Please join us in Auerbach 320 or online this Wednesday, Oct. 11, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., for our next meeting of the University of Hartford Philosophy Club as Anae Sobhani of the Barney School of Business presents on the women’s movement of Iran.
To join the meeting online, click here. If you have trouble joining, call Brian Skelly at 413.273.2273.
“Woman, Life, Freedom”; also called “Women, Life, Freedom” (in Kurdish: “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî”; in Persian (Farsi): “Zan, Zendegī, Āzādī”); is a protest slogan that affirms that the rights of women are at the center of life and liberty for all of humanity (see attached image).
On Sept. 13, 2022, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Zhina (Mahsa) Amini was arrested in Tehran by Iran’s so-called “morality” police. She was violently beaten while in custody and died three days later. Mahsa’s death sparked widespread protests across Iran. Since then, the regime has brutally killed over 500 women, men, and children in different cities and jailed and tortured many more.
The slogan is best known in the English-language media for its use within the context of Iran. The death of Amini was a reflection of the escalating and unrelenting authoritarianism of the Iranian regime at a time of deepening economic instability.
What we as Iranian women are fighting for (and please join us!):
- For all the great minds who had to flee their country of Iran in order to share their great genius with the world on behalf of a different country;
- for those 176 passengers of flight PS 752 and their unfinished dreams, now ashes in the sky
- for Mahsa Amini, who unveiled the truth for the world to see
- for all those beating hearts who are facing execution that wanted to be more than just hashtags
This fight is also your fight because this is a fight against human rights violations, gender discrimination, unfair trials, suppression of free speech, forced child marriage, government corruption, and in general, a fight for freedom and justice.
For Woman, Life, Freedom شروین حاجی پور
This song text is made up of the Tweets of many Iranians who answered the unspoken question of why we are protesting. Every line of this song is a Tweet of a person who has expressed their reason, hope, or expectation. Shervin Hajipour, a young Iranian singer, wrote the lyrics out of the tweets and sang the song.
Anae Sobhani is an assistant professor of Business Analytics and Data Science in the Barney School of Business. Sobhani holds a PhD in transportation engineering from McGill University. Before coming to the University of Hartford, she was an Assistant Professor in the Social Urban Transitions Section and a member of the Machine Learning Applications committee at the Applied Data Science Centre at Utrecht University (Netherlands). Her research on developing next-generation integrated micro-simulation models based on Big Data for transport and other urban systems in association with health (e.g. ride-sharing, Automated Vehicles, etc.) has been published in many journals.
An ongoing weekly tradition at the University since 2001, the University of Hartford Philosophy Club is a place where students, professors, and people from the community at large meet as peers. Sometimes presentations are given, followed by discussion. Other times, topics are hashed out by the whole group.
Presenters may be students, professors, or people from the community. Anyone can offer to present a topic. The mode of presentation may be as formal or informal as the presenter chooses.
Food and drink are served. Come and go as you wish. Bring friends. Suggest topics and activities. Take over the club! It belongs to you!