Urška Bačovnik Janša, spouse of the Slovenian Prime Minister, addressed at the IWD 2022. The conference hold in Berlin, Germany on the occasion of International Women’s Day, on March 5, 2022.
Dozens of women leaders, lawmakers, and women’s rights activists from around the world attended the conference in Berlin. Thousands also joined the conference online to express solidarity.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran(NCRI) is organizing this world conference. The majority of the NCRI leadership is women.
The keynote speaker at the conference is Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran(NCRI).

The following is an excerpt from Ms. Janša’s speech at the conference:

It’s a great honor and pleasure to attend this conference with so many distinguished guests under the great leadership of Maryam Rajavi. As a Muslim woman, Maryam has had to overcome extraordinary political, social, cultural, and ideological challenges put in place by the ruling regime in Iran. I commend Maryam’s courage and commitment to empowering Iranian women.
Under Maryam’s leadership, women have risen to hold key positions in the Iranian Resistance movement. I admire the work of the NCRI Women’s Committee that I have been following closely for quite some time. Iranian women have been on the front line of protests against Iran’s Islamic regime. They have shown enormous courage, intelligence, and strength.
We, women around the world, can be proud of all of them. But despite all their heroic efforts, the Islamic Republic of Iran continues restricting the rights of Iranian women and erasing them from all levels of society.
Iranian women continue being the first victims of the regime. They continue facing unimaginable discriminatory laws for the 21st century. Women not being able to travel abroad or obtain a passport without the written permission of their male guardians. Women are prohibited from singing or dancing, or women facing up to fifteen years in prison and receiving lashes for the so-called bad hijab.
I continue being deeply affected by numerous reports of sexual abuse that Iranian women have witnessed in prisons. Numerous women continue being executed. There are serious concerns over a rigid judicial system.

Women are executed for murder but the reality is they are just victims of horrendous domestic abuses. They will kill to defend themselves or their children since they have no legal means to end an abusive marriage. Unfortunately, I could continue with other examples of the outrageous situation of women in Iran, but my time is limited.

So, I would like to take the opportunity of today’s event to pass a very strong message to my fellow Western women and Western governments. We must stand firm, together, against the policies of the Iranian regime that strangles women’s freedoms. Words of western women’s organizations and governments must be put into action. We must be there for Iranian women.