Foreign ministers from a dozen nations, led by Canadian Melanie Joly, came together on Wednesday to condemn Iran’s violent crackdown on women’s rights as protesters in the Islamic Republic marked 40 days of unrest.

“As female foreign ministers, we feel obliged to reflect the voices of Iranian women,” said a joint statement by ministers from Albania, Andorra, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Kosovo, Libya, Liechtenstein, New Zealand and Norway.

In it they expressed “solidarity with the courageous Iranian women who are defending their right to peaceful assembly and defending their human rights.”

They also condemned the “violent enforcement” of Iran’s hijab and chastity law and the “continued crackdown on protesters”, including women and students, which has resulted in more than 200 deaths.

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, died September 16, three days after she was arrested in Tehran by the notorious vice squad for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code for women, which requires women to wear a headscarf.

Anger flared at her funeral and quickly sparked widespread protests, with young women leading the charge, burning their headscarves and confronting security forces in the worst spate of unrest in years in the Islamic Republic.