October 17, 2022
THE VARSITY
Nawa Tahir and Jadine Ngan Managing Editor — External and Editor-in-Chief
Content warning: This article contains discussions of death, as well as descriptions of gender-based violence and large-scale physical violence. On October 6, over 400 people marched from Sidney Smith Hall to the Ontario Legislative Building in solidarity with the ongoing protests in Iran. The rally was co-organized by U of T graduate students Sara Shariati and Maryam Rahimi Shahmirzadi. According to organizers, the October 6 protest was the largest Iran solidarity event yet at U of T. Previous
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Hundreds march at U of T in solidarity with Iran protests
Current demonstrations connected to a long history of outrage, say speakers
protests had been held at UTSG on September 22 and 23. A community vigil also took place on October 3, coorganized by the Iranian Association at the University of Toronto, the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office, and the Multi-Faith Centre. These events are part of a worldwide movement sparked by the September 16 death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman. Amini died in custody after Iranian “morality police” arrested her for violating the country’s mandatory dress code. The protest The crowd first gathered on the steps in front of
Sidney Smith Hall, where the rally was set to begin. According to protest organizers, Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science, was in attendance. Some attendees held signs displaying the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” or calling for freedom for Iran. Other attendees’ signs displayed the photos and names of people reportedly killed during the violent crackdown on demonstrations in Iran, including 16-yearold Nika Shahkarami, who was allegedly killed by Iranian security forces for joining a protest in Tehran. According to the BBC, exact figures for casualties in Iran remain unclear due to Iranian authorities’ “strict control of information and independent reporting.” An estimate from Iran’s Human Rights
Activists News Agency indicates that, as of October 16, 240 people have been killed by the country’s security forces since the beginning of the demonstrations prompted by Amini’s death. Outside Sidney Smith, several speakers addressed the crowd, providing historical context for the movement and voicing demands for action from U of T and the Canadian government. In a speech at Sidney Smith, U of T graduate student Niloofar Ganji noted that although the current wave of demonstrations was directly sparked by outrage over Amini’s death, this sentiment “soon turned into outrage over 40 years of systemic discrimination, destruction, and oppression by the Islamic regime.” The current Islamic regime has governed Iran since the 1979 revolution, which was coordinated in opposition to the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Following the speeches, an attendee with a megaphone led the crowd in several chants of, “Hey hey, ho ho, Islamic regime must go.” The crowd then marched to the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen’s Park, where more U of T community members gave speeches. Amirali Alawi, a Faculty of Law student, spoke to the crowd at Queen’s Park on behalf of those who lost loved ones two years ago on Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752. Alawi’s mother was among the 176 people killed when Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) shot the plane down via surface-to-air missile on January 8, 2020. Eight U of T community members, including six students, were among those killed in the crash. “My hatred for the murderous regime in Iran grows deeper and deeper with each and every new massacre they commit,” said Alawi. Guita Banan, a U of T graduate student and alum of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, spoke about how compulsory hijab regulation is “a tool of power” employed within systems of patriarchy and misogyny in Iran to suppress women. “It is not a coincidence that the most powerful [and] the most widespread protest in decades is led by women,” Banan said to the crowd at Queen’s Park. more on page 2