Mahya Ostovar: ‘This is not the time to open an embassy inside Iran’

An Iranian academic living in Galway has called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney to hold off on any plans to reopen the embassy in Iran’s capital Tehran.

Speaking on The Irish Times Women’s Podcast about Mr Coveney’s ongoing review of the decision to reopen the embassy, Mahya Ostovar called on the Minister not to move forward with the plans.

“This is not the time to open an embassy inside Iran,” said Ostovar, a lecturer at the University of Galway.

“There are petitions going around asking different countries to close their embassies, to kick out Iranian diplomats… so this shouldn’t happen right now,” she told podcast host Róisín Ingle.

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Calling for other countries to also take action and close their embassies amid protests against the authoritarian Islamic Republic, she said “the world should stop their relationship with the regime… if a culture kills women, it’s not a culture to respect”

Also on this episode of the podcast, highlighting the struggle faced by women in Afghanistan is Mahbooba Faiz, who arrived in Ireland with her husband and young son, after the fall of Kabul last year.

Speaking about life for women since the Taliban takeover, she said “... it’s so sad when women are protesting for their rights, they are arrested, they are beaten, they are repressed.”

Both women are calling for more support from the international community, and solidarity from men and women everywhere on what they said is a feminist issue of “universal rights”.

You can listen back to the full episode in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.