(JNS) The Israeli mission to the United Nations marked International Women’s Day by spotlighting four Iranian women who have spoken out against the Islamic Republic, including Raheleh Amiri, who lost sight in one eye after being shot by security forces during the 2022 protests in Iran.
Standing alongside the women, Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Amiri’s experience reflected the treatment of thousands of Iranian women by the country’s ruling clerical regime.
“The experience of Raheleh Amiri—along with thousands of other Iranian women—reveals to the world the true face of the Islamic regime,” Danon stated. “While the regime in Tehran is spreading terror throughout the Middle East and threatening the entire world, it is also killing its own people who dare to demand freedom in their country. The international community cannot continue to ignore these crimes.”
Watch the brave testimony of Raheleh Amiri from Iran, who paid a heavy personal price while fighting for freedom >> pic.twitter.com/5ZgWAwO9aT
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) March 9, 2026
Joining Danon and Amiri were Nazee Moinian, an Iranian-born fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington; Marjan Keypour Greenblatt, an Iranian-American policy analyst and human-rights activist; and Shiva Amini, a former player on Iran’s women’s national futsal team who left the country after facing government harassment.
“To the women of Iran: Your enemy is our enemy,” Danon said. “Let us pray that by International Women’s Day 2027, Iranian mothers, daughters, grandmothers will stand here themselves speaking for a new reality in Iran, where women finally, finally have what they have been denied for too long—rights and justice.”
The Israeli mission later hosted a side event at UN headquarters where the women described their experiences.
Moinian warned that the conflict between the Islamic Republic and its opponents has broader implications beyond the Middle East.
“I really believe that it’s a battle against the Western civilization in totality,” Moinian said. “As much as it looks like a regional war, this is the fate of everyone who cares about their values, their traditions, the cultures of Western civilizations and what you have brought forth to this day in this country, and have been able to spread the beacon of hope and democracy around the world.”
Amini spoke on how the Iranian regime discriminates against minorities—including Kurds and members of the Baháʼí Faith—while using sports to “whitewash” government abuses.
“I stand here refusing to concede in the face of tyranny,” she said. “This regime did everything it could to brainwash us, to plant slogans like ‘Death to America and death to Israel,’ to silence human dignity and to turn athletes into tools that could be used for political propaganda on the international stage.”
Amiri, who trained as a psychologist, was wounded on Nov. 15, 2022, in the southeastern city of Kerman when metal pellets fired by Iranian security forces struck her eye during demonstrations linked to the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.
She said the loss of her eye reflects the sacrifices made by many Iranian women.
“For years I tried to understand human pain and help others, to heal the wounds of my own soul,” Amiri told those in attendance. “The story I have brought with me is not only about the loss of an eye. This is the story of a generation of Iranian women whose bodies became the battlefield for freedom.”
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