By The Marx Women

In the revolution we are carrying out in 2026 to end the theocratic dictatorship of the Ayatollahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, women have played a leading role. The dictatorship imposed by the high clergy to defend the Iranian capitalist state was based for decades on brutal repression against women through a patriarchal, sexist, and chauvinistic regime with all kinds of degrading and humiliating laws, rules, and impositions against us.

For decades, Iranian women have endured the mandatory wearing of the hijab and numerous "morality" rules designed to control and repress us. A special repressive force called the "Morality Police" was established , which zealously enforces these repressive rules against women and has the power to denounce us before "revolutionary tribunals" that punish us if they deem us to have violated the Islamic dress code or other regulations.

Under the terrible repression of the Ayatollahs' capitalist regime, we have suffered arbitrary arrests, torture, disappearances, and deaths. As our struggle against oppression grew stronger, the regime instituted "digital surveillance" of women as a form of state-sponsored "paramilitary surveillance" to consolidate physical and psychological violence, arrests, and detentions for supporting or participating in protests.

In 2022, we began a revolution that continues to this day, marked by the murder of Jina (Mahsa) Amini, who had been arrested in September 2022 for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. She died a few days later in custody, sparking massive protests under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom." Since then, thousands of women and girls have been arrested for removing their hijabs in public, sharing photos without veils on social media, or participating in demonstrations. Many of us face charges such as "propaganda against the state" or "corruption on earth ," which can carry lengthy prison sentences.

We also suffered the death of 20-year-old Hadis Najafi, shot dead on September 21, 2022, in Karaj during protests over Amini's death. She became a symbol of resistance among young Iranian women. In the 2022 movement, 16-year-old Nika Shakarami was killed in Tehran on September 20, 2022, beaten to death. Sixteen-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh, a blogger, died in September 2022 in Karaj, beaten by security forces during the protests. Thousands of women have been arrested since 2022, often forced to pay exorbitant bail or sign coerced "confessions."

But now, we have decided to rise up again against the dictatorship of the Ayatollahs. We are in the streets, and we are the majority of the millions of workers, students, merchants, and peasants facing the violent repression of the Ayatollahs' Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. We are part of a third global revolutionary wave sweeping through Turkey, Serbia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Morocco, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, France, the Ukrainian national revolutionary war, Syria, Rojava, the Palestinian national liberation Intifada, and so on. We are part of the Second Arab Spring, which is rising up against the religious governments of the clerics. And we are part of the Third Intifada; we are millions in more than 100 cities across the country. We are part of the world revolution against capitalism, and the defeat of the macho, patriarchal, theocratic regime will be a great step in the world revolution in our struggle for Global Socialism.