JINHA

NEWS CENTER – The women's guerrilla group KJAR has called on the people of Mahabad and women across Iran to rise up after a 26-year-old Kurdish woman threw herself to her death to escape a rape attempt in Mahabad.

The Eastern Kurdistan Free Women's Community (KJAR) called in a statement yesterday for the people of the Kurdish city of Mahabad and for all women in Iran to rise up and seek justice for Ferinaz Xosrawanî, the young hotel worker who jumped from a hotel window to escape a rape attempt. Iranian security officers have been suspected of the rape.

Calling on civil society and human rights groups to organize against rape, KJAR said that all women in Iran and especially Kurdish women should rise up for Ferinaz the way Afghan women have for Farkhunda. KJAR, wishing condolences to Ferinaz's family, called on them not to give up in their pursuit of truth and the punishment of perpetrators in the case.

"In Iran, Basij forces are stationed everywhere and the state gets word when a single bird takes flight. But when it comes to violence against women, the state turns a blind eye," said the statement. "Women live under the threat of male violence and attack every second. In Iran, women have no security of life."

The statement noted that all Ferinaz's attackers were state employees. In the case of Reyhaneh Jabbari (the woman executed in Iran in October for killing her rapist), the man who attacked her was also a former intelligence agent. KJAR said that women must refuse the state's message that "if you defend yourself, you'll end up like Reyhaneh."

(mg/cm)