On Saturday, February 22, 2025, the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran hosted a conference to commemorate International Women’s Day (IWD 2025). The event gathered distinguished political leaders, human rights advocates, and supporters of the Iranian Resistance from over 80 countries.
Helen Goodman is a British former politician and member of the Labour Party, known for her tenure as the Member of Parliament (MP) from 2005 to 2019. She has a robust background in public service and policy, having held several significant roles during her 14-year parliamentary career.
Helen Goodman was Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from 2007 to 2008 and a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2009 to 2010. A committed advocate for social justice, she has been an associate researcher at the University of Durham since 2020.
Helen Goodman delivered a speech at the IWD 2025 event in Paris, the text of which is presented below.
Helen Goodman: A Voice for Iran’s Resilient Women
Mrs. Rajavi, friends, sisters, it is a great honor and privilege to have been invited to talk to you today. Today, women in Iran truly are the first victims of the regime, but they also have been at the forefront of the struggle for freedom and democracy for over sixty years, and Maryam’s own life is a testament to this truth.
Systemic Discrimination Against Women
Women face multiple levels of discrimination, and it starts in childhood. For boys, the age of criminal responsibility is 15, but for girls, it’s 9. As Teresa said, in law, girls can be married at 13, which is too young, but in reality, fathers and grandfathers can force their daughters to be married from age 9. Women are second-class citizens in every area—in pay, in jobs, in marriage, in divorce—and they cannot change things without protest because they’re forbidden from holding high political office.
Escalating Violence Since 2022
Since the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 and the start of the movement for women’s resistance and freedom, there has been an intensification of state-sponsored violence against women. Disappearances, torture, and sexual violence are all rife, with cruel and inhuman punishments like flogging. Women are facing an epidemic of violence with impunity for every wife-beater and every corrupt policeman. As we meet today, Pakhshan Azizi and Verisha Moradi are on death row.
Broken Promises Under Pezeshkian
In the middle of last year, Pezeshkian won the presidential election promising reform for women, but since then, things have gotten worse. The National Council believed that between 2022 and 2024, the number of women executed doubled. Amnesty International reported that in 2023, there were 853 executions, and in 2024, two-thirds of the executions of women were under Pezeshkian. So why is this? It is because he cannot control the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Hijab Law: A Tool of Oppression
In December, the new hijab law came into force—a key symbol for the regime. Refusal to comply is treated as a security threat. The penalties are brutal: imprisonment for ten years, fines, washing dead bodies in the morgue, or fifty lashes. The whole of society is being corralled into policing this law, from taxi drivers to banks. A woman or girl in a car without a headscarf can receive a text message on her phone in real time, requiring her to go to the police station or have the family car impounded.
Totalitarian Control in Iran
Some of you will know Hannah Arendt’s definition of totalitarianism: they seek to dominate every aspect of everyone’s life, and that is exactly what is happening in Iran today.
So, there has never been a more important time for us to send a message of solidarity and support to our sisters in Iran: women, resistance, freedom.
