On the 17th of November, HOM joined forces with displaced Iranian activists and two organisations – AHBA and AAUBI – to stand by all the women in Iran and across the world and add our voices to theirs in calling for their rights. Two months after Mahsa Amini died in police custody after being detained for not wearing her hijab “appropriately”, we built space for honest dialogue where the words of the Iranian speakers made clear this is one of the largest human rights movement.

One without drones, weapons or bombs. Instead, one that counts with dancing in the streets, exposing hair publicly, and the loud chanting for “woman, life, freedom”. The important words of Iranian speakers showed this is not only about Iran but about the world. Not only about the women of the world but the humanity in the world. Golshifteh Farahani says “revolutions have roots in peoples’ wounds”. This revolution revealed the pain and suffering caused by oppressors in Iran, and we hope that this fight for freedom, combined with forgiveness, will come to heal those wounds in peoples’ hearts and set everyone free.