The Kurdish PEN issued a written statement concerning the ongoing demonstrations in East Kurdistan and Iran that followed the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in morality police custody.

According to Kurdish PEN, the protests erupted as a result of the murder of a Kurdish woman, yet the main reason for the uprising is the 40 years of persecution, oppression, attacks, detentions, torture, massacres and executions of the dictatorial, totalitarian and murderous system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“The political Islamic system is always at odds with those who demand freedom and the peoples. During the uprisings and protests across Iran, many protestors have been killed, injured or arrested. Many journalists, cultural staff and human rights activists have also been attacked and arrested,” the statement said.

“The global public opinion should pay heed to the voice of the Iranian people, especially the women who have been suppressed and deprived of even the most basic human rights during the 40-year rule of the Islamic Republic of Iran and should do its part to ensure that their most human and natural demands are met,” the statement noted.

“As the Kurdish PEN, we emphasize that we will stand by the legitimate and democratic demands of the pro-freedom Iranian people as we have done before.

We also urge all institutions, organizations, platforms, intellectuals, all Kurdish and Iranian peoples and pro-freedom individuals to support this historic resistance everywhere.

The humanitarian, conscientious, social, national duty and responsibility of a writer and intellectual is to lead others in the public sphere by being at the forefront for the freedom of his/her people and nation.

We ask Kurdish writers, artists and intellectuals in Kurdistan, Europe and the world, all PEN centres, and International PEN to advocate this uprising with their struggle and various actions and stand by the Iranian peoples who demand freedom.”