The following statement was posted in Farsi on Burn The Cage IG on July 7, 2023 and translated to English by IEC volunteers.

The [Islamic] regime's repression continues as usual. After brutal attacks on protesters on the streets, there are widespread detentions, torture and intimidation.  They are ordering and carrying out death sentences to create a graveyard of silence.  The regime has expedited issuing subpoenas and creating files. They are holding closed door courts and issuing severe sentences.

In recent weeks, Toomaj Salehi, the protest rapper, after enduring 8 months of detention, faces serious charges such as "corruption on earth" and "collaboration with a hostile government [Canada]".

Mariam Akbari-Monfared has been in prison for over 13 years without having a day of furlough. Even though she has 18 more months of her sentence left, she's facing new trumped-up charges. Sepideh Gholian who has been finishing her sentence, is [now] asked to appear in court to face new charges. Every day there are news reports of persecution and torment of such freedom fighters.

The repression of women continues in various forms. The overall atmosphere in public places, in workplaces and in the education arena has become unsafe for women who are protesting against mandatory hijab. The regime who has put people in an impasse of poverty and misery, now wants to turn the hungry and impoverished people into "enforcers of proper behavior" [over others].

From the early days when this regime took power, women have been the vanguard of the fight for freedom. This time they have remained unwavering. With their tireless resilience and consistency, they have shown that women's freedom cannot be negotiated or deferred. Women's liberation is the turning point in pursuit of freedom, and without it any interpretation of liberation is without credibility.

This time women are not isolated protesters, as they were in March 1980 on the threshold of the murderous [Islamic] regime consolidating itself. Today, behind the graveyard of silence, there are open bonds of solidarity forging where people are cooperating with protesting women in various forms.  This kind of solidarity has the same formidable and durable power that makes passing through any treacherous road possible."