Thank you to everyone who has helped amplify this petition. As the third week of reports from inside Iran unfolds, describing an unprecedented massacre, we are reaching out to the New Zealand community to share these urgent accounts and ask you to keep these concerns active within your communities.

This petition has been submitted to the Parliament’s ePetitions system not only in solidarity, but out of concern for New Zealand’s own safety and responsibilities. Independent reports emerging from inside Iran describe a scale of violence that defies comprehension. Reports confirm at least 16,500 deaths, and 330,000 injured, with many still missing, while Iranian civil networks, and families communicating under extreme risk, report a far higher toll, widely believed to exceed 50,000. Among those who have been able to make contact within the Iranian community, nearly everyone knows someone with a story of severe loss or unresolved harm. 

The Islamic regime itself emerged in the aftermath of foreign interference imposed on Iran rather than arising from its people, and its use of foreign-aligned militias to maintain power has been documented extensively. This occurs alongside the ongoing diversion of state wealth toward foreign causes, while Iranians endure hunger, economic collapse, and avoidable deaths. These militias do not speak Persian and reportedly attack indiscriminately, without distinction between the unarmed civilians' age, gender, profession, ethnicity, or religion. Human rights reports also indicate the mutilation of female corpses to conceal evidence of sexual assault, which must be investigated.

The scale of Iran’s internal diversity is rarely covered internationally, as protesters come from different cities, provinces, ethnicities, religions, and political backgrounds, speak different languages, and lead vastly different lives. In a country whose 5000-year-old history helped give rise to the earliest global principles of human rights, today, its people are being massacred for demanding those same rights. Among the deceased are Iran’s brightest minds and gifted students, whose courage cannot be replicated. Iranians across all communities stood together, leaving messages of resolve, trusting that outsiders would amplify their voice.

It is important to challenge narratives that dehumanize 90 million people by portraying their 47-year struggle for freedom as fabricated. For those feeling uncertain, reaching out to Iranian neighbors can provide firsthand perspectives, while remaining cautious of disinformation networks. For decades, the world barely spoke about Iran or its people. Yet, after only weeks of headlines, many speak with absolute certainty, not only about the government, but about Iranians themselves, as if millions are expendable collateral. When certainty forms this quickly, the honest question is who benefits from reducing an entire population to an abstraction, especially when decades of violence, censorship, and fear have been required to control them.

Though in recent years New Zealand has shown it can unite in defence of human rights and justice even in conflicts between foreign states, Iranians seeking support against violence inside their own country often face hesitation and disbelief. We are not unfamiliar with foreign intervention and manipulation, as our millennia-long history has been shaped by it. When we speak from desperation, it is not out of naivety but because we face a crisis few outside the country can truly grasp. These appeals come from people who understand the consequences and are asking not to be dismissed as irrational for reaching a point the world has left us to face alone.

Please encourage those around you to slow down and truly see how much violence is required to sustain the story they are being asked to accept. Continue to support this petition as we do the very least we can to help people retain their humanity.

We urge the New Zealand Government to:

• Advocate for decisive international measures, including humanitarian intervention.
• Expel officials linked to state-sponsored violence from New Zealand, following the example of other countries. Doing so not only helps safeguard New Zealand’s communities but also sends a strong signal in support of global human rights.

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He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.