This statement from Zanan Group, an independent Iranian women's organization, Northern California chapter, was read at the January 28 program.

Our hearts go out to everyone who has suffered losses in the recent uprising in Iran! With communications and Internet shut down, the number of arrests and killings are not known but estimated to be in thousands where even one is too many!

We support people's struggles for their human rights: the right to speak, to protest, to organize, and to imagine a free future. And, we stand in unwavering solidarity with all political prisoners in Iran; writers, activists, artists, students, workers, women, and dissenters who are imprisoned for exercising their most basic human rights.

Their imprisonment is not a crime; it is an indictment of a system that relies on repression, fear, and silence to sustain itself. The voices behind prison walls carry the truth of a society demanding dignity, justice, and equality. No amount of intimidation can erase their courage or the legitimacy of their struggle.

We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and those who have been arrested in recent uprising in Iran, an end to torture, solitary confinement, and unfair trials, and accountability for those responsible for systemic human rights violations. We affirm that freedom of expression, bodily autonomy, and political participation are not privileges granted by power, but inalienable rights.

To those imprisoned: you are not forgotten. Your resistance resonates far beyond prison walls. We carry your names, your stories, and your demands, and we will continue to speak where you are silenced until freedom, justice, and life prevail.

Zanan Group in Northern California