Melanie Joly, the foreign affairs minister for Canada, will convene a virtual meeting with her counterparts to raise worries about women’s rights in Iran that have grown after Mahsa Amini’s murder.
Global Affairs Canada said in a statement on Wednesday that Joly will meet with other female foreign ministers on Thursday and hear directly from women of Iranian ancestry.
Joly said in a statement that she and her counterparts would meet this week to “send a clear message: The Iranian dictatorship must halt all forms of violence and persecution against the Iranian people, including their terrible aggressions against women in particular.”
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian lady who died on September 16 while being held by Iran’s’morality police’ for allegedly donning her headscarf too loosely, has been dead for more than a month.
Protests in Iran and around the world have been prompted by her murder.
In retaliation, Canada has announced a number of actions against the Iranian government, including the expulsion from Canada of half the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) membership and the censure of prominent leaders.
According to the GAC, Ottawa has sanctioned 42 Iranian people and 12 Iranian businesses since October 3.
Canada will continue to support the brave Iranians who stand up for their mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters while defending their human rights, Joly added. Human rights include the rights of women.
Although the turmoil does not seem to be near to overthrowing the system, the protests sparked by Amini’s killing have developed into one of the strongest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
Women have taken off and burned their headscarves during the widespread protests.
Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi, who caused controversy by competing in an international contest without a headscarf, returned to Iran Wednesday to cheering supporters, reiterating in comments to state media she had climbed without a hijab unintentionally.
Rekabi, 33, was captured on camera scaling a wall while participating in South Korea as a representative of Iran, which had been rocked by unrest following the death of Mahsa Amini while in the care of the morality police.
Rekabi apologised to “the people of Iran for the disturbance and fear that I produced” in remarks to state television after arriving in Tehran. She was wearing a baseball cap and a hood over her head as she talked.
She continued, “I forgot about the proper hijab that I should have worn and walked to the wall and ascended because of the difficulties I had getting my shoes on and getting ready.”
Rekabi explained why she had competed without a headscarf in a message posted on her Instagram account on Tuesday, blaming bad scheduling and stating she had been asked to climb abruptly.
Rekabi, who finished fourth in the competition, denied being unavailable for 48 hours in her broadcast remarks and said that the squad had indeed returned to Iran as scheduled. According to her, she has no plans to leave the national team.
Friends had reported to BBC Persian on Tuesday that they had been unable to reach her and that there were concerns for her safety. On Twitter, the Iranian embassy in South Korea refuted rumours that she had vanished following the tournament.
— with files from Reuters.
Melanie Joly of Canada will host a meeting on Iran amidst the outrage over Mahsa Amini’s passing
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