Ending Violence Against Women, A Dream No Longer Can Be Deferred / Elahe Amani
( 16 Day of Global Activism Against Gender Violence- Nov 25th- Dec. 10th )
Thursday 27 November 2008
While sexual assault and rape in Iraq war remains largely ignored and disregarded, while the incidence of acid attacks and rape of Afghan Women in recent weeks by Taliban forces remains unresolved, while women in Iran still enduring violence, arrest, detention and harassment perpetuated by government in physical space and cyberspace and on November 25th, the website of advocates for changing the discriminatory laws against women in Iran was filtered for the 17th time and while the endless atrocities against women in Congo, Sudan and Rwanda, forced prostitution and trafficking , honor killings, and many other forms of violence against women and girls are widespread, the global civil societies, human rights defenders, peace activists, women’s right activist and feminists embarked on the 16 Day of Global Activism Against Gender Violence on November 25th. As in the words of Pat Humphries that more than 30,000 women and more than a thousand man sang in the NGO Forum at the Beijing Conference “Gonna keep on moving forward, Never turning back!”
November 25th, 2008 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the first day of the 16 Days of Global Activism Against Gender Violence. The campaign will end on Dec 10th which is the International Human Rights day. It is also know as“ White Ribbon Day” in South Africa, UK and Canada. The White Ribbon is a symbol of hope for a world where women and girls can live with dignity and without fear of violence.
The theme of this year 16 days of Global Activism Against Gender Violence is “Human Rights for Women -Human Rights for All”. The 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( 1948-2008 ) is a historic time to recognize the collective work of human rights defenders around the world, secure the international conventions and treaties that make up the human rights framework and reclaim the principles of the 1948 declaration which have taken a great setback by the rise of religious extremism, globalization and militarization. Today, feminist, peace activists and human rights defenders around the world calling on governments as well as global civil societies and demanding to put an end to violence against women. The dream of living in a world with peace, security and respect to human rights can no longer be “ deferred”.
History of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence is an annual international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. The annual campaign starts from November 25th International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, International Human Rights Day — in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights, and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates, including December 1st , World AIDS Day, and December 6th , which marks the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.
The history of November 25th goes back to 25th November 1960, when three sisters Patria, Maria Teresa and Minerva Mirabel, political activists in the Dominican Republic were assassinated in a car accident. They were killed for their involvement in efforts to overthrow the government of Rafael Trujillo. The state violence perpetuated on the Mirabel sisters quickly became symbols of resistance, dignity and inspiration for eliminating violence against women at home and in society. Their lives raised the spirits of all those they encountered and later, after their death, not only those in the Dominican Republic but others around the world.
On July 1981, women from across Latin America came together in Columbia. Appalled by the extent and diversity of violence against women, they agreed to hold an annual day of protest, and they decided to adopt 25th November as the date for this International Day Against Violence Against Women in memory of the Mirabel sisters. In 1991, The first White Ribbon Campaign was launched by a group of men in Canada after the brutal mass shooting of 14 female students at the University of Montreal. In 1996, a year after the 4th UN Women Conference in Beijing, China, the South African National Network on Violence Against Women launched their own White Ribbon Campaign and many South African women’s groups quickly adopted the White Ribbon symbol.
In 1998 the White Ribbon Day was launched in the UK and in December 1999, at the 54 General Assembly session of UN, a resolution adopted and UN officially recognized 25th November as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Violence against women is a global problem that affects women of all ages, ethnicities, races, nationalities and socio-economic backgrounds. Women experience gender-based violence at home, in community and at societal level. Women disproportionately experience domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, trafficking in person, rape, and even cyber harassment and stalking.
Women experience violence and injustice perpetuated by state and non state actors. The economic, political, social and religious injustice and impunity is a major barrier to women’s human rights and challenge the dignity that women deserve to enjoy. Women also experience violence that may not clearly fall within the framework of the above referenced paradigms but harm women health, safety and security and is a clear violation of women’s ability to enjoy basic human right. These violations are inclusive but not limited of the early childhood marriage for girl child, female genital mutilation, honor killing, dowry-related violence including bride burning, rape as a weapon of war, female infanticide, enforced sterilization, Acid attacks etc. It is also inclusive of harsh measures by government to disproportional restrictions and censorship on women’s presence in cyber world by filtering women blogs and websites as in the case of Iran.
While globally one in every three women experience violence in their life cycle from childhood to the old, in many societies where peace, democracy and human rights are being threaten by the forces of religious extremism/fundamentalism, militarization, aggression and war, women rights and even women’s body are the battle ground of gaining cultural identity or claiming victory by the forces of aggression and occupation.
The global framework for women’s rights have been manifested in the conventions such as Conventions on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against WomenVienna Human Rights Declaration and Program of Action , the Cairo Program of Action, the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals . Since 1975, the first UN Women Conference in Mexico City, women globally have demanded meaningful change and inserted their desire in the global framework for women’s rights, to live in a world with dignity and respect, peace and prosperity, equality rights and opportunities. However, despite the fact that governments from United State to Congo, from Iran to Afghanistan, South Africa to Guatemala signed these documents ( some bracketed version of the document ) women are not significantly in a better position due to the lack of new and additional resources, the rise of religious extremism, globalization and militarization. These patterns have created an environment of fear and threat for the gains women at global and local level struggled so hard to manifest in these processes. (CEDAW), and in documents from other UN conferences such as the
One of the most comprehensive and inclusive definitions of “violence against women” was formulated at the Beijing Women Conference in 1995. In the Platform for Action the term has been defined as “ any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.”
The generations that shaped the global women’s movement since 1975, the first UN Women Conference and brought issues such as women’s human rights, violence against women, gender equality, women’s role in peace building and other critical issues from margin to the center of global agenda, are now joining the circles of elders. The new and emerging young women are taking the leadership to further the plight of women for gender equality, peace and development. The recent global AWID Forum on Women’s Rights and Development Cape Town, South Africa, the Gender Equality Coalition efforts to address gender equality at the upcoming World Social Forum in Amazon, Brazil, the strong voice of younger people engaged in US election, the young brave women who are writing the history of women’s movement for equality and dignity in Iran and the Afghan and Palestinian young men and women who never gave up the struggle for living a life in peace, security and respect to human rights are beacons of hopes and sources of inspiration for a world that the dream of human rights, dignity, peace and prosperity can no longer be deferred
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY
New information
IRN 012 / 1008 / OBS 187
Sentencing / Arbitrary detention
Iran
November 12, 2008
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in Iran.
New information:
The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the sentencing of Mr. Yasser Goli, a Kurdish rights activist and Secretary General of the Kurdish Students’ Union of Iranian Universities, detained since October 9, 2007[1], to 15 years in prison
According to the information received, on November 6, 2008, Mr. Yasser Goli was sentenced by the second branch of the Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj, Iranian Kurdistan, to 15 years in prison and to his banishment to Kerman, in the east of the country, for having contacts with “illegal Kurdish organisations” (Article 168 of the Islamic Penal Code). His lawyer will appeal this sentence. As of issuing this urgent appeal, he remains detained in a prison in Kurdistan. No further information could be obtained as to his exact place of detention.
The Observatory expresses its deep concern about Mr. Goli’s severe sentencing, which is once again evidence of the ongoing harsh repression of the Iranian authorities against human rights defenders.
Furthermore, the Observatory wishes to insist on the fact that Iran had committed to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights”[2] by presenting its candidacy to the Human Rights Council 2006 election and had insisted in this regard on the fact that the country had “continuously put great efforts into safeguarding the status and inherent dignity of the human person as well as the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms”[3]. In order to ensure the continuation of these efforts, the Observatory urges the Islamic Republic of Iran to conform with international human rights standards.
Background information:
After being in prison for three months, Mr. Goli was transferred to the Central Prison of Sanandaj on January 16, 2008. Until then, he was not allowed to meet with his family. Mr. Goli suffers from a heart ailment and has been admitted to the hospital numerous times for treatment.
Hi whole family has fought on his behalf to shed light on his condition and plight. His father, Mr. Saleh Goli, was arrested on October 31, 2007 in connection with his son’s case. His bail was set at 10 million tomans but he was subsequently released.
Actions requested:
Please write to the authorities in Iran urging them to:
i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Yasser Goli;
ii. Release Mr. Yasser Goli immediately and unconditionally since his detention is arbitrary as it merely aims at sanctioning his activities in favour of human rights;
iv. Put an end to all acts of harassment, including at the judicial level, against Mr. Yasser Goli as well as against all Iranian human rights defenders;
v. Conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially its Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, Article 6.b, which provides that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others [...] freely to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms”, and Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;
vi. More generally, ensure in all circumstances the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with international and regional human rights instruments ratified by Iran.
Addresses:
· Leader of the Islamic Republic, His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, The Office of the Supreme Leader, Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran, Faxes: + 98.21.649.5880 / 21.774.2228, Email: info@leader.ir / istiftaa@wilayah.org / webmaster@wilayah.org;
· President, His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: + 98.21.649.5880, E-mail: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir;
· Head of the Judiciary, His Excellency Mr. Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: +98.21.879.6671 / +98 21 3 311 6567 / +98 21 3 390 4986, Email: Irjpr@iranjudiciary.com / info@dadgostary-tehran.ir;
· Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Mr. Manuchehr Motaki, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdolmajid Keshk-e Mesri Av, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: + 98.21.390.1999, Email: matbuat@mfa.gov;
· Director, Human Rights Headquarters of Iran, His Excellency Mohammad Javad Larijani, C/o Office of the Deputy for International Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Justice Building, Panzdah-Khordad (Ark) Square, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Fax: + 98 21 5 537 8827
· Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 28, 1209 Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 7330203, Email: mission.iran@ties.itu.int;
· Ambassador Mr. Ahani, Embassy of Iran in Brussels, avenue Franklin Roosevelt, 15 A. 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium, Fax: + 32 2 762 39 15. Email: iran-embassy@yahoo.com.
Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of Iran in your respective country.
***
Geneva - Paris, November 12, 2008
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need. The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
E-mail: Appeals@fidh-omct.org
Tel and fax FIDH + 33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 / +33 1 43 55 18 80
Tel and fax OMCT + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Amnesty International: Iran, Arbitrary arrest/Fear of torture Negin Sheikholeslami
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Sunday, October 12, 2008
Hanged for being a Christian in Iran
Eighteen years ago, Rashin Soodmand's father was hanged in Iran for converting to Christianity. Now her brother is in a Mashad jail, and expects to be executed under new religious laws brought in this summer. Alasdair Palmer reports.
More..
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Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Amnesty International update on Hassanpour/Butimar
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Ms. Negin Sheykh Alaslami has been Arrested
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Sunday, October 5, 2008
I Ran Into Myself in the Street and Asked
I Ran Into Myself in the Street and Asked To the audience- I met my own ignorant self on the street and asked: Me: Have you ever heard of "a Prisoner of Conscious"? Me2: Well, no! But I'm a smart woman, I'm sure I can guess what it is. Me: Go ahead, take your best shot! Me2: Nice choice of words. I think, it means people locked up for having no conscience. You know, just to prevent them from doing something really bad, like murder, in the future. To the audience: (I laugh) I thought this was my ignorant self, not my moronic self! Me: (to the audience) No! Let me tell you who a "prisoner of conscious" is: Imprisoned, prosecuted for what is in his/her mind- NOT for what they have actually done! Yes, here thoughts are louder than actions, and the profundity of these words should echo loud in your minds, because this means YOU (pointing at audience), and YOU and YOU and YOU and YES I (pointing at myself) too should all be "Prisoners of Conscious", it means 1984 manifested, it means "thought crime", it means, WE ARE ALL criminals! It means we all deserve to be as severely punished as the jurisdiction of life allows. It means if you think; you are dangerous! SO I begin with a quote, because in the system of oppression of the towers of academia, my creativity was beaten, and instead I was bombarded by clichés. I was told to begin every essay with either a profound definition or the words of a wise man. Who cared what my own hands could produce? A deaf Jam slam poet, says: "I am not angry; I am anger! I am not dangerous; I am danger! I am abominable stress, Iliadic relentless, I am a breath of vengeance; I am the death sentence!" Let me tell you who a "Prisoner of Conscious" is. Not to you! (Point to the audience) Not you, the men and women, who were once there, not you the human right activists who injected me with the truth and were blamed for carrying the syringes of reality. I don't want to preach to the choir. I speak to my own moronic self in the street. Hence, this piece is written in English, because I want these words to ring, and ring, and ring, and echo, and echo, and echo all over the world, it must and it shall! I don't want the solitary cells of Evin to be a secret anymore! I don't want this to be our burden any longer; I want everyone to know who a "Prisoner of Conscious" is: Once a young boy who had just formed the mustache above his lips, a young girl not yet reached puberty, tortured, brutally, ruthlessly in the invisible walls of Evin and Gohar Dasht, and so many unnamed provinces of Iran, once a young mom, she had just given birth, once a young man he had just proposed. But ethereal romance was too good for those times; a "Prisoner of Conscious" devotes body and his "lack of soul" to ideas, to ideals, to his manifesto, to his book of truth, not the holy book. A "Prisoner of Conscious" is an unknown man, a statistically insignificant, and yet a powerful force in this world, a nameless threat, he is flesh, she is flesh, flesh and bones! An idealist, a dreamer, she hoped, he wished, she desired, he fought for something more than the status quo. And that was their crime! How many? 8000? 10,000? Who were they really? What were they names? What did they like? What did they dream of? Were their affiliations a manifestation of their time? Were they a victim of their surroundings, of their social standings? Let's play a game shall we? I will ask you a question and if you answer me wrong, you are sent to the gutters! But wait, don't answer! It's a rhetorical question! You were doomed poor child, way before you were brought before my eyes! And thus is the story of every "Prisoner of Conscious". I do have a story for you. It's my story! I was in my mother's womb when she was a "Prisoner of Conscious", thus I was a "prisoner of Conscious" before I was born! My father was a "Prisoner of Conscious" in Iran in the 1980s as well. I was 8 years old when I left Iran and I have never looked back since. My memories of Iran are neither sweet nor passionate. And what does the topic of ME has anything to do with the topic of YOU or the topic of the "Prisoner's of Conscious"? EVERYTHING! I am the next generation of Human Right activists for Iran; I am the future of this movement, and everything you have fought for. That title is much more a burden than an honor, believes me! But if you and my mother and my father do not find a way to teach me about how to carry on your legacy, how to continue this fight for human rights, for ideas that were once flesh, how to organize and become a united front, how not to repeat the same mistakes, you have allowed all of those "Prisoner's of Conscious" of 1988 and the hundreds of others dying on hunger strike in Iran right now, go on silent and go on silent and go on silent! If you do not find a way to reach out to my 15 year old brother who is completely disconnected with Iran, apathetic even, the silence and inaction will eventually bury them under history. That will be your intellectual genocide! And I want to run into myself in the street one day and say: I am glad we are finally victorious! I am glad we have triumphed! Contact: cklaramoradian@yahoo.com |
Friday, October 3, 2008
Iran Women Say No to Polygamy
Members of the first Majlis - Oct 7, 1906 - June 23, 1908The Iranian "Family Protection Bill," which is anything but protective of families, has brought together one of the largest coalitions to oppose a bill since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In response to the efforts of this coalition, the Iranian parliament (known in Iran as the Majlis) has removed the two most contested articles of this bill, Articles 23 and 25, postponing the bill's floor discussion indefinitely. In addition, Iran's parliament will send the bill back to the Parliamentary Judicial Committee for further revisions.
This rare and temporary victory has energized young women activists in Iran.
Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, has called the Family Protection Bill a sign of the Iranian government's regression to many centuries ago. In an interview with the editor of the website Change4Equality, Ebadi said she and her colleagues would stage a sit-in at the Parliament (Majlis) Building should the bill be discussed on the Majlis floor.
On Sunday August 31 approx 100 women leaders and activists from various women's groups such as the One Million Signatures Campaign, Meydaan Zanan, Kanoon Zanan Irani, along with Shirin Ebadi and Simin Behbahani, Iran's "brave and popular" Iranian woman poet, met with members of parliament and expressed their opposition to the bill.
Simin Behbahani, in an interview with Iranian web publication, The Feminist School, summed up the meeting, "Today, we had a duty, and our duty was to voice the concerns of the women in our country to the representatives. Our visit to the parliament and our objection was because we don't want future generations to wonder why we did not protest such a bill. So, visiting the parliament and meeting with the MPs was important and necessary."
Although articles 23 and 25 of Iran's Family Protection Bill were not the only two articles which brought the large and diverse coalition together, articles 16, 17 and 18 also elicited protest by women activists.
One of these articles, that is a major concern for many Iranians, impacts Iranian women who marry foreign nationals. According to existing family law, citizenship cannot be passed to children from their mothers. Many Iranian women who have married Afghan and Iraqi men cannot get birth certificates for their children; hence these children cannot go to school. It is estimated that there are 100,000 children today in Iran without birth certificates who are denied
their basic human right to education.Farshad Ebrahimi April 23, 2007
Women adjusting hair on streets of Tehran to comply with public dress code. Image: Farshad Ebrahimi April 23, 2007
The Family Protection Bill imposing even stricter penalties upon women who marry foreigners, stipulates a harsh sentence, up to 9 months in detention, for women who marry foreign nationals prior to getting government permission.
Family and reproductive laws are very important global issues for gender equality activists. Women in Iran, as well as other women living under Moslem laws, are particularly focused on family law, as these laws define and redefine the position of women in society.
Religious fundamentalists/extremists of all religions often focus on gender as they construct and maintain gender differences as the core policies of their political identities.
Whether it is the Family Protection Bill in Iran, or debates related to reproductive rights in the US, religious extremists actions have resulted in taking away what women human rights activists have gained. Fundamentalist Iranian women in favor of easing polygamy laws in Iran, and US presidential candidate Sarah Palin, on the US Republican ticket for the 2008 presidential election, have a lot in common. Both parties rely on the most regressive religious interpretations of women's issues within their faith.
In a country where there is a significant gap between the demands for rights and the regressive laws imposed upon women related to polygamy and other discriminatory legislation, denial of rights will not go unchallenged. More than 60% of higher education students are female, yet their testimony in court counts for only half of a man's testimony. Human rights defenders and women activists in Iran demand equality and dignity - nothing more and nothing less.
Where more than 500,000 Iranian bloggers, many of them women, are active in cyberspace recording narratives of their lives, while at the same time needing their husbands' permission for obtaining passports, they face institutionalized discrimination that makes them second class citizens in divorce, inheritance, child custody and other aspects of life.
Iranian women activists and their male allies are well aware of the fact that they need to keep their guard up and keep moving forward until all discriminatory laws against women in Iran are eliminated.
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For VIDEO SEGMENT - Click first to Website Link:http://womennewsnetwork.net:80/Then scroll down to video and click arrow to start.
US media journalists, Matt Lauer and Richard Engel (with NBC news) outline current conditions for Iranian women, September 2007.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Human Rights Council unable to act strongly
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Press release
Human Rights Council unable to act strongly
Press release
Human Rights Council unable to act strongly
Geneva, Paris, 24 September 2008 – At the conclusion of the ninth session of the Human Rights Council, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) remains deeply concerned by the lack of mobilisation of a majority of Member States to protect victims of human rights violations in countries where they are the most vulnerable.
Although satisfied by the renewal of the mandate on the situation of Human Rights in Sudan, FIDH deplores the reduction of the length of the mandate to six months (instead of one year), interpreted by the Ambassador of Sudan as a sign of the “improvement” of the situation. For Souhayr Belhassen, President of the FIDH, “ we haven't seen any improvements on the ground, certainly not on the victims' side.”
FIDH also welcomes the renewal of the Council's mandates on Cambodia and Burundi, but regrets that the latter be also reduced to six months (as a domino effect from the Sudanese text), and that it's future be conditioned to the establishment of a national human rights commission, while the human rights challenges, notably the persecution of human rights defenders, require today far greater actions.
Finally, FIDH regrets the Council's absence of action on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, in spite of the continuous deterioration of the situation, the rise in the repression, and the application of death penalty to juveniles. FIDH also regrets the lack of action on Uzbekistan, in spite of the confidentiality of the procedure for which the country was examined.
As regards thematic issues, FIDH welcomes the report presented by the Special Rapporteur on racial discrimination on the concept of “defamation of religion”, recommending to move away from the sociological concept used in various Council resolutions, to use instead the legal notion of ‘incitement to hatred’. FIDH calls on Member States to fully endorse this recommendation and reflect it in resolutions adopted and declarations made within the Human Rights Council.
Press contact : Karine Appy + 33 1 43 55 25 18, kappy@fidh.org
--
Karine Appy
Attachée de presse
Press Officer
FIDH
17 passage de la main d'or
75011 Paris
France
Tél : 00 33 1 43 55 14 12
Fax : 00 33 1 43 55 18 80
http://www.fidh.org
Sunday, September 21, 2008
On the 26th day of the Hunger Strike of Kurdish Prisoner their Health Condition has Greatly Worsened
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Saturday, September 20, 2008
Iran's Women's Rights Activists Are Being Smeared
Run Date: 09/17/08By Nayereh TohidiWeNews commentator
Women's rights activists recently succeeded in stalling a bill to ease polygamy, temporary marriage and male-bias in divorce. But Nayereh Tohidi says a nasty smear campaign and continuous arrest show the adversity they are up against.
Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews.
(WOMENSENEWS)--In Iran , the government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently proposed a bill and, in Orwellian fashion, named it the "Family Protection Law."
If passed it would have threatened the stability, equilibrium, and mental health of families by reinforcing and facilitating polygamy, temporary marriage, and men's privileged position with regard to divorce.
The good news: A diverse coalition of women's rights activists and even some moderate clerics and politicians persuaded a judicial commission to drop some of the most contested articles and Majles, the Parliament, passed an amended version on Sept. 9. This version makes second marriage contingent upon the first wife's consent and does not attach any tax on the amount of dowry to be paid to wife in case of divorce.
The bad news: The amended family law and many other laws pertaining to personal status are still very male biased. Temporary marriage (muta), for example, remains a prerogative for married and unmarried men without even requiring its registration. Activists campaigning to change that those laws are still under attack, with five women recently sentenced to prison terms of between six months and four years.
A major sign of the negative climate is a wave of smear campaigns recently waged against those activists, chief among them Shirin Ebadi, the leading human rights lawyer. Similar campaigns in the 1990s were harbingers of homicides.
A series of articles published in early August by the official Islamic Republic News Agency made dangerous allegations against Ebadi, her family, and the Center for the Defense of Human Rights that she founded and chairs.
The articles charged Ebadi, a Women's eNews 21 Leader, with supporting sexual license, promiscuity, and prostitution. They called her a Zionist agent and alleged that the international Zionist Lobby was behind her winning the 2003 Nobel Prize.
The articles also claimed that Ebadi's daughter has converted to the Bahai faith, a dangerous accusation because Iran does not recognize Bahaism as a religion and its followers have faced severe discrimination and persecution.
Trumped-Up Charges
Several human rights groups, including the Nobel Women Initiative (founded by six female Nobel Peace Prize winners) have compared the accusations to trumped-up charges brought up by the same media against dissident intellectuals in the 1990s that led to several mysterious assassinations now known as "the serial killings."
Women's status in Iran is paradoxical and complex. Many rural women and those living in small towns suffer from old restrictions and practices such as domestic violence and "honor killing."
As for urban women: While economic necessity compels many to work outside the home, their employment opportunities are limited and often face discrimination and harassment. According to official records, in the course of the past year alone, more than 20,000 women have been attacked by "moral squads" and put under temporary police arrest for breaking Islamic dress code.
At the same time, Iranian women have made remarkable strides. Literacy rates among younger generations have risen above 90 percent, and a drastic decline in the fertility rate (now less than two children per woman) and improvements in health and life expectancy have paralleled strides in higher education and income generation. Women are now more than 60 percent of university students and are active in many non-traditional occupations such as medicine, law, engineering and architecture.
Women played a significant role in the reform movement of the late 1990s by massive participation in presidential, parliamentary, and municipal elections. But since then, women's participating in formal politics has waned along with the reform movement.
Laws Lagging Behind New Realities
Women's legal rights within marriage and the family--so-called personal status--have remained backward and at odds with their proven capacities. While women in Iran have produced best-selling novels and internationally award-winning films, barbaric practices such as stoning to death for adultery are still legal.
Two years ago, in August 2006, 200 women (and also some men) began a grassroots effort known as the "One Million Signatures Campaign" to change discriminatory laws. It was modelled after a similar 1992 campaign by Moroccan women, which produced progressive changes in the family law in that country. In Iran , the plan was to present one million signatures to the Majles and press legislators to enact equal-rights legislation. But continuous attacks and arrest of those collecting signatures have slowed the process and caused organizers to extend the two-year target.
Despite intimidation and arrests, this campaign has grown into a network of thousands of activists in more than 30 cities. It has also mobilized support among Iranians abroad and gained increasing recognition and solidarity among transnational networks of feminists and women's rights activists.
Appealing to Anxieties
To thwart such efforts from fuelling a counter cultural movement in the Iranian population--70 percent of whom are now younger than 30--the radical Islamists are appealing to traditionalists' anxieties about changing sexual mores and gender views. One recent article published in August in the state-run newspaper Keyhan called for "courageous and gutsy revolutionaries who can do the job" (i.e., continue to carry out attacks on the women's rights activists).
U.S. policy toward Iran and the continuous threat of military attack have further complicated the situation. In 2003 the allocation of $75 million in U.S. aid to Iranian civil rights organizations spurred the government to repress all voices of dissent. Any civil society organizations or individuals doing effective work toward democracy and human-women's rights were accused of being agents in a U.S. plan for regime change.
While the hard-liners and radical Islamists cast peaceful and transparent campaigns as national security threats, that charge is better applied to them. Their belligerent foreign policies have brought sanctions and economic hardship and created the danger of military attacks on Iran .
And while they blast off allegations of sexual license and prostitution against women seeking equal rights and egalitarian family relations they promote polygamy and temporary marriage, both frowned upon by the majority of Iranians. Many Sunni and even many Shii Muslims view temporary marriage as little more than legalized prostitution.
Iranian women's rights activists are contributing to a slow, persistent process of building a civil society grounded on egalitarian and democratic values that would nourish national security and peace with justice. Their efforts are not tied to any national security interest. They are part of a universal quest by civilized people for a peaceful and humane society.
Nayereh Tohidi is chair and professor of the Department of Gender and Women's Studies, California State University , Northridge and a Research Associate at the Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA.
Women's eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at http://us.mc564.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=editors@womensenews.org.
www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3743
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
An International Call to End all Executions of Juvenile Offenders
AN INTERNATIONAL CALL TO END ALL EXECUTIONS OF JUVENILE OFFENDERS: عربي - Français - Español - Farsi Implement the Prohibition against the Juvenile Death Penalty in Law and Practice
Deadline for signing the petition is 13 October. NOTE: please note that this petition is for organizations, not individuals.Thank you. *Between January 1, 2005 and September 2, 2008, the following states are known to have executed 32 juvenile offenders: Iran (26), Saudi Arabia (2), Sudan (2), Pakistan (1), Yemen (1). vokradio.com |
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