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A group of<\/span> Iranian American women in elected office and civic life released a letter Tuesday calling for an immediate end to the U.S.\u2013Israeli war on Iran as the deadline for President Donald Trump\u2019s macabre threat to kill \u201ca whole civilization\u201d<\/a> loomed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe democracy cannot be delivered through missiles, and freedom cannot emerge from destruction and more death of innocent lives,\u201d they said in the previously unreported letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n The signers included Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, the first Iranian American Democrat elected to Congress.<\/p>\n Women have been at the forefront of demonstrations against the Iranian government in recent years, including the \u201cWoman, Life, Freedom\u201d protests of 2022<\/a> that were met with a deadly crackdown. The international protest movement was set off by the Iranian government\u2019s killing<\/a> of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for allegedly failing to wear the mandatory headscarf properly.<\/p>\n The Iranian government\u2019s suppression of that protest and another anti-government protest wave<\/a> earlier this year have been cited as justification<\/a> for the war that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched in February.<\/p>\n \u201cRemember the great women march,\u201d Trump said at an April 6 press conference<\/a> at the Pentagon, going on to describe government snipers suppressing protests by shooting demonstrators. In a speech justifying last June\u2019s Israeli-led war against Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked<\/a> the Women, Life, Freedom movement by name in Farsi.<\/p>\n
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