldwide celebration, each year highlighting issues such as violence against women, gender pay gaps and access to education.

International Women’s Day is more than just a date on the calendar—it’s a reminder of how far we’ve come and how far we still need to go. Despite progress, women worldwide continue to face discrimination, violence, and inequality. The day serves as a reminder and a platform to amplify women’s voices and advocate for change.

The Iranian women’s rights movement was not far behind the rest of the world, dating back to the Constitutional Revolution of early 1900s. That movement has since faced many ups and downs in its history and although was largely silenced by the 1930s, the women in Iran were able to gain certain level of basic rights during the 1960s and 70s.

The movement faced another major setback following the 1979 Islamic Revolution when women’s rights were targeted by the clerical rulers. Starting with the forced hijab laws, followed by depriving them of some of their most basic rights such as to child custody, divorce, travel, segregation, polygamy, etc, the regime continued with suppressing the women’s rights, treating them as second hand citizens with very few rights. The overt injustices forced by the new fundamentalist rulers, however was confronted by thousands of brave Iranian women’s protest on this day in 1979 in Tehran, which was barbarically attacked by the Forces of darkness. This was the first and last time the International Women’s Day was observed in Iran.

Ever since and for the past 46 years, women in Iran have been at the forefront of human rights and democratic movement, sacrificing and paying a high price for that. During these years, tens of thousands of women have been imprisoned, many have been subjected to psychological and physical torture and sexual abuse, and thousands have been executed. There are currently a large number of women among the political prisoners in Iran.

Most recently, in 2022 and with the murder of a young woman; Mahsa Amini by the savage forces of the so called Islamic morality police, the world witnessed the birth of “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran. An all out protests broke out across the country, demanding the end to the Islamic regime and its reactionary rules. Despite systematic violent reaction by the Islamic revolutionary guard, Basij paramilitary and plain clothes security forces, leading to killing, injury and arrest and execution of thousands of protestors, the women in Iran continue to be the leading force for change to bring about equality and justice, playing a prominent role in Iranian people’s pro-democracy movement.

So, on this International Women’s Day, we salute the brave women of Iran, remember their sacrifices and commemorate all those who have lost their lives for this noble cause and express our solidarity with the women political prisoners in Iran, reiterating our support for their movement to bring about a more just society with equality, justice, freedom, and democracy for all.

Minnesota committee in support for democracy in Iran

March 8, 2025, Minneapolis, MN