Iranian women’s rights activist Shaparak Shajarizadeh said the pandemic has helped unite people.
“The pandemic affected our lives in many different ways. It has distanced us physically but in fact it has brought us closer socially,” she said.
She explained how in Iran, women were forbidden from having a women’s rights march after 1979, but this year — with many women around the world under stay-at-home orders due to the pandemic — women will be uniting on-line.
“This opportunity has given a real meaning to our women’s international march as we will be globally connected online on March 8,” she said.
Shajarizadeh, fled Iran after being arrested three times and imprisoned twice for defying Iran’s compulsory hijab law. She was involved in the #White Wednesdays movement — a campaign encouraging men and women to post images on social media of themselves either wearing white or no headscarf to protest being forced to wear the hijab.
You can read more about her story here.