Voices of Iranian women: ‘We celebrated, but we cried. We danced, and we mourned’

Iranian women have commanded attention across the world in recent years for their “Women, Life, Freedom” anti-regime protest movement.

Thousands – and likely tens of thousands of people – were killed in a new round of protests this year, which Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said accelerated a timeline for carrying out strikes on the country last week.

But anti-government protests have been taking place in Iran for decades.

As the war in the Middle East continues and broadens, we asked four Iranian women who have been involved in previous protests in some form for their reaction to the last week’s events and what they want to see happen next.

Dr Afrooz Maghzi: ‘Condemning those attacks should not mean ignoring or excusing the Islamic Republic’s own long record of repression’

Iranian lawyer Afrooz Maghzi – a researcher at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway – worked with a network called Follow-up Iran during the most recent protests.

The network provided pro bono legal advice to the families of detainees and to people summoned by the courts or intelligence services.

Afrooz Maghzi, a researcher at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway

“I was receiving around 10 calls every day from families whose loved ones had been arrested, sometimes simply for posting two Instagram stories, often during night raids carried out by security agents,” she says. Some remain in unknown locations, and she heard “extremely disturbing” reports of abuse.

“Former detainees described severe torture during interrogations, including sexual assault and rape, even against injured protesters. Many detainees did not have access to independent lawyers. Instead, families were often forced to accept lawyers from a list approved by the judiciary, which in practice means lawyers closely linked to the security system.”

She has “mixed and complex