EU lawmakers slam Iran's rights abuses on women

The European Parliament on Thursday condemned Iran's rights abuses against women, including "brutal murders," and its detention of EU nationals.

A non-binding resolution slammed the "deterioration of the human rights situation in Iran, and the brutal murders of women by the Iranian authorities, including the 2023 Sakharov Prize laureate Jina Mahsa Amini," a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who died last year in police custody.

MEPs also called for the immediate release from detention of human rights defenders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi.

The motion was adopted by 516 votes to four, with 27 abstentions.

MEPs urged Tehran "to end immediately all discrimination against women and girls, including mandatory veiling, and to withdraw all gender discriminatory laws".

Don't be afraid, we are all together': The story of Ghazaleh Chalabi, another Iranian heroine murdered for speaking up 👇 https://t.co/MNrlDEasc2

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) October 21, 2023

Amini's death last year sparked widespread street demonstrations against the Iranian government which were brutally put down by security forces. Hundreds of people have been killed or executed in the repression and thousands arrested.

In October, the European Parliament awarded the EU's top rights honour, the Sakharov Prize, to Amini and to the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement that sprang up after her death.

European lawmakers reiterated a call for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be designated a "terrorist organisation" by EU states and for sanctions against the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other top officials for human rights violations.

They also condemned Iran's "hostage diplomacy" under which many foreigners have been seized for what European governments say is a tactic to extract concessions from the West, or the release of Iranians imprisoned abroad.