emergency alerts
The IWI: International Women’s Initiative issues Emergency Alerts in response to significant events in countries and regions where multiple indicators of women’s human rights violations are present. These alerts pertain to immediate developments that may accelerate harmful trends and potentially advance a society toward widespread femicidal acts targeting specific groups of women.
These alerts focus on emerging threats and behaviours identified as existential risks that are insufficiently recognised by the international community and media. The IWI seeks to elevate awareness of these issues within a femicide prevention framework.
The situation in Iran has deteriorated sharply since late 2025, putting women and girls at unprecedented risk of harm, detention, and death. Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) – including students, journalists, lawyers, and community leaders – have increasingly faced arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, judicial harassment, and threats of violence directly linked to their activism.
-- In December 2025, a 23-year-old student activist in Tehran, documenting injuries sustained by protesters, was arrested without access to legal counsel. During detention, she was interrogated regarding her social media activity and affiliations with human rights organisations, illustrating reprisals against women for exercising freedom of expression and assembly.
-- In Western Iran, a Kurdish woman community organiser providing legal assistance to families of protest victims was detained with two colleagues, held in solitary confinement, and denied family visits, reflecting intersectional targeting of ethnic minority WHRDs and gendered reprisals for advocacy.
-- In late 2025, a woman journalist reporting on femicide and enforcement of compulsory hijab laws was arrested and charged with ‘propaganda against the state’ and ‘immorality’, demonstrating the criminalisation of women documenting structural violence.
-- A mother advocating for justice following her daughter’s killing in protests was detained for several weeks in Tehran, exemplifying that women acting as informal human rights defenders are also systematically targeted.
These cases are only a fraction of the violence being inflicted on women in Iran as they seek justice. These treatments constitute DIRECT violations of CEDAW. Women freedom fighters of Iran must be alert to the danger of violence that may accompany their protests, but equally as important, it is the responsibility of the Iranian government to protect its female population - and the duty of the international community to hold Iran accountable.
10 February 2026Prepared by Dr Bianka Vida, Research Analyst The IWI: International Women’s Initiative
28 January 2026Prepared by Dr Bianka Vida, Research Analyst The IWI: International Women’s Initiative
women in crisis and IWI’s duty
Across the globe, women and girls face unique, gendered vulnerabilities during crises—including heightened risks of gender-based violence, disrupted access to reproductive healthcare, and systemic exclusion from aid—necessitating a specialized response. IWI bears a fundamental duty to expose these hidden realities, leveraging real-time emergency alerts to illuminate the specific dangers facing the marginalised and ensuring no girl or woman suffers in silence or shadow.
23 January 2026Prepared by Hannah Murphy,Research Analyst The IWI: International Women’s Initiative