ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Tehran on Saturday strongly condemned a report from a United Nations fact-finding mission that accused Iranian authorities of committing “crimes against humanity” during the 2022 nationwide protests, calling the report part of the West’s “Iranophobia”.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran said on Friday that Iranian women and girls have been “severely deprived” of their basic rights and that many of the violations committed by authorities in their response to the Jin Jiyan Azadi protests amount to “crimes against humanity.”
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani in a statement on Saturday said that the report was based on “biased” information and that the UN mission was following the agenda of Tehran's rivals.
Tehran considers the report “a clear example of the misuse of the concepts and values of human rights to advance short-sighted political goals and considers it to be devoid of any validity and legal effect,” read the statement from the spokesperson.
“The founding countries of the so-called fact-finding commission are angry about the security and stability of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the failure of their interference in the riots… and they intend to take revenge on the Iranian nation through the publication of this report,” it added.
The Jin Jiyan Azadi protests were sparked by the September 2022 death of a Kurdish woman, Zhina (Mahsa) Amini, in the custody of the morality police after she was detained for reportedly not correctly wearing a hijab, in violation of Iran’s strict dress code.
Condemning Amini’s death, women and girls led massive, nationwide protests that were the greatest existential threat to the Islamic regime since its founding more than four decades earlier. The demonstrators were met with lethal force. At least 551 protesters were killed, including 49 women and 68 children, according to the UN report. Thousands more were arrested.
The UN report said Iran’s crackdown on the protests stemmed from institutionalized discrimination against women and girls.
Kanaani refuted the UN’s findings, stating that the future of Iran will be built by its women and girls and called them “a source of pride.” He added that a committee, formed by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to investigate the 2022 protests, has recently submitted its final report to the president.
