Above, women in Melbourne, Australia, protest in solidarity with women's rights advocates in Iran. Photo courtesy of Matt Krkac via Flickr.
By Sarah Bell ’25
Staff Writer
On Oct. 11, 2022, Interim President Beverly Daniel Tatum and a collective of presidents from Barnard, Smith, Vassar, Bryn Mawr and Wellesley Colleges released a statement regarding the ongoing protests for civil rights, particularly women’s rights, in Iran.
The protests in Iran — which began after the death of Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, 2022 — have sparked worldwide support. Within the country, many protests have been women-led and involved chanting anti-government sayings. A video of Iranian school girls smashing a framed photo of the current and past Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, went viral after being shared online.
Outside of the country, solidarity protests are happening worldwide, particularly in the United States and Europe. In Berlin, Germany, a huge protest of the Iranian diaspora and allies stormed the streets chanting the need of more support and interference to the Iranian government from the West.
President Tatum and associates stated their support, explaining that as college leaders, they express solidarity with those who are impacted by the current situation in Iran, reinstating that the most basic fundamental rights of women are at stake, globally, and world leaders should be held accountable. Towards the end of the letter, the college presidents highlighted the need for efforts by colleges within the United States to better educate students on gender equity, academic freedom and voting.
At the end of the statement, a statistic from a recent U.N. report stated that it estimated that the world would take another 300 years to achieve gender equity at its current pace. To close, the presidents asserted that “We can and must do better.”