The NZ Iranian community held a protest at Parliament today calling for the government to respond to the situation in Iran. Video / Mark Mitchell
Government under pressure for action against Iran
Iranian women leaders in New Zealand have met with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the Beehive to express concerns about the violence in their homeland and urge stronger action from the Government, including expelling the Iranian Ambassador.
Ardern joined the second half of a meeting organised by Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Iranian-born Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, who had previously worked together on moving a motion through Parliament.
They met with five members of Iran Solidarity Group, set up in Wellington shortly after protests began in Iran in September after the death of Mahsa Amini.
Ghahraman said the meeting was aimed at bringing the “lived experience and expertise of Iranian community members leading protest action here in Aotearoa”.
They spoke about the “atrocities” they’d experienced, along with what other nations had done to hold Iranian security and political leaders to account.
These actions included freezing assets and funding, travel bans and designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror entity.
“We also discussed the issues around expelling the Ambassador [Mohammad Reza Mofatteh], which community members said was needed to limit the threat posed by the Islamic regime against Iranian New Zealanders organising protest here.”
NZ Iranian women leaders meeting Green MP Golriz Ghahraman (left), Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the Beehive. Photo / Supplied
Ghahraman said Ardern had engaged “meaningfully” on all the points raised. She’d be meeting again with Mahuta shortly to discuss the “next steps”.
Iran Solidarity group member Hanna Habibi said they had called on New Zealand to take its response further and follow the actions of other countries, including designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist entity and applying targeted sanctions. They also called on the Government to expel the Iranian Ambassador.
“We were grateful to be able to bring this perspective to them, to see there was the willpower to listen to us.
“But we need to wait and see what measures will be used.”
Habibi said they’d been told Mahuta was given the “task” of monitoring and considering what could be done by New Zealand, and they anticipated being involved in further meetings with the Government.
A spokeswoman for Mahuta said in the meeting she had acknowledged the “courage of the women and girls and other protestors in Iran”.
She recognised the role of diaspora Iranian communities in New Zealand and around the world in amplifying the protests against human rights abuses.
Mahuta said she wanted to hear their perspectives to ensure that as “New Zealand continues to speak out against human rights abuses it is sensitive to the voices of the Iranian community here and in Iran”.
The group provided an overview of the level of human rights abuses occurring in Iran providing examples of beatings of school girls and shootings of Friday prayer worshippers.
Mahura and Ardern said New Zealand would keep registering its condemnation of the violations of human rights in Iran, both bilaterally and through multilateral forums like the United Nations.
Mahuta also agreed to meet representatives of the community again.
They were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died shortly after being detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly. Her death sparked protests from women frustrated by Iran’s theocratic government’s repressive rules about dress, and the regime’s rigid enforcement of these rules.
The protests have been met with a wave of violence from the regime. That violence intensified recently, with shots fired into the crowd at a ceremony marking 40 days of mourning for her death.
At least 300 protesters have been killed and thousands arrested since the unrest began, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran.
NZ Iranian community protest organiser Hanna Habibi during their rally at Parliament, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
More recently the Iranian parliament called for the execution of protesters arrested over the past 55 days.
It is unclear when this could occur or who exactly it would entail, but about 14,000 people have been arrested in connection with the recent protests.
New Zealand has been criticised for taking a soft touch to joining the international condemnation of Amini’s death and the protests that followed.
It is believed the Government held its tongue at least in part because it was negotiating the release of two wealthy travel influencers, Bridget Thackwray and Topher Richwhite, who had been touring Iran and posting about it to their Instagram account.
Protests have also been occurring in New Zealand, both against the Iranian regime and calling for the Government here to take stronger action.
About 50 people gathered outside the embassy in Hataitai near the end of October, before travelling to Parliament.
NZ Iranian women leaders meeting Green MP Golriz Ghahraman (left), Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the Beehive. Photo / Supplied
The protest came shortly after Parliament passed a motion in the House on the treatment of women in Iran and the protests.
“I move that this House note the bravery of women and the people of Iran exercising their right to protest for women’s rights and democracy,” Mahuta said at the time.
The motion also called for a “thorough, independent, and prompt investigation” into the recent deaths of people in the custody of Iranian authorities, including the morality police, and condemned the human rights breaches and use of violence.
Just over a week ago Mahuta and Ardern announced the Government has suspended its human rights dialogue with Iran following the regime’s crackdown on protests.
New Zealand started the Human Rights Dialogue with Iran in 2018 in the hope of “advancing human rights issues and concerns”.
Ardern said Iran was “moving backwards” on human rights, with hundreds dying and thousands injured.
