IRI's War against Iranian women (March 8th, 1979 - Present)

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Postby Liberator » Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:48 am

8 March 2005



Mr Ghaemaghami (KRSI):


In commemoration of women's day Iranian women held a gathering in Laleh Park today and were giving out flowers to people. Many of the women pulled back or took off their scarves (roosari's) in protest of the Islamic Republic's savage anti-Iranian policies and soon 50 or so of them were attacked and arrested by the Islamic Regimes thugs.


DOROOD BAR EEN SHIRZANANE IRANI! NANG BAR JOMHORIYE KASIFE ESLAMEE!


********

Ba Sepaas
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K
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Postby Liberator » Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:49 am

First protests against mandatory hijab

Compiled by Pedram Missaghi
March 7, 2000
iranian.com


After the fall of the Pahlavi regime in February 1979, Iran's religious leaders imposed strict rules on women's clothing in public. The following is a chronology of women's protests in the early days. From In the Shadow of Islam by Azar Tabari and Nahid Yeganeh. See photos here.

10-11 Feb 1979
Overthrow of the government of Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtias and establishment of the first Islamic government administration under the premiership of Mehdi Bazargan.

26 Feb. 1979
Family Protection Law suspended by a letter issued by the Office of Ayatollah Khomeini. A Government spokesman later stated that the old law would remain in effect until new legislation was drafted.

3 March 1979
Issuing of decrees appointing women as judges was stopped. Qualified women were told to apply for administrative posts in the judiciary.

4 March 1979
Khomeini, in a speech addressed to thousands of women who had gone to Qom to pay him respect, said that in Islam the right to divorce is the prerogative of the husband, but women could specify in the marriage contract that in case of maltreatment by the husband they are entitled to divorce themselves.

6 March 1979
Minister of Defense, General Madani, declared that women would not be drafted into the army in future. All women serving their conscription terms were dismissed and released from military service.

7 March 1979
During a speech addressed to thousands of visitors in Qom, Khomeini said that women were not prohibited from taking jobs, but that they must wear the Islamic veil at work

8 Mach 1979
Mass demonstration of women to celebrate International Women's Day, and to protest against Khomeini's statement regarding the veil. From early hours of the morning meetings were held in girl's high schools and in Tehran University. Marches, spontaneously decided upon in such meetings, got on their way during the day , some converging on Tehran University, others going to the Office of the Prime Minister Bazargan, others heading for the Ministry of Justice. Some of the slogans of the demonstrators were: 'Freedom in our culture; to stay at home is our shame' 'Liberty and equality are our undeniable rights' ' We will fight against compulsory veil; down with dictatorship' ' In the dawn of freedom, we already lack freedom' 'Women's Day of Emancipation is neither Western, nor Eastern, it is international' 'Freedom does not take rules and regulations".

In several incidents women demonstrators were physically attacked on the streets. Revolutionary Guards fired in the air to disperse women demonstrators, estimated by the press at 15,000, from the streets around the Prime Minister's office. Many meetings, planned in advance by various women's groups on the occasion of International WOmen's Day, were held throughout the day, each drawing an audience of several thousands.

9 March 1979
Segregation of sports was proposed. Women were subsequently barred from international sports on the grounds that coaches, judges, spectators, etc. in such events include men.

10 March 1979
Further demonstrations and sit-ins against imposition of the veil. A mass meeting of women held at the Ministry of Justice. The meeting was attacked by hard-liners and women were beaten by armed men. 10 March 1979: Demonstration of women in front of the National Television, protesting against the news black-out of their demonstration and activities. Prime Minister Bazargan announced that wearing the veil is not compulsory and that Imam Khomeini's statement had been misunderstood.

11 March 1979
Even though, following Bazargan's statement, some of the women's organizations withdrew their support for the demonstration planned for this day, some 20,000 women attended the rally in Tehran University. After several speeches, women marched towards Azadi Square. Along the route the march drew support from offices, hospitals and schools. It was attacked at several points by Muslim fanatics, men and women. The final rally had to be abandoned because of the increasing number of fanatics encircling the rally point.

21 May 1979
Ministry of Education banned co-education. All educational institutions were ordered to segregate all classes. Many institutions indicated that since the number of female students alone would not justify setting up separate classes they could be unable to register any female students. In late September, when schools opened, female students of technical training schools staged a protest against de facto suspension of their studies as a result of this decision. They were told to change their courses of training to fields where there were enough female students to justify separate training courses.

3 June 1979
The Ministry of Education banned married women from attending ordinary high schools. They were told they should continue studies on their won and take part in special examinations in order to obtain final degrees. Coupled with the lowering minimum age for marriage of women to 13 years, this would mean an increase, over the coming years, in lower educational levels for women.

13 June 1979
All the day-care and nursery centers at work-places were closed and women with children were encouraged to quit their jobs and stay at home. The women employees of the Communication Corporation were threatened with mass lay-off.

8 July 1979
Several Caspian Sea resort towns initiated a sexual 'segregation' of the sea. Many women were flogged in public during the summer of 1979 on charges of swimming in the men's section.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K
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Postby Liberator » Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:49 am

Women beaten up and arrested at occasion of "Int'l Women Day"
SMCCDI (Information Service)
Mar 8, 2005


http://www.daneshjoo.org/smccdinews/articl...icle_4357.shtml


Several Iranian women activists and some of their male supporters were beaten and arrested today, as they defied basic taboos of the Islamist ideology and Gender Apartheid enforcers of the Islamic republic.

Shouting slogans, like, "Na roosari, Na toosari!" (No Veil, No Submission!) the demonstrators were loud and defiant.

The protesters had gathered for the celebration of the "Int'l Women's Day," at Laleh Park located in the center of Tehran, when militiamen and plainclothes agents rushed them, as the brave female protesters removed their mandatory veils.

At least 50 women were arrested and seen transferred to regime buses that quickly left the scene. Regime security forces had previously closed most accesses to the area, in order to exercise ease of control and avoid more supporters joining the demonstrators.

Speaking to Pars TV, the SMCCDI Coordinator had declared, yesterday evening, the Movement's support of maverick Iranian women and asked for their protection. "It's the duty of every Iranian man to be at laleh Park and support their wives, mothers and sisters who are seeking to break the chains of slavery and discrimination" Pirouznia had stated.

The Islamic regime instated its' Gender Apartheid policy, following the 1979 revolution based on deep Islamist principles that established women as half a man and the source of temptation. Gender Apartheid proponents include "Abolhassan Bani-Sadr", the first president of the Islamic regime. An obvious fanatic and backwarded in his kind, he, Bani-Sadr, actually stated "the hair of a women is an emanating source of temptation that harms men's intelligence." He was later exiled to France,.

Of course Bani-Sadr was not the only case of gender apartheid. Some female jurists who professed to be secular justices of the former regime placed veils over their faces, to endorse Rooh-Ollah Khomeini backward ideology. Two of these jurists Later identified as "Mehrangiz Kar" and "Shirin Ebadi" were recently received awards for their "Human Rights Accomplishments" who were ardent defenders of the so-called "reforms from within" and of Khatami's corrupt administration. They did so at a very same time that thousands of Iranian women, understanding what was going to happen were marching in the streets and rejecting any veil project by using the very same "Na roosari, Na toosari" slogan, which is now 26 years old.

Recently, Mehranguiz Kar has suddenly become the endorser of a controversial project named 'national call for referendum,' which is much different than the "genuine" referendum aspired by millions of Iranians. Many of them are suspicious that the very same people are trying to deviate the course of their true objectives again, which is nothing more than the advent of a secular system; rather than a esthetical change in the current regime's constitution.

Not astonishingly, Mehrangiz Kar was the guest speaker, on February 26, 2005, of a meeting sponsored by the notorious Islamic regime's lobbyist Houshang Amir Ahmadi and his self called "American Iranian Council" (AIC). http://american-iranian.org/beta/announcem...ments.php?ID=41 Amir Ahmadi, who's qualified by many Iranians as the "Broker of Death," is also known for having promoted the sham reforms and has always tried to legitimize the Islamic regime by arranging meetings during the Clinton administration between the theocratic regime's leaders and some U.S. officials and lawmakers. Exposed for what it really represents everywhere, the AIC has recently remodeled its website and, while still promoting the legitimization of the Islamic regime, it's also slyly calling for 'democracy' and 'respect of human rights in Iran'.

For her part, Shirin Ebadi is going to deliver a speech, at the French National Assembly tomorrow, on behalf of Iranian women. In a letter, sent by Kaveh Mohseni of SMCCDI, the Movement protested against such invitation and France's exposed policy of Autruche (Ostrich). Indeed, many remember how Ebadi, awarded by the Nobel Committee, justified the mandatory veil, which has became a symbol of repression for most Iranian women, by stating that the "law of Land must be respected." Worst, she even echoed the Islamic regime's opinion on the ban of veil from French Secular Schools by qualifying it as repressive, instead of denouncing the daily plight of her country's women.

Another colleague named Ebrahim Yazdi, is also touring Europe and making speeches. News agencies like the very friendly German DPA are portraying him as a "secular" opponent to the Regime. In reality Yazdi was one of the main masterminds of the 1979 revolution and a writer of the theocratic constitution. One of his "greatest" accomplishments is founding the Islamist Student Union of North America, which promoted Khomeini and his dogmatic ideology. Many Iranians remember also a 'victorious' Yazdi, shown on the revolutionary TV, in the role of a brutal Islamist prosecutor who sent several, such as, the late Mehdi Rahimi to his execution.

For a better understanding of Iranian Women Case, click HERE (for English) and HERE (for Persian)





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Kaveh Mohseni's letter:




Au sujet de l’invitation de Shirin Ebadi à l’Assemblée Nationale Francaise
SMCCDI (Representation en France)
Mar 5, 2005


http://www.daneshjoo.org/foreignnews/artic...rticle_86.shtml


M. Jean-Louis Debré

Président de l’Assemblée Nationale



Au sujet de l’invitation, le 9 Mars 2005,

De Shirin Ebadi à l’Assemblée Nationale





Chaque jour, les actualités confirment l’absence de scrupules des dirigeants de la République Islamique et révèlent l’absence d’une politique alternative proposée par ses dissidents hétéroclites. Que pense Shirin Ebadi des inquiétantes facettes de la République Islamique : Création du Hezbollah, soutien financier et pétrole gratuit depuis 26 ans pour la Syrie terroriste, projet de destruction d’Israël ? Que pense-t-elle des conséquences nécessairement dangereuses de ces forfaits pour notre pays dans le contexte actuel?



Shirin Ebadi a toujours critiqué les opposants à la République Islamique, leurs programmes et la sécularisation de la politique. Elle est, au contraire, montée au créneau pour défendre des positions extrêmement similaires à celles des autorités officielles de la République Islamique. Souvenez-vous de ses positions scandaleuses sur la loi interdisant les signes religieux ostentatoires en France !





Monsieur le Président de l’Assemblée Nationale,



Le Comité de Coordination du Mouvement Estudiantin pour la Démocratie en Iran juge cette invitation inappropriée à plusieurs titres.



La République Islamique est, pour les Iraniens, synonyme de 26 ans de purges, de guerres, d’arrestations arbitraires, d’inimaginables tortures, de pendaisons et d’amputations publiques et d’Apartheid sexuel. 26 ans de défaites économiques et de corruption des mollahs qui ont mis KO un peuple tout entier et ont vidé toutes les caisses d’un état jadis riche.



Les jeunes Iraniens démocrates et laïques espèrent convaincre les autorités françaises et européennes que l’impasse dans laquelle se trouve l’Iran est imputable aux « réformateurs » de la République Islamique. Hélas, la diplomatie française persiste à défendre coûte que coûte la thèse d'une amélioration du régime de l'intérieur, au mépris des faits. Durant ces 8 dernières années, Khatami et l’ensemble des réformateurs, qui l’ont soutenu, ont donné un éclat politiquement correct à cet état totalitaire, et ont permis aux pères fondateurs de la République Islamique d’oeuvrer en toute quiétude et tromper la vigilance des observateurs étrangers. Et à chaque fois les réformateurs et les dissidents, loin de condamner cet aventurisme malsain, se sont portés volontaires pour défendre ces objectifs irresponsables des mollahs. Sans l’ombre d’un reproche contre le régime, ils ont soutenu les projets honteux des mollahs sans émettre la moindre critique !



D’autres comme Mme. Ebadi se sont terrés dans le un profond mutisme sur ces sujets: elle se dit en effet apolitique ! Apolitique, elle l’est quand il s’agit d’un sujet aussi grave qui engage l’avenir de l’Iran, sa sécurité et la préservation de son écosystème mais elle devient prolixe, infatigable oratrice et très politisée quand il s’agit de critiquer les jeunes Iraniens, le boycott pacifique des élections, le mouvement de la Désobéissance Civique ou bien dans un autre registre, l’état l’Israël ! En quoi propose-t-elle une alternative démocratique et radicalement différente des élucubrations des mollahs ?





Monsieur le Président de l’Assemblée Nationale,



Shirin Ebadi n’est pas qualifiée pour représenter le changement vers une démocratie en Iran encore moins pour parler au nom du peuple iranien. Elle a très active dans ce « (pseudo)-Mouvement des Réformes » et elle continue de chanter les louanges de ce même Khatami qui a contribué à endormir les opinions publiques des états occidentaux. La France et autres pays d’Europe n’ont suivi que leurs intérêts économiques ou énergétiques à court terme : faire des affaires sans une opinion publique remuante. Quant aux dirigeants de la République Islamique, ils ont poursuivi leurs propres objectifs. Telle ont été et resteront la mission de Khatami et de ce simulacre des « Réformes ».



La France a d’innombrables intérêts en Iran et continue de privilégier tout ce qui confortera ce régime. Si l’on en croit les deux derniers ministres des Affaires Etrangères, MM. de Villepin et Barnier, la France est déterminée à faire de la République des mollahs un véritable « Pôle de Stabilité » !!!





Monsieur le Président de l’Assemblée Nationale,



Soyez certain que la jeunesse iranienne connaît les raisons de cette écoeurante attitude.



Fort heureusement, la République Islamique est à bout de souffle. Malgré les menaces et les intimidations, les mollahs ne sont parvenus qu’à réunir 50,000 personnes à Téhéran le 22 Février dernier : une foule amenée par cars de toutes les régions d’Iran dans cette ville qui compte 15 millions d’habitants peu désireux de célébrer une révolution qui a anéanti leur vie. Le régime s’effondre.



Il ne lui reste qu’une Shirin Ebadi qui défend encore « les acquis » de cette révolution et vient réclamer à la France son soutien pour de nouvelles réformes islamisantes. Faut-il vous rappelez, Monsieur le Président, que la République Islamique demeure le pays de la répression de la presse et de l’Internet, celui de l’apartheid sexuel, des amputations publiques, des arrestations et détentions arbitraires et de l’absence de reconnaissance des délits d’opinions. Ces maux qui ont marqué l’Iran et fait des centaines de milliers de victimes et que, Shirin Ebadi assimile à de simples « lacunes » qu’il conviendrait d’éliminer à un rythme « adapté » à l’Iran.



C’est son discours complaisant avec un régime totalitaire et sécuritaire qui a disqualifié Shirin Ebadi auprès du peuple iranien. Elle paraît aujourd’hui en Iran comme un élément qui chercherait à continuer le faux-semblant des pseudo-réformes de Khatami.



Les Iraniens qui sont en désaccord total avec les objectifs terroristes, xénophobes, antisémites, et liberticides de ce régime totalitaire et se reconnaissent en ceux qui s’expriment sans langue de bois pour un projet clair : un Iran 100% démocratique et 100% séculier. Shirin Ebadi est à l’antipode de cette attente. C’est pourquoi Shirin Ebadi n’est pas qualifiée pour représenter le changement vers une démocratie en Iran encore moins pour parler au nom du peuple iranien.



Pour l'heure, la diplomatie Européenne, très largement inspirée par la diplomatie française, a choisi le camp des tortionnaires et des démagogues méprisant le camp de la relève. C’est-à -dire qu’elle néglige et tient pour quantité négligeable 70 millions d’iraniens dont 50 millions de jeunes.



Soyez certain que ces derniers connaissent les raisons de cette invitation inappropriée et maladroite et qu’ils vous en tiendront rigueur, Monsieur le Président de l’Assemblée Nationale.





En souhaitant que la France révise cette politique méprisante à l’égard de la Jeunesse Iranienne, veuillez agréer, Monsieur le Président de l’Assemblée Nationale, l'assurance de la haute considération du Comité de Coordination du Mouvement Estudiantin pour la Démocratie en Iran.





KAVEH MOHSENI

Porte-parole de la Section Française du Comité de Coordination

du Mouvement Estudiantin pour la Démocratie en Iran



Lettre déposée au Bureau d’accueil de l’Assemblée Nationale, le samedi 5 Mars 2005
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K
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Postby Liberator » Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:49 am

A Look at the Conditions of the Iranian Woman on the Occasion of International Women's Day
SMCCI (Public Statement)
Mar 8, 2003


http://www.daneshjoo.org/article/publish/a...icle_2007.shtml


"March 8", the "International Women's Day", is here.

On this day, in most of the countries of the world, great number of women and men, by their widespread participation in various gatherings and demonstrations, observe it as the symbol of a great accomplishment along the advancement of human rights and their way of thinking. This day, which many of the freedom-lovers and forward-thinking forces in the world call March 8 as well, was officially introduced by the UN in the solar year 1355 (1977) as a day for official recognition of women's struggles to obtain their natural and socio-political rights; even though, in the same amendment, each country- such as Australia or pre-revolutionary Iran which was observing the "17th Esfand" (January 7th) - were given the right to acknowledge a different day in accordance with a historic day of theirs in regards to glorifying the efforts to vivify women's rights.

March 8, otherwise known as International Women's Day, is the inheritance of centuries of women's struggles in reaction to the fundamentalist beliefs of patriarchal or religious societies and the exploitation and prejudice that has been allowed upon their rights. Millennia-long struggles in various shapes such as the "sex boycott of men" in ancient Greece and the widespread participation in great revolutions such as in France and Russia. Incredible struggles that sometimes in reaction to the institutionalized form of sexual slavery and prejudice against women in countries such as Iran and Nigeria, takes place as suicide and, in its most explicit form, as the self-conflagration of unsheltered girls and women who have no way left to attract the world's attention to their cries and suffering.

Without doubt, the institutionalization of attention to women's plight and, especially, the intensification of their struggles must be found in the public reaction the enmity of the times of the feudal-theocratic rule in Europe and in the "period of enlightenment" following it. An age that was witness to the shaking and changing, and afterwards the gradual eradication of the leftover thought processes of the earlier establishments of thousands of years of feudalism, slavery, and Stone Age thinking. Thousands of years where due to backwards-thinking and the religiofication of those backwards societies' male deification, woman was only considered to be a creature in the service of the devil, or in its so-called more "humane" version, a half-existence creature or a creature strictly for obtaining sexual gratification and for reproduction. An age of enlightenment in which the tremendous and unprecedented socio-economic achievements that totally revolutionized the frozen millennial societies of Europe and afterwards the young but un-emancipated America as well, through sudden and bloody rebellions and in some cases through gradual change, or, which provided the necessary background for the upcoming social changes which took place as a result of the deep cracking or crumbling of the walls of belief that had been established by the feudal-theocratic powers. The breaking of this millennia-long socio-political freeze and the emergence of socio-liberal thoughts and the sudden or gradual influence of bourgeoisie and/or labor and the transformation of the "slave-peasant human", or the human as "property of the state", into "citizens", and the spreading of their desires for political participation, without doubt, created the opportunity- sooner or later- for women to also directly act upon obtaining their rights after millennia of sexual prejudice.

Yes, the daily and increasing activities of women in an urbanizing world and the development of the press machine and later the steam-engine which set the scene for the industrial revolution, and afterwards, the opening of the workplace to the "female worker" - which was mainly allowed for profiting further from her lower salary- created this opportunity for the industrial female laborer to rise for the revival of her lost rights at the beginning of the twentieth century: first in the Anglo-Saxon Oceania and almost simultaneously in US and Europe. This socio-political revolt which was performed so that the woman laborer could share the political decision-making power, with the occurrence of two nearly successive World Wars and the increasing presence of women in the workforce and her increased influence in making social decisions- especially at the family level, became ever-greater due to the presence of the men at the war-front for many years. Women's awareness of their powers and capabilities turned into organized gatherings and movements on their part, which not only moved the civilized yet prejudiced society of the past century, but also increasing awareness, economic factors, and the influence of those beliefs, desires, and actions have now - meaning at the beginning of the third millennium - have influenced other closed and prejudiced societies especially in the Middle East and Ultra Caucus regions, which have a more advanced culture compared to other third world countries; and, we are all witness daily to the activeness women's and the gradual breaking of the fundamentalist chains of these theocratic or patriarchal states.

In our country, Iran, the roots of the women's current struggle should be sought in their efforts to obtain some of the conditions of their mother's of ancient history, and afterwards, to obtain the accomplishments prior to the Islamic revolution along with the influence of the socio-cultural developments of today's modern world and the inheritance of social-liberal beliefs.

Iranian women, today, due to the gradual but accelerating break-up of some "religious taboos" and rewritings of history, which have all been done to maintain the Islamic beliefs that have entered our culture and are the main reason for the incorrect valuations of the majority of Iranians of the history of their country, now, they look with a more open and curious eye to the past, and along with their brothers and husbands they realize their historic "mothers" - from the "perspective of the genders" - had a very special status until 14 centuries ago. They gradually realize that prior to the Arab assault and the mandatory establishment of the religion of Islam in Iran women such as Artemis, 25 centuries ago, was the commander of a huge division whose cavalry units not only went to the heart of Greece, but who also designed and implemented a major canal dig so that she could send her infantry and ships to support her cavalry detachments. Also, today's women and Iranians by realizing the cultural and engineering roles of women of those days in guiding the men to construct sites such as Persepolis, and afterwards the continuation of women?s high stature until 14 centuries ago, meaning the rule of the likes of Azarmidokht and Burandokht (Known as Poorandokht) whose borders on the one side extended to India and on the other side extended to Rome, they realize how a foreign culture brought about the conditions for their decline. A tribal and patriarchal culture, which despite the claims of the religious, suddenly converted the Iranian women - whom till then were the authors of their own fate - into a "bondservant-slave" with a dreadful fate written by men for six centuries.
A fate written by local men who had to adopt the ways of living of their invaders to avoid more harm. A decayed religious-orthodox culture whose continuance, this time for another seven centuries by another group of invaders, meaning the savage tribes of central Asia and their descendants. A new group of invaders who adapted the religious beliefs of the previous group of invaders in order to indoctrinate their rule for further invasions, and whom by combining the Islamic religion with their own backwards beliefs took away any kind of open thought from the majority of Iranians, especially from our women - who were less valuable than horses to them - and turned them into self-involved and "self-censoring beings". This cultural-socio-political catastrophe continued for close to 13 centuries and almost till the beginning of the "Age of thought and reason in Iran", meaning till the years leading to the "1906 Constitutionalist Revolution" and its aftermath. It was only due to the effective role of Iranian women and mothers in raising their children that, unlike other countries in the region occupied by the same invaders, the overall appreciation of reason and freedom and Iranian patriotism was not lost, and every now and then bold freedom-loving Iranians such as Papak Khoramdin- whom the Arabs and Turks call Babak- and Yaghoub Laith Saffar in reaction to the Arab hostility, the eternal Ferdowsi - the father of Persian wisdom and Iranism - and tens of world famous philosophers, poets, inventors and Astronomists, such as, Omar Khayam and humane and progressive kings and prime ministers such as Lotf-Ali Khan Zand and Amir Kabir with the limited resources of their times attempted to regain some of the ancient glory of Iran, Iranians and Iranian women.

However, the modern struggles of the Iranian women at the advent of the age of reason and modernism in our country, meaning the period that is referred to as the Constitutionalist Revolution and current period of upheaval in our country, has a direct relation with the spread of literacy and awareness which has led to the gradual fading of the religious and superstitious beliefs on the one side, and from the other side with the daily increasing declaration of their natural demands for equal participation with the men in every level of society.

These struggles and its outcomes, have produced an unprecedented commotion for the Iran of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Also, the outer rings and the results of the struggles of Iranian women will influence the entire central Asia region, and not only the fate of the Middle East and Ultra Caucus regions will be revolutionized, it will also bring about unprecedented and sometimes radical change in the cultural, social, and economic and political structures of neighboring countries. Without doubt, one of the first outcomes of the liberation of Iranian women, whom despite their difficult situation have always been a model for other women in the region, will be the cultural power boost that will be given to the Afghan women who have been released from the yoke of the Taliban but are still faced with prejudice, and this would be a great help in providing Afghanistan with major changes in its way of thinking.

To understand this claim, without doubt, a quick look at the highlights of the history of the past century of our country and the struggles of Iranian women and its outcomes, which has always affected the fate of all of Iran and all Iranians, continues to affect their fate, and will continue to do so in the future. This effect is due to the fact that on the one hand no serious modernization and democratization movement can put aside Iranian women who comprise at least half of Iranian society, or define itself without their widespread and all out participation. And, on the other hand, the Iranian woman who has always been the victim of the injustice and prejudice of backwards and stone-age religious and patriarchal thoughts is determinedly standing up to and resisting these injustices.

Along this line and in different ways, freedom-loving Iranian women such as the Parvin Etesamis, Sedigheh Dolat-Abadis, Farrokh Roo-Parsas and Parvaneh Eskandary-Foroohars and their Literary, cultural, and social efforts in destroying the deadly atmosphere of silence of the "male-deity" society, or the uprising of the armed revolutionary units of the 1906 Constitutionalist women in Tehran, Tabriz, and Isphahan, and the material and cultural support of Iranian women for anti-colonialism and anti-exploitation's movements during the Ghajar dynasty and the boycott of European goods and fabrics in those times can be mentioned, which all, despite all the various reactions of the clergy oppressors, such as the Fatwas (religious decree) of incinerating the schools for girls, the splashing of acid in women's faces, and not observing decency towards women; during various decades of the past century with the common hope of attaining better days for their own daughters they besieged the incorrect dogmatic religio-patriarchal beliefs of their times, and in reaction to the oppression that they and their mothers faced they performed a reasonable and humane, and yet unprecedented, revolt in an Islamicised society, and they continue to do so. A just revolt for attaining natural desires such as equal right to existence which was taken away from them for centuries and, after a 50 year period, has been taken away from them again for the past quarter-century.

Yes, during this hundred year period, only in the years of the rule of the Pahlavi kings has it been that Iranian women were able to possess unprecedented progressive rights in an Islamic country. These rights that mainly due to the backwards religious beliefs of the Iran of the times and the fear of the women from the religionists was mainly implemented from top-down at the request of a great many progressive and educated women, began with the unprecedented order of the "unveiling" by the late Reza Shah. An unprecedented order that for many of the women at the advent of the Constitutionalist era and their descendants meant the arrival of the nullification of "sexual slavery" and prejudice in our country, which led to many interpretations and radical changes and reactions in the years after it, and which continues to stir resistance in the Iran of today following this order, it was on "17th Dey 1314" (January 7, 1936) that suddenly half of the country that was condemned, till then, to covering their entire bodies, masking their faces and staying at home found the opportunity to tend to any education and career. Unprecedented opportunities for the entire region that until 50 years later and with the cancellation of these rights, simultaneous with the fall of the Kingdom of the departed late Mohammad Reza Shah, had continued and which even today do not exist in many countries in the region.

Yes, it was in the years following this historic decision that the Iranian woman was able to obtain the right to vote- even a year before the women of Switzerland- and reached the highest socio-political levels by attaining positions as pilots, army commanders, engineers, physicians, Instructors, mayors, judges, consulars, ministers, and even according to the laws of the time, the ability to replace the symbol of the country. This order and afterwards the opportunities and rights arising from it, which from a socio-religious perspective on its aspect of sexuality are unprecedented achievements, was unfortunately heavily criticized by the secular political opposition who had tied their other desires and agendas to the unprecedented accomplishments of the women and by forgetting the sorrowful past of this oppressed group and the enmity of the dogmatic clergy with "all" of the achievements, they attacked the women's accomplishments. For example, many of these opposition members by forgetting the methods of terror and fear that the mullahs used and the superstitious religious atmosphere of the times, which without a strong-handed move from above would not allow any kind of change or even criticism of themselves, and also by forgetting the millennia-long desire of their mothers and sisters and even women with the same ideologies as themselves, they turned the philosophy of the "Unveiling" into one of the goals of their ideological propaganda attacks and in reality, without wanting to do so, they fortified the position of the religionists whom they themselves were in opposition with. This group among the opposition had forgotten that Abraham Lincoln, in America, had no choice but to use force in order to deal an effective blow to the culture of slavery that was "only" 300 years old despite it having a source other than religious roots in order to liberate the Black Americans.

Without doubt, the actions and accomplishments of the Pahlavi regime in regards to the Iranian women and the removal of various prejudices against them provoked the daily increasing anger and enmity of the Shiite clergy and religious fundamentalists and therefore they fought with the royal order and caused its base to weaken. The mullahs with the cultural influence that they had upon millions of religious Iranians made public dissent and demonized the policy of the Pahlavis in regards to women as "Westernization of society" and especially as "spreading prostitution among women". Without doubt, these religious decrees in a country where the majority were Shiite and the provocation of the "male honor" of many Iranian fathers and brothers and husbands, and the outcomes of such beliefs, such as the murder of women on some occasions by their own family members, or the increased feeling of seclusion among women of religious families whom despite the support of women's rights could not join the wave of modernism, all in their own way played an important role in the loss of legitimacy of the regime among the traditional masses, and this point is noteworthy that many of the schoolgirls and educated women who had positions as attorneys and judges, which the canons of the Islamic religion would prevents them from such activities or positions, or ladies whom until yesterday had been trying to wear fashionable outfits, suddenly and because they lacked a real understanding of why, themselves put on headscarves and in practice they combined their criticism of the regime with the sacrificing of the freedoms that their prior generation had achieved.

Thus, the anti-woman, anti-modernity, anti-democracy forces of the religionists that were the remnants the beliefs of fundamentalist mullahs such as Bagher Majlisi, Fazl o'lah Nouri, and Bohlul, along with the lack of insight of the masses and their simplistic religious beliefs, and ultimately with the dogmatic confrontation of the secular opposition to the Pahlavi regime, the created the requisite conditions for a fundamentalist and "sick" mullah by the name of Ruhollah Khomeini, in a historic about-face, to take over the country and nullify all the rights that had been attained by the Iranian women that was the inheritance of years of struggle and sacrifice by them. In this unprecedented historic attainment of political power by the mullahs, the Iranian women were victimized more than the Iranian men, for not only were they deprived of all the rights of a citizen and any right to state their beliefs, but also due to the religious beliefs in Islam and the patriarchal-tribal roots of the Arabs, 14 centuries ago when they put together the true fundaments of Islam, the women were turned into second rate creatures under the stewardship of men. All the rules that had changed or were changing during the previous regime to the benefit of women were also suddenly nullified, and new laws, which all derive from Islamic "sharia law", replaced them. Laws that allowed men to have many wives as in the stone ages and as many additional "temporary" wives and sole custodianship of children and the right to divorce at will, and also the right to grant or withhold travel permission to their wives. Women were deprived of the right to equal inheritance and the general right to request a divorce and to participate in many fields of endeavor and study, and their legal age for marriage was reduced to 8 years and 9 months (9 years by the Arab year which is 11 days shorter than a solar year).

Without doubt, if the struggles of the women and the order of "Dey 17th" in Iran, despite its current nullification, had not left a heritage behind, Iranian women today would not have had a fate better than that of Afghan women during the Taliban's rule; for, a number of the new and backwards rulers in Iran, considering them to be "minors", wanted the overall removal of women from any kind of wage-earning job and higher education, and wanted to clothe them in the ridiculing "black coffin" known as the "chador". It was only this leftover heritage from more than 70 years of women's struggles and efforts and the increased awareness of many of them that made the newly formed and backwards regime of the Islamic Republic and its fundamentalist leaders face unexpected resistance from that group of progressive women. Reactions and resistance that led to suppressive acts on the part of the religious establishment; yet, they never succeeded in a full scale suppression of the women and their demands due to the continued resistance by women who were willing to pay the high price of resistance. Bold moves such as the widespread demonstration of women in protest of the "Enforced Veil" and the historic slogan of "Na roosari, Na too Sari" (No to the Veil, No to Persecution), which these days is echoed all over Iran anew, is testimony to the fact that the regime and its religious-ideological roots are shaky and lack legitimacy.

Yes, Iranian women, due to their identity and their actions have certainly always been at the forefront of the opponents of the Islamic Republic and have been the volunteers for attaining true modernization and democratization in Iran and continue to be so. During the past quarter-century, Iranian women have continuously on their own and through various ways stated their opposition to the religio-patriarchal belief system despite all the threats and dangers that they have faced from the regime and their dependent zealots, and have performed many acts of "civil disobedience" and "negative resistance" in confronting the orders of the mullahs and their "doctrine of sharia". These acts of protest, many of which may seem minor or laughable to Westerners, in reality by understanding the degree of brutality of the mullahs, are actually very bold and heroic acts that in many cases have resulted in the death, disfigurement of the face, and the mutilation of many women in Iran. Acts such as the burning of the chadors and veils, wearing cosmetics and nail polish, which have mostly been confronted by whippings and knife slashes or the tossing of acid in their faces by the lackeys of the regime. Among other forms of effective resistance by women, in addition to the proper upbringing of their own children in order to cancel the brainwashing of children and youth performed in the schools under the control of the mullahs, their cultural and literary efforts should be mentioned which have constantly shaken the foundations of the regime. Cultural and literary works that are mainly spread underground and away from the eyes of the regime's censorists, and that are transferred hand-to-hand while being transported under the cover of the "enforced veil". Protests of reason that are informative and critical in the cultural, literary, and social fields that due to the pressures of the Islamic Republic, they tear apart the horrid veils of government censorship and mostly win the acclaim of men and women in the free world. A long resistance that has turned the universities of Iran , which were supposed to be closed to women, into their primary gathering spot and into a place for learning all the more in order to attain more knowledge and modernity, such that now the number of women have exceeded the men in the universities. Daily on the rise struggles and protests that have turned the Iranian women into the main body of the anti-regime demonstrators.

Yes, these are just a small part of the glorious history of the "Iranian Women's Movement for Freedom and Modernity" that has, practically, today, due to the common goals of its members, turned into one of the largest and most difficult politico-ideological opponents of the regime and because of naturally being located in the axis of modernity and secularism, happen to be one of the main moving forces of the "Third Force of Iran" that want a free election in order to determine the type of non-theocratic and non-ideological regime of our country's future.

Without doubt, Iranian women, whom currently form the majority of Iranian society, are major opponents and combatants that due to the roots of their demands -to attain freedom and equality and to abolish sexual prejudice and discrimination- will play a larger role in the process of liberating Iran and separating religion from state; and, since democracy means the rule of majority's vote by the majority and for the majority while maintaining the rights of the individual and minorities, it is not at all unlikely that as in ancient times in Iran, some of the executive and symbolic leaders of Iran, in the not-so-distant future, will be elected from among them. It is in such a day that we can call our country a democratic, modern, and progressive country that has discarded the tribal-patriarchal beliefs into the graveyard of history.


Yes, Iranian Women have never been and will never be tread upon!

March 8, 2003 (17th Esfand 1381)

The "Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran" (SMCCDI)
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K
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Postby Liberator » Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:50 am

Women arrested during Women's day demonstration in Tehran Park

http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/sourc...rce/003762.html



Iran Press News: On Tuesday, March 8th, Tehran's Laleh (Tulip) Park's entrances were blocked and the park was entirely surrounded by security forces and storm troopers put in place in order to squelch the celebration and demonstrations planned for International Women's day; hundreds of brave women from Tehran, representing various opposition groups had gathered to commemorate this occasion

A large number of courageous women inside and outside the park displayed placards supporting the Democratic movement against the theocratic regime.

From Tuesday morning, security forces, storm troopers and Islamist plainclothes hooligans surrounded streets leading to the park. These forces confronted anyone seeking entrance to the park and attacked them with batons and night sticks.

Many women were severely beaten, arrested and taken away in paddy wagons. Despite the arrests and incursions of the security forces, the throngs of demonstrators who were dispersed around the park perimeters continued to ignore their assailants; they persisted in fighting their way into the park, in order to join the demonstrating groups who were there vehemently expressing their hatred for the misogynistic Islamic regime.

According to the same reports more than 50 of the detainees were taken to the 148 precinct located in at Revolution Avenue and Valiasr Circle in central Tehran. The detainees were cuffed and mistreated by revolutionary forces. The demonstrators however, stood their ground and persistently sang various Iranian nationalist anthems.
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Postby Liberator » Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:50 am

Int'l Women's Day: Think of These Three Women

March 08, 2005
Inter Press Service
Sanjay Suri


http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...&m=03&d=08&a=12


London -- International Women's Day asks you to think of half the world, but two writers groups asked Tuesday for attention particularly to three women "under attack for using new information technology to challenge their governments." The London-based freedom of expression group International PEN picked on International Women's Day March 8 to launch a new campaign in support of the three women from Tunisia, Iran and China.

The women matter as individuals, but they matter also for what they stand for, and write for.

In Tunisia, the editor of an online magazine Sihem Bensedrine has suffered years of harassment and attack, PEN says. Two Iranian women, Mahboudeh Abbasgholizadeh and Fershteh Ghazi, were caught up in a crackdown against Internet users in Iran, suffering torture and abuse. In China, it says, Ma Yalian has been in prison for over a year for articles posted on the Internet.

"Members from 140 centres we have in 99 countries were asked to take up these cases with governments and to publicise concerns about freedom on the Internet," Sara Whyatt from the Writers in Prison Committee associated with PEN told IPS.

Members took up a mass letter writing campaign to concerned authorities and took up the issue in local media, Whyatt said. "We raised our concerns about these three women as an example," she said.

The PEN campaign in support of "cyber-dissidence" began in December last year Whyatt said. The first phase of the campaign was launched in China, Vietnam and the Maldives followed by a campaign over Iran.

The campaign over women cyber-dissidents was taken up to mark women's day, Whyatt said. "We are also taking up the campaign in time for the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) due in November this year," Whyatt said. "Many governments that will be around at that table are very repressive and we want to use our access to that to raise our concerns."

The three women picked for the new campaign have all paid a price for their struggle to find freedom through the Internet.

"Despite severe repression of freedom of expression over the decades, with writers and journalists who challenge the authorities regularly facing many forms of persecution, including imprisonment and torture, a few individuals are willing to take enormous risks to protect the right to speak out," PEN said in a statement. "One of the most remarkable is Sihem Bensedrine, editor of the on-line magazine Kalima."

Bensedrine, who is also head of the National Council for Freedom in Tunisia (CNLT), has suffered constant persecution by the Tunisian authorities over many years for pursuing her right to freedom of expression, PEN said. "In addition to having been subjected to constant harassment and police surveillance, the journalist and human rights activist has suffered severe beatings at the hands of the police."

In a statement released through PEN, Bensedrine said: "It should be known that the Internet is the main window for Tunisians in this context of total lack of press freedom and communication. It is by the Web that Tunisians get information on what occurs in their country, it is there that they discover international solidarity or the fight of a handful of dissidents who dare to defy dictatorship."

In Iran the Writers in Prison Committee says it is particularly concerned about the cases of seven on-line journalists who were arrested between September and November 2004. Among them were two women, Mahboudeh Abbasgholizadeh, editor-in-chief of the women's magazine Ferzaneh, and Fershteh Ghazi, correspondent for the daily Etemad.

Mahboudeh Abbasgholizadeh was arrested Nov. 1 last year on her return from the European Social Forum in London. She was reportedly charged with "acts against national security and spreading propaganda", but was later released on bail.

Fershteh Ghazi is a correspondent for the daily Etemad, and was detained as part of the general crackdown on online publications, PEN said. She was arrested on Oct. 28 by the Edarah Amaken, the morality police, and is said to have been accused of "immoral behaviour". PEN says it has on its records 28 other writers and journalists who are in prison or on trial in Iran.

Ma Yalian from China was sentenced to 18 months' 'Re-education Through Labour' (RTL) in March 2004 for an article criticising the Chinese petitioning system, PEN says.

In her article, Ma provided an eyewitness account of the physical abuse meted out to petitioners by the police and officials outside Beijing's petitions offices, PEN said in its statement. "As well as detailing her own physical abuse at the hands of the authorities, Ma's article also included the personal experiences of other individuals who had been abused while attempting to file a petition. The article also included accounts about individuals who had committed suicide outside the said offices."

In many countries around the world dissident communities have "seized on the Internet with enthusiasm as a method of expressing their views about their governments and launching campaigns for political reform," PEN said. "Very often, traditional print-forms of communication, such as journals, have been banned. The Internet can then promise unfettered exchanges of opinions."

Women who use the Internet to disseminate their ideas have found themselves caught up in some governments' often harsh attempts to control information exchange on the world wide web, PEN said. It said it was commemorating "the courage of these women, and all other women writers and journalists who are detained and under attack today for practising their right to freedom of expression."
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