Democracy Now! Thursday, March 12, 2026

From Los Angeles, this is democracy now.

As President Trump calls the war on Iran, a little excursion. Iran is escalating its

attacks on ships in the Gulf of ending global markets as the price of oil sores. Meanwhile,

a preliminary Pentagon report confirms the U.S. was responsible for the strike on Iranian

girls' school that killed 168 children and 14 teachers in southern Iran. We'll speak to

Johns Hopkins University professor Nargis Bajoglu and we remember the life of the Iraqi feminist

Yunar Muhammad, recently assassinated in Baghdad. The story that does not reach to this part of the

world is how the women are treated in the post-war Iraq. What happened to us? How our, let's say,

destinies were totally devastated by this war? We'll speak to Amnesty International Secretary General

Anyes Kalamau about Yunar Muhammad, the U.S. war on Iran, and a major UN meeting taking place this

week to promote gender equality. All that and more coming out.

Welcome to democracynowdemocracynow.org the war in peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. The United States and

Israel are continuing large-scale bombings across Iran where officials say nearly 1,350 civilians have

been killed in 12 days of attacks. Among the dead are at least 40 people, most of them civilian,

killed in their homes when an air strike ripped through a residential neighborhood in eastern

Iran. Survivors said three residential buildings were bombed simultaneously while a missile struck

nearby police station. Iran's health ministry reports over a dozen hospitals and clinics across

Iran have suffered damage, including the Gandhi Hospital in Tehran. Meanwhile, U.S. and Israeli

strikes have damaged some centuries-old locations designated by the United Nations as world heritage

sites, including the Khachel-Sotun Palace in the city of Istifan. The Guardian is reporting a

Iran's new supreme leader, Lakshda Pahamani, was injured in the first February 28th attack that

killed six of his family members, including his father. Iran's former supreme leader, Ayatollah

Ali Hamane. The Guardian cited Tehran's ambassador to Cyprus, who said Hamane was lucky to survive

the strike, which left him hospitalized with injuries to his legs, hand, and arm. Uncapital hill

Pentagon officials told lawmakers Wednesday the cost of the first six days of war against Iran

has exceeded 11.3 billion dollars figure that does not include the cost of the massive build-up

of military forces in the Middle East ahead of the strikes. Meanwhile, a preliminary assessment

from the Pentagon has determined the U.S. was at fault for the missile strike and an Iranian

girls' school on February 28th that killed 168 children and 14 teachers. President Trump's

repeatedly blamed Iran's military for the bombing. On Wednesday, he told reporters he was

unaware of the mounting evidence that the U.S. was responsible. Trump's latest denial came as

46 senators, all of them Democrats or Independents, signed a letter to defense secretary Pete

Hegseth demanding answers. They write, quote, the United States and Israel must abide by U.S.

and international law, including the law of armed conflict. There must be a swift investigation

into the strikes on this school and any other potential U.S. military actions, causing civilian

harm and the findings must be released to the public as soon as possible along with any measures

to pursue accountability. The Washington Post reports the elementary school building was on a U.S.

target list and may have been mistaken for a military site. It's not clear whether artificial

intelligence tools were responsible for targeting it. The U.S. and Israel are relying on software

developed by Palantir to select thousands of targets across Iran. The software relies

partly on anthropics-clawed AI systems. This week, anthropics sued the Trump administration

for designating the AI company as a supply chain risk after anthropic refuse to allow

clawed to be used for autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance.

Iran's military says it targeted Israeli air bases and the Shinbet headquarters in Tel Aviv

as drone and missile attacks from Iran and his bullet triggered air raid sirens across

northern and central Israel. Iranian drones also struck at Middle Eastern nations that host U.S.

military bases. Iraq and Oman shut down oil terminals after attacks on two oil tankers sparked

massive fires and killed one person. Strikes also hit oil storage facilities in Oman. A third

ship was struck off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. In Dubai and Iranian drones struck a

residential building sparking a fire while four people injured by attacks on Dubai International

Airport. In Bahrain, smoke rose over the capital manama after an Iranian drone strike on fuel

storage tanks at Bahrain International Airport. Kuwait International Airport was also hit by several

drones. Meanwhile, Iran continues to attack Saudi Arabia's eastern oil fields and targeted

Prince Sultan Air Base with ballistic missiles that Saudi officials say they successfully intercepted.

The International Energy Agency has agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from strategic

reserves as the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran royals energy markets. That's more than double the

amount of oil released in 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It comes as Iran's

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC says it will not allow, quote, a leader of oil through the

strait of Hormuz with an IRGC spokesman warning, quote, expect oil at $200 per barrel, unquote.

Saudi Arabia is ramping up crude oil flow through its pipeline from the Kingdom's eastern coast to

a port on the Red Sea, but oil production experts say that will not address fuel shortages if Iran

targets the pipeline or if Yemen's Houthis resume attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. On Wednesday,

how Speaker Mike Johnson called the spike in gas prices temporary. I think the mission is

being achieved is nearly completed and the Commander-in-Chief himself said in the last 24 hours

they will come to a close, so gas prices will readjust after that. This is a temporary blip

in an extraordinary trend of return to American energy dominance.

Israel is continuing its relentless bombardment of Lebanon where authorities say more than 630 people,

at least 91 of them children have been killed over the past week. More than 816,000 people have been

registered as displaced due to Israeli forced evacuation orders and airstrikes, among the latest

attacks, was an overnight double-tap strike on Beirut's beachfront, targeting a tent camp housing

displaced Lebanese families. At least 8 people were killed and 21 injured by the Israeli strikes,

which came without warning at 3 in the morning. In southern Lebanon, mourners gathered Wednesday for

the funeral of the Lebanese Red Cross volunteer Yusuf Asaf, who was killed in an Israeli strike.

What happened was that we were present in an area trying to evacuate wounded people

and a bomb fell among them. Two of our young men were targeted. One of them is still in the hospital,

undergoing treatment and surgeries. In Gaza, Israeli forces have continued deadly

attacks on Palestinians over the past 24 hours in the latest violations of the U.S.

broker to October 10 cease fire agreement. Palestinian reporters say two women were killed,

and seven others were injured, including three children. After Israeli forces targeted tent

sheltering displaced families in the new Sedat refugee camp. In western Gaza City,

health officials say one Palestinian was killed and others were wounded when an Israeli drone fired

a missile on a market. This is a Palestinian survivor of the attack.

What is the fault children? Children are gone, women are gone, elderly people are gone. Why us?

What do they have to do with this? We are peaceful, but the Israelis don't know peace.

They don't want peace in the Middle East. They want to fight the whole world.

In Sudan, a drone strike in the village of Shukhari killed 17 people most of them girls.

The Sudan doctors network said the paramilitary group rapid support forces

RSF was responsible for the strike. The village reportedly had no presence of the Sudanese military.

The civil war in Sudan erupted in 2023 as fighting between the RSF and the Sudanese killed more

than 40,000 people and force nearly 15 million people to flee their homes.

U.S. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas has reversed his position on the filibuster in order

to pass President Trump's Save America Act. The bill would require proof of citizenship

for voter registration, require photo ID to cast a ballot and require states to run voter rolls

through a federal database kept by the Department of Homeland Security. Senator Cornyn is currently

locked in a tight runoff election for his Senate seat with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

and is seeking President Trump's endorsement. The Save America Act was passed by the House,

but Senate Democrats have vowed a filibuster to defeat the bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune

has refused to change the Senate's rules to force a vote. On Wednesday, President Trump criticized

Thune saying he's got to be a leader, unquote. President Trump has vowed to not sign any other

legislation until he signed the Save America Act into law. In New Hampshire, Democrat Bobby

Bodeman won a special election for a state house seat on Wednesday beating the Republican

Dale Fincher and flipping a Republican district. President Trump carried easily in 2024.

Tuesday's election saw a 16-point swing in favor of the Democratic candidate, the latest

sign that Republicans could face huge losses in November's midterm elections. According to

the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, Democrats have flipped 28 seats since President

Trump won in 2024. Republicans haven't flipped any seats currently held by Democrats. On Wednesday,

President Trump traveled to the Kentucky District of Republican Congressmember Thomas Massey

to campaign against him. Massey's a co-sponsor along with Democratic Congressmember

Rocana of the Epstein Files Transparency Act and voted in favor of an Iran war powers resolution.

You know what the name is? He is the worst person. His name is...

What the hell? How did he ever end up in Kentucky? His name is Thomas Massey.

Richard Khan, the longtime accountant of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,

appeared for a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Democratic Congressmember James

Walkins Shaw, who sits on the House Oversight Committee, said, quote,

Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring would not have been possible without Richard Khan,

who managed Epstein's money for years, authorize payments, including payments to victims and

survivors, unquote. Khan claimed he was unaware of Epstein's sexual abuse and had not seen any

of his victims. Meanwhile, lawmakers are seeking to interview Tova Noel, one of the prison guards

on duty when Epstein was found dead in his jail cell, a death ruled a suicide by the New York

Chief Medical Examiner. According to the New York Post, FBI records suggest Noel had twice

run a Google search for the phrase, latest on Epstein and Jail, in the hours before Epstein's

body was discovered. Chase Bank also flagged cash deposits in Noel's bank account in a suspicious

activity report to the FBI in November 2019, with a $5,000 cash deposit 10 days before Epstein's death.

And in immigration news, there are disturbing new details about Egyptian mother,

Haim El-Gamal, and her five children who've been imprisoned at the U.S. Family Detention Center

for more than nine months, the longest known family detention under President Trump's second term.

In 59 pages of declarations that include handwritten letters and pictures drawn by the five children,

the family details a warrant medical care, inedible food, and a disregard for their religious

freedom to practice Islam at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Delhi. The documents

were first published by the Texas Tribune. In one note, El-Gamal's 16-year-old son writes,

quote, this prolonged detention has and continues to destroy our lives. It's slowly killing us on

the inside. Our mental health is at great risk. It's rapidly deteriorating with every day we spend

here. Our lives are without purpose. We are just waiting for this nightmare to end, he writes.

Under a federal 1997 settlement agreement, parents and children can generally not be in prison

for more than 20 days in immigration jails, although the Trump administration's suing to reverse

that ruling and has violated it many times at the Ice Family Jail in Delhi, Texas.

And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, democracynow.org, the warrant,

peace report. I made me goodman in Los Angeles coming up Johns Hopkins University professor

Nargis Bajolkley. Stay with us.

This is Democracy Now, democracynow.org, the warrant, peace report. I made me goodman.

As the US and Israel war on Iran enters its 13th day, the war is escalating on a number of

fronts. Iran's accused the US and Israel of targeting civilian infrastructure, including schools

and hospitals. Attacks have reportedly forced 12 Iranian hospitals to halt services. Earlier

today, Israel announced it had hit a nuclear site outside of Iran that Iran has long claimed was

used for civilian purposes. Meanwhile, a preliminary Pentagon report confirms the US was responsible

for last week's missile strike on Iranian girl school that killed 168 children and 14 teachers.

The Pentagon said outdated data from the defense intelligence agency likely led to the strike.

The Pentagon is also investigating whether the mistake was connected to the military's

use of artificial intelligence. The Washington Post recently revealed the military is relying heavily

on a system created by Palantir designed to help with real-time targeting and target prioritization.

The system, known as Maven, uses the AI tool, Claude, made by Anthropic. On Wednesday,

President Trump was asked about the school strike.

Military investigations have found it was the United States that struck the school.

Later on Wednesday, President Trump held a rally in Kentucky in the district of Republican

Congressmember Thomas Massey, a vocal Trump critic. Trump claimed the US has already won the war

in Iran. Despite Trump's victory claim, Iran's attack three more ships in the Gulf, including

two tankers off the coast of Iraq. Iran's also targeted fuel tanks at a facility in Bahrain.

The attack sent the cost of oil back over $100 a barrel up over 30 percent since the war began.

We're joined now by Nargis Bajogli, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Middle East studies

at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies or SACE. She's the co-author

of how sanctions work, Iran, and the impact of economic warfare. Professor Bajogli is also the

author of Iran reframed anxieties of power in the Islamic Republic. Thanks so much, Professor,

for coming back on democracy now. Why don't you start off by talking about your latest New

York magazine piece in which you talk about the new divisions among Iranians that no longer fall

along the old political lines of monarchist versus leftist?

Yeah, so what has been happening among Iranians, whether with any Iran or in the diaspora,

has been an extreme form of polarization that has been occurring over the past, I would say,

a year and a half to two years. Much of this has to do and came under the umbrella of the maximum

pressure sanctions and policy that the Trump administration first imposed on Iran in his first

presidency. That was not just a package of severe economic sanctions, but also millions of

dollars poured into media infrastructures, media warfare, and psychological operations. Part of

what that money went towards was funding huge amounts of social media and satellite television

stations, some of which are very pro monarchy, one of which is Iran International, which beams into

Iran and has a very robust social media apparatus. That the best way to describe Iran international

is kind of like Fox News in the United States, where the same ways in which Fox News has helped

really polarize this country in ways that are quite significant, Iran International has done the

same, and over the past couple of years it has been pushing a very pro monarchy line, and it has

really done a lot to erase a lot of the diversity within the Iranian political imagination and sort

of Iranian political society. Today, what we have is now a very fragmented and very divided

political sphere, in which the only options are you are either pro regime or you are pro path

and want the Israeli and American invasion of Iran in order to liberate the country.

And when you say pro-palevi, explain first who the Shah was, who the U.S. installed,

after they overthrew the democratically elected leader Muhammad Musadek, who was elected in 1953,

and take us through that right to his son.

Sure, so when Muhammad Musadek was deposed in 1953, it was the first covert operation of

the newly established CIA, and they worked alongside British intelligence in order to do that coup.

They reinstated the Shah, and he became increasingly autocratic in the 16 years that he continued

to rule the country. He had very close relationships with the Americans and the Israelis,

and the resentment began to brew an Iranian society, and the narrative began to form that the

Shah was a puppet of the United States, and many people were very opposed to the sort of

very autocratic way in which he was ruling inside of Iran. That led to the 1979 revolution,

and the 1979 revolution at its heart was a claim and a desire for independence and sovereignty

from great powers. What ended up happening in the power plays after the revolution gave rise

to the Iran, to the Islamic Republic, and it's sort of then fast-forwarded until today.

You have a lot of different people with any Iranian society, as well as in the diaspora, who

either fought during the revolution and desired something different than the Islamic Republic,

or who throughout the years have been really trying to transform this system within the country.

Reza Pahlavi is the son of the former Shah of Iran, who was deposed in 1979. He's been living in

exile since 1979, and he throughout these 47 years that he's been in exile, he hasn't really

built anything. We can't point to any businesses he's had, or any organizations he's really helped

lead, and he even sort of broad-based coalition building of the diaspora or opposition groups.

He's always been there in the background as the son of the former king, but he really began to

come into the foreground of what is happening in the diaspora really over the past couple of years,

and in many ways he's been pushed into that by very pro-Israel elements in the United States and

within Israel itself. What we see sort of play out is not just pushing him forward, but also a

concerted effort to heavily silence anyone who does not agree with him or who offers alternative

viewpoints of what should be the path forward for Iranian politics and Iranian society.

In the significance of the Savak, the role that they played, the Shah's secret police terrorizing

the population. Yes, so the Savak was a secret police during the Shah's time in Iran.

It was helped formulated by the CIA and the Mossad, and it was really sort of one of those

massive organizations that Iranians really despise, and it was one of the sort of key elements that

helped lead to a lot of the resentments that then led to the 79 revolution.

I was just looking at a tweet of Tarak Ali who wrote a secret police Savak was one of the most

innovative of the time, back fully by the CIA. They tried out new forms of torture and boasted

about their man-sized toaster. Political prisoners were put in this toaster one at a time,

and it was switched on so that human fronts and backs could be toasted at one go.

Professor Bajogli. Yes, the Savak was a very vicious secret police, and again heavily trained

by the CIA, had very close relationships with the Mossad. And so, you know, this entire apparatus

and sort of this way of understanding Iranian politics as either has to be completely pro-Western

and not even just pro-Western, but sort of under the yoke of America and what America once in the

region. I mean, at the time, before the revolution, Iran was seen as being the policeman of the

Persian Gulf region. It was one of the United States' biggest allies, especially during the

Cold War, because of Iran's long borders with the Soviet Union at the time. And so in that way,

the Savak and the entire apparatus of the monarchy at the time suppressed all kinds of domestic

dissent, heavily, especially the leftists, but all across the political spectrum. The only ones

that they did not suppress, mostly because they could not, was the religious establishments in

the country. And so one of the reasons you also have the emergence of the Islamic Republic and

the aftermath of the 79 revolution is because one of the only sort of social groups that could

continue to organize in the 1960s and 1970s were those who were tied to religious organizations

in the countries, because all other forms of dissent had been pushed out.

I want to go back to President Trump speaking yesterday.

Including the leadership, twice. Now they have a new group coming up, let's see what

happens. Do you have any question for you? Yes. You just said it is a little extrusion,

and you said it is a war, so which one is it? Well, it's well, it's well, it's a

extrusion that will keep us out of the war, and the war is going to be for them, it's a war for us,

it's pretty much easier than we thought. Professor Nargis Bajogli, your response to President

Trump calling the U.S. Israeli attacks on Iran a little excursion. This coming out at the same

time that the Pentagon's own preliminary report, in one case, the bombing of the girl's school

in southern Iran, that it, they're saying that it was a U.S. Tomahawk missile, right? 168 children

killed and 14 teachers. As an Iranian, Iranian, American now, your thoughts.

I mean, this entire war, from the strike on that girl's school, to the strike that happened

last weekend of the oil depots around Tehran, which caused a massive poisoning event

of a black rain and acid rain falling across a city of over 9 million people. Trump talking about

the desire to alter Iran's map, this is all being read inside of Iran as a war on the Iranian people

and on the Iranian nation. The Islamic Republic has not crumbled, even though they took out the

supreme leader, and just yesterday, Reuters reported that U.S. intelligence has been concluded that

the Islamic Republic is not even close to buckling under this kind of pressure. So this is being

read inside Iran as a war on the nation and on the civilian population because of the way that it

is being carried out. And it is increasing the sense of nationalism. On the other hand, the United

States is receiving, you know, Iran cannot militarily go head to head with the United States. Instead,

what Iran does and has been doing is asymmetrical warfare. And in that regard, the U.S. military is

and the U.S. architecture across the Gulf countries is receiving a major blow. And this is something

that is causing a lot of political damage across the Gulf region for the Americans. So this is not

something that just because President Trump says he wants to switch it off can actually function

in that way. This is going to have very long reaching repercussions.

On Wednesday, an Iranian military spokesperson warned the price of oil could reach $200

a barrel. We will not be able to keep oil and energy prices are officially low through economic

life support as we have already warned if the war spreads across the region expect oil to reach

$200 per barrel. Oil prices will follow the level of security in the region and the source of

that insecurity is you. Our hands are full of stronger and more powerful blows as we continue the

previous enemy crushing operations. We will avenge the pure blood of our martyrs leader,

our beloved nation, the innocent women and children, and the innocent angels of Manab who were killed.

That's an Iranian government spokesperson, Professor Bijogli, or response.

Iran has been under pretty significant sanctions for many decades now and maximum pressure

sanctions for about eight to nine years now. It has been pushed out of the global economy. One of

the things that Iran is doing in this war is hitting at the global economy that itself has been

isolated against. It knows that the only way to actually change the terms of debates when it comes

to Iran and to have to not go back to a status quo anti meaning to not go back to where things were

before this war started where again there was a ceasefire but Israel and America are able to

they will continue to target the oil markets in order to pressure the Americans and others to

back away from this war.

Nargis Bijogli, one, thank you so much for being with us, Associate Professor of Anthropology

and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

We thank you so much for being with us. When we come back, Amnesty International Secretary General

Añez Kaya Mard about the assassination of the Iraqi feminist Yenar Muhammad, the U.S. war on Iran

and more.

Palestinian youth choir performing in New York City. This is Democracy Now Democracy Now.

Or the Warn Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. On Sunday, tens of thousands of women around the

world marked International Women's Day by demonstrating against gender-based violence and calling for an

end to the U.S. Israeli war in Iran. On Monday, a major United Nations summit, the 70th session of

the Commission on the Status of Women began. This all comes a week after Iraqi human rights defender

and feminist advocate Yenar Muhammad was assassinated in Baghdad in Iraq. She was killed in an attack

on her home. She just reportedly returned to Iraq from Canada a few days before her murder.

She was killed by two unidentified gunmen who opened fire. She stood outside her home.

Yenar Muhammad was the co-founder and president of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq. In 2003,

she founded the first women's shelter in Iraq to protect women from trafficking and so-called

honor killings becoming the target of death threats over her activism. She was a frequent guest

on Democracy Now following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. This was Yenar speaking on Democracy Now

in December of that year. The story that does not reach to this part of the world is how the women

are treated in the post-war Iraq. What happened to us? How our, let's say, destinies were

totally devastated by this war? What is told to everybody is that we got rid of a bloody dictator,

which is a true story. But the part that nobody knows about is that we did have sort of a secure

life. We did have our jobs. We did have some stability that we totally lost with the first day

of the war. Now, every, our everyday life has abductions for women. We, we cannot go out in the

streets safely. We are immediately a moving target on the streets and we qualify for

gay kidnappings, we're for rape and for killing just because we are women. And on top of all of

that, what the coalition did was hand over part of the authorities to religious fundamentalists

that turned our lives to push us hundreds of years back in time. That was Yenar Mohammed speaking

on Democracy Now in 2003, shot dead last week in Baghdad, Iraq, when she returned to Iraq.

A Monday, I spoke to Secretary General of Amnesty International on, yes, Kalamar. I asked her

about her reaction to the killing of Yenar Mohammed, a woman she knew well. Lots of emotions

to see her because I met her. I was not as close to her as some of my friend in, in the field,

but she was a very, very important force. She was an icon. She fought so hard. I met her in Iraq.

I actually met her organization there. She was, you know, she, she, she was so strong and so

determined. And she fought in the most incredibly cruel and violent environment. And she kept going

and she kept going, you know, for all of us, we feel that she is one of the victims of the current

war because she became the symbol of, you know, this westernized person, which she wasn't,

because as you, as you know, she, she took very strong position against all wars of aggression.

As she took position against patriarchy and violence in Iraq. You know, it's so interesting.

You see, you see her as a victim of this war because you think of the similarities of the US

invasion of Iraq back in 2003, when I think it was the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld,

saying they will greet us with flowers. And you see what President Trump is saying, you know,

we are there to protect the protesters in Iran. And of course, what's happening now is hundreds,

well over a thousand people have been killed so far in Iran. And civilians.

Look, I think we really need to reject any kind of binary proposal being brought to us.

I want to be very clear that the regime in Iran is responsible for massive human rights violations.

Probably thousands of people were slaughtered in January for protesting it. Woman in Iran

being denied some of their basic rights. So that is a reality of the regime in Iran. But it

making it clear that this is a regime and a government that is responsible for crimes against humanity

should not lead us, of course, to see in this act and these attacks anything else but an act of

aggression which will also victimize people and civilians. Right now, there are hundreds of people

who are arrested in January in the context of probably the most violently repressed

protest. They are held in prison. Those prisons are either directly targeted by the bombing or

near areas where the bombs are falling. And we are very worried about what's going to happen to

these prisoners. We know what happened during the 12 days war that even prison was targeted.

We also know that during times of war like this one, the Iranian government increases the

repression. It has imposed an internet blackout and there is likely to be more repression against

anyone wanting to raise the alarm about the situation. So at all levels, people are the victims.

And let's make no mistake. These attacks, the Israeli-US attacks on Iran are doing nothing

to protect the Iranian protestors and those who have been at the forefront of fighting the

government. I wanted to ask you about those prisoners a little more like Nargis Muhammadis,

the Nobel Peace Prize winner who was just taken back into custody as she protested at the death

of yet another Iranian believing at the hands of the Iranian government. And what happens to her

and the others do of any word? I mean, it's hard to get word out of what's happening on the streets

all alone in these prisons like the notorious Iranian government. If the words are alarming,

first of all, she has been moved out of the prison where she was held to another location.

She is on well. She is she has many health problems. This is why she was released the first time.

Exactly. Medical reasons. And then she spoke out again and was re-emprisoned.

Re-emprisoned moved to a new facilities and according to people who are close to her and to

information that she managed to pass to provide. She has been denied medical treatment and she is

under a severe, I will say, circumstances. So whether or not she is being ill treated or

tortured, it's hard to know. But the denial of medical services and medicine amounts to an

inhuman and degrading ill treatment. You're here in New York for the 70th session of the commission

on the status of women. Women around the world are fighting for gender justice, which is so much

under attack. Can you talk about what this session is about and who attends it and what you're

calling it? Look, it could not be coming at a more urgent time. So who comes, first and foremost,

those who can get a visa. So let me be very clear that it will be a smaller commission on the

status of women because either people are afraid of coming to the United States or are not getting

visaed. It is a privileged few, like people like me, who are making it to the commission this year.

Wait, just one second. Can you explain this? Because I think a lot of people in this country may not

understand the level of denial of visas of people from around the world. And here the United

Nations is and there's a whole question of whether it will be pulled from New York,

and brought to another country because of these restrictions. As you know, the Trump administration

has basically imposed visa vitals on a large number of countries, mostly in Africa. So anyone coming

out of these countries cannot get a visa to enter the United States and it is most of Africa.

So already you are denying a large number of advocates and activists access to the United

States. We cannot minimize the facts that for many activists, the United States is becoming a

scary place to come to. So in addition to the fact that they cannot get visa for whatever reason,

including that the fact that they originate from a country from which there is no visa,

a number of them are not coming for fear. Fear of eyes, fear of being targeted, fear of being

arrested, fear, just fear. Why would you put yourself into such a situation when you don't have to?

So the first thing to say about the commission this year is that it is going to be smaller

in terms of the number of people or in terms of the number of diverse people coming from

around the world. That being said, it is a crucially important commission. It's coming at a peak,

the peak of the war against Truman, the war against gender. It is I'm using the word war because it

is coordinated, it is organized, it is well-funded, it has a national component and it has its

international component. Internationally, every CSW, every commission, there is a statement

that is being released, usually it is released with consensus. So far this year, consensus

seems very unlikely and a number of countries are using the environment and the fact that they

are being emboldened by the Trump administration to argue over language, particularly in relation to

gender rights, in relation to reproductive rights, in relation to human rights defenders,

they are trying to eliminate such language or to weaken it. Of course, there are locally other

countries that are pushing back, but it is a battleground. Those political statements and that

particular political statement is going to be a battleground. It is also happening, CSW,

at a time when we've been receiving all these information coming out of the Epstein files.

And let's not minimize what it means for our global society. It is an international,

criminal network that was present at all level of governments, of finance, of culture.

And at heart, it is about violence against women. That is the context within which CSW is taking

place. This is why it's so important, this is why we're coming, this is why we're marching,

we're rising and we're saying no way, we're going to stand up and we're going to say and push back.

We're going to resist the onslaught against human rights and against gender rights. We don't have

a choice. We've got to fight and we've got to resist. What about women's rights being used as a

pretext to go to war? I remember when the US invaded Afghanistan, the first time the presidential

radio address was given over to the first lady. In that case, it was Laura Bush, the wife of George

W. Bush and she said we're coming in to save women. And you think about this US Israeli attack on

Iran, one of the first acts and it looks like from various investigations as a US strike on a

girl's primary school. And 175 people died, the majority of them we believe, little girls.

Look, I think no one is that naive. There is a clear instrumentalization of women's rights.

I think we all know that this government could not care less. For the last 12 months, the

Trump administration has done everything in its power to weaken the domestic protection

for women's rights. It is now moving to impose a global gag rules over sexual and reproductive

rights around the world. It is attacking any kind of narrative related to gender.

It is erasing the notion, the principle of equality between men and women. There is no doubt that

this government does not care about women's rights, whether they are Iranian or frankly American.

And then, of course, non-Iran, not the US, looking at, for example, what's happening in Gaza,

what's happening in Sudan, for example. And as you say, so many people were denied visas

from Africa so they can't even frame their own stories. Absolutely. Look, we are in a critical moment

for women's rights, for the fight against racial discrimination, for the fight for LGBTQI around

the world. What the Trump administration has done is not creating the anti-right agenda,

but it has emboldened it to a level that we had not seen before. It is using the seeds that have

been planted now for a few years and it is using them for its own advantage and its own purpose,

which is to get rid of any kind of normative guardrails around the world to suggest that the

rule-based order that we took eight years to create to build, including around women's rights.

It is now trying to pretend that this is an illusion and that there is no such thing

as a rule-based order. That is what is at stake. And fighting for women's rights, including

internationally, is how we demonstrate that the rule-based order is not an illusion, that over the last

80 years, women's activists, feminists and a number of governments have worked together to

adopt a convention for the protection of women against discrimination, for their protection against

violence. This is what is at stake right now and this is why we must resist this organized

coordinated onslaught against women's rights. Before you were Secretary-General of Amnesty

International and Yaskalamar, you were a UN special rapporteur, an extrajudicial summary or

arbitrary executions. I want to ask about another UN rapporteur. I wanted to ask you about Francesca

Amnesty and what it means when she reports on genocide and Gaza being sanctioned, how investigators

like her can get at the truth when they are then personally attacked. Persecuted. It's a form of

persecution. It is a clear attempt by this administration to make international scrutiny,

international justice, a battleground. They went after ICC judges, they are going after, they went

after Francesca and they went after Palestinians organizations. It is an attack on justice,

it is an attack on international scrutiny, it is sending a chilling message to everyone who

stand up, it is potentially harming the entire international justice system. This is why

resistance must be driving all people of conscience right now. Some governments have spoken against

those sanctions but too few have done so. Francesca's own government, Italy is doing nothing to

protect her. In fact, most of Europe and recently the French government has also gone after her

on the basis of what was clearly a truncated video. So governments that have the political and

economic backbone to resist the United States. Those are the governments that should stand up.

Personally, I don't think we should expect governments that are already batted by an equal

economic system to then stand up and say no to Donald Trump. But there are others, the European

market is the biggest economic market right now or one of the biggest in the world. Those countries

together are some alone have the capacity to say no. Indeed, Spain is saying no. But where are the

others? Where are the others? So it is really crucial that European people call on their

government to stand up and say no to the onslaught against the international order, against the

international law, against human rights that is being driven right now by the Trump administration.

We've got to stand up and say no. At many levels it's very simple. It is very simple. Just say no.

I want to end by asking you about what's happening around being framed as a holy war and what

exactly that means for women, Mikey Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military Religious

Freedom Foundation. He said his organization has gotten over 200 calls from members of the

military regarding religious comments made by U.S. commanders. One combat unit commander reportedly

said the war is part of God's divine plan that President Trump's been anointed by Jesus to

like the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and Mark his return to earth. And then you have

defense secretary Pete Hegseth inviting this controversial Christian nationalist pastor Doug

Wilson to lead the Pentagon's prayer service. He opposes Muslims holding public office does not

believe women should be allowed to vote. When you have these attacks framed as a holy war,

how this disproportionately affects women? Well first I want to say that a month ago during the

Munich Security Conference, Marco Rubio in the speech he delivered called on an alliance of

Christian white people led by the United States. So it has been in the making that this notion

of a holy war, a Christian war. We also hear it a lot in Israel in a different context. A

religion has never been a friend of women's rights. Religion has been the primary driver through

which women's rights have been violated and the violations have been justified in the name of a

higher godly principle. So the comments that we are hearing right now, the incredible

images that we have seen, I mean shoots and shivers through the spine of every woman. And I think

we cannot but escape wandering. How can they then use the Iranian government of being led by

God? Because clearly that's also what they are trying to portray. It is a terrible moment for

our global society. That is why Amnesty International is here at CSW and we hear with a very clear

message. We got to resist what is happening. That is Agnès Kalemar, secretary general of Amnesty

International. That does it for our show on Friday and Saturday. I'll be in Mexico City at Festival

ambielante for two screenings of the new documentary about democracy now. Still this story please.

I'm Amy Goodman.