The struggle of human rights violations in Iran has been an ongoing struggle until this day. Gunjeet and I interviewed an Iranian refugee who is now living in Europe, Shabnam Madadzadeh. She discussed about the different cases of human rights violations examples of these violations are, women are prevented from attending school, gender segregation , the lack of the freedom of speech, arresting people who are protesting and the struggles of having low quality education. These are all the main factors that is keeping Iran from progressing . The reason behind this is because of the enormous amount of inequality their citizens are facing from the lack of employment and education. Without the proper education then citizens will be unemployed, that means there will be less jobs. This will cause the economic sector of Iran to struggle, which will decrease the countries economic development which can to an increase of poverty. 

Poverty has been the biggest factors that Iranian’s have to face in their daily lives. The authoritarian leadership that Iranian government practices is damaging the lives of its citizens, as what Shabnam mentioned she was involved in groups who tried to protest against the government. Which led her to be imprisoned and abused alongside her family, this is a violation of human rights and women’s rights. Women have been treated like second class citizens and are abused because of their gender. The government even went as far to executing their own people which led to total destruction and caused social values to be violated. A friend of Shabnam named “Shirin Alamhuli” was executed by the regime because she was fighting for her rights as a woman and to possibly gain freedom. Another friend of hers, Maryam Akbari Monfared has been imprisoned for fourteen years because of protesting. As you can see, how women are depicted in their society women are being tortured and killed just for defending themselves. Women are being sexually assaulted and if these women do try to get justice they end up being killed or imprisoned. 

 

There are millions of women and men that are being abused by the Iranian regime who still did not receive justice. This is an unfortunate situation for the people of Iran because some of their citizens have so much potential to be leaders, but unfortunately the Iranian government is preventing them for doing so. Because of this, Shabnam chose to flee with other refugees to the EU to build a better life. She chose to have a voice and to speak for those who are being abused. She decided partake  public speaking, where she was involved in the UN and the EU in different programs to fight for the protection of the Iranian people and Iranian refugees. The inhumane crimes that the Iranian regime did to their own citizens is still an ongoing practice in Iran. The prevention of such crime will be a challenge to stop, even the G7 alliance can not form a diplomatic agreement that could influence the Iranian government. However by accepting refugees in to the country, in that way the government could safeguard the lives of the Iranian people. That is the most important thing to accomplish when saving the lives of people who are from countries that are in crisis. By giving refugees a platform to speak and to have their voices be heard to share their story, this can raise awareness to the citizens of the G7 alliance about the importance of fighting for human rights. By educating people about human rights and about the ongoing conflict that is happening in other countries, this can possibly prevent those crimes from happening within our countries. The crisis that Iranians are experiencing may not happen in our daily lives, but that does not mean we shouldn’t care about these people. 

 

Just like Shabnam, she was able to get a platform to advocate about human rights in her time living in Switzerland. She is currently writing a book about her life story as a survivor of Iran and as a refugee. Her book is called, “The Undefeatable Martys of Summer 1988”. It is great to see a survivor of human rights abuses inspire other people to never give up and to always follow your dreams. That is why it is important to never loose hope and to keep going. Nothing is impossible as long as you work hard to reach your goals.