Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My aim today is to provide an overall view of the direction of social movements, as well as the state of human rights in Iran. I will begin by mapping the waves of unrest that have been shaping up in recent years, marking a significant shift in the direction and social base of protest movements in Iran.
Most major uprisings in modern Iran, including the more recent Green Movement of 2009 and the 1979 revolution, were rooted primarily in the political desires of the urban middle classes. Recent eruptions, however, are largely characterized by economic underpinnings in geographical regions far from urban centres.
Teachers' unions, the Tehran bus drivers' union and other trade unions of various stripes—oil labourers, students, pensioners and shopkeepers—are some of the groups that have displayed their collective dissatisfaction on the streets in recent years. Wages and safe working conditions are among key demands. The government's response is often intense crackdown, including detention, solitary confinement, forced confessions and torture.
During an intense period of unrest in November 2019, many Iranians protested a threefold rise in the cost of petroleum in well over 100 cities. Security forces shut down the Internet. Close to 1,500 protesters were killed, and many more were jailed.
In January 2020, the Iranian public, still mourning the November protests, was confronted with the aftermath of General Soleimani's assassination by the United States and the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing all 176 on board. Many were Canadians. The Islamic Republic of Iran's utter disregard for human life and its propensity for violence have, tragically, had far-reaching implications here at home in Canada with the downing of flight PS752.
The new wave of opposition to the regime, however, is characteristically different from prior periods, for it is threatening the ideological base of an ideological system. This is a measure that can prove fatal for the regime.
Since the onset, the IRI has branded itself the “republic of the dispossessed”, and it has managed to legitimize its violent consolidation of power based on that narrative. Loss of legitimacy in the eyes of its base of support is, therefore, no small feat. Ideological regimes are deeply dependent on their base in justifying repression. The current economic crisis further exasperates that crisis of legitimacy. IRI's inability to deliver its promise to materially better their collective lot further disillusions its political base.
In the last year alone, over 4,000 labour and trade protests have taken place. Last week, over 120 teachers were detained. Some have since been released, but as many as 36 remain in detention. At least 10 jailed teachers and countless other activists are on hunger strikes.
The teachers' union is of particular significance, since they have a national organizational and mobilization capacity. Furthermore, women, including the currently detained Reyhaneh Ansari, make up considerable numbers, both in leadership and membership of the union. Union spokesperson Mohammed Habibi, as well as Jafar Ebrahimi and Rasoul Bodaghi, are among the teachers in solitary confinement in the notorious Evin prison.
The list, as you can imagine, is long.
State repression, however, does not end there. The regime frequently resorts to hostage diplomacy by detaining dual and foreign nationals on fabricated charges to justify suppression domestically and to demand concessions in international negotiations. As a case in point, recently, two French teachers visiting their counterparts in Iran were arrested on allegations of espionage.
Dissent also continues to intensify among the regime's long-time opponents, including women, ethnic groups and intellectuals. Examples of such expressions of solidarity come from Narges Mohammadi and Nasrin Sotoudeh, both lawyers and human rights activists. They are among many other rights and civil society activists who have persistently stood by the protesters. Women, the first casualty of the regime's gender apartheid, have also expressed strong solidarity.
The situation in Iran is dire, and the evidence suggests that the systemic repression and state violence, as well as the country's political and economic stability, will only get worse in the foreseeable future. Canada's commitment to democracy within its borders and beyond makes it a moral and political imperative to support these organic, democratic movements from below.
Thank you.