Electronic Vigil in Solidarity with Iranian Women's Rights
Activists
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Gita Hashemi
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Mar 08, 2007 09:46 PST
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Please post and forward widely.
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08 March 2007
Happy International Women's Day!
Please join us in an ongoing electronic vigil in solidarity with
women's rights activists in Iran at:
<http://opinionware.net/iran_vigil>http://opinionware.net/iran_vigil
On Sunday, 4 March 2007, the police and security forces violently
attacked and arrested 33 women's rights activists as they stood in
peaceful protest outside the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The
activists had gathered in solidarity with the five women who were
being tried in connection with demonstrations held on 12 June 2007 to
demand equal rights for women.
As of this writing, (8:49 a.m. GMT, Thursday, 8 March 2007), three of
the activists who were arrested on Sunday remain in detention in
section 209 of the infamous Evin Prison - one of the main sites of
the execution of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s.
The vigil pages link you to Iranian and international information
sources and a number of electronic solidarity actions that you can
participate in. Help send a strong message to the Iranian
authorities to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all
detainees, and support women's campaign for change in Iran.
Refuse to Choose:
Reject US Intervention!
AND
Support Local Action!
This vigil is organized by Sirens of Solidarity.
<sosira-@gmail.com>
=== BACKGROUND ===
IWD 1979
A day before International Women's Day, on March 7, 1979, less than a
month after the formation of the Islamic Republic, large numbers of
Iranian women took to the streets in many cities across Iran to
protest Khomeini's edict to the Transitional Government to bar
unveiled women from working for the government or entering government
buildings. This was the first post-Revolution attack by Islamists,
one of many to come, against women's rights. And women's spontaneous,
decentralized and self-organized protests during March 7th, 8th and
9th, as they were about to celebrate International Women's Day for
the first time in over 25 years since the US-backed coup d'etat that
brought Shah back to power in 1953, were the first popular acts of
resistance against the Islamic regime.
In 1979, women's movement was on the one side attacked by the Islamic
militia armed with knives, daggers, acid, brass knuckles, clubs,
flails and chains while they were deserted from the other side by
Islamo-liberal, nationalist and Marxist-populist parties whose
ideological sexism and political shortsightedness led them to the
theory that women's rights were of lesser significance to the
nationalist, anti-imperialist and/or class struggles. Both the
Islamic fundamentalist forces and their organized political opponents
- before the latter were violently eliminated in wave after wave from
the stage by the former - labeled women's protests and resistance as
"westoxicated" and "bourgeois" in their socio-cultural orientation.
Within a very short time, the Islamic regime enshrined in the
constitution and in the country's legal code a set of discriminatory
laws that reduced women's social and legal status to that of
half-a-man.
IWD 2007
Over the past 28 years, these laws and their corollary ideological
social and cultural practices have had innumerable tragic effects on
the lives of more than half of the Iranian people across class,
ethnic, religious and generational lines. The view that women's
issues are secondary to larger and more urgent national concerns -
such as current threats of US intervention and war - is as wrong
today as it was in 1979. Today, it is clear that in 1979 women were
the vanguard, the first line of popular resistance against the
dehumanizing and repressive Islamic state. Women are the vanguard
again. Currently. Today.
Over the past few years in particular, women's rights activists have
mounted a strong de-centered and multivocal force for changing the
Iranian constitution and laws. They have initiated a highly creative
grassroots campaign, "One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to
Discriminatory Laws," (http://en.we4change.com/) which demands
changes to discriminatory laws against women. This campaign is an
outgrowth of and a follow-up to a peaceful protest with the same aim
that took place on June 12, 2006 in Haft-e Tir Square in Tehran. The
security forces violently attacked the protesters and arrested over
70 of them.
On Sunday, March 4, 2007, 33 women's rights activists were arrested
as they gathered in a peaceful vigil in front of the Revolutionary
Court in Tehran. The police and security forces again violently
attacked and arrested these activists outside the court, where they
had gathered in solidarity with five women who had been charged and
were being tried in connection with the demonstration held on June
12, 2006.
As the global Bush block prepares for opening yet another war front,
this time in Iran, it is imperative for the progressive international
anti-war, feminist and social justice movements to keep informed of
the political dynamics inside Iran and support local initiatives for
change at the same time as we campaign against U.S. imperialist
interventions. The current moment/movement in the struggle for equal
rights in Iran is both radical and relevant: The women's campaign has
clearly-articulated demands that have wide appeal to diverse
demographics, its organization is de-centralized thus flexible and
resilient, and its activities are fully public thus forcing a
bottom-up democratic change in Iranian political discourse.
As the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq have clearly established by now,
US-led interventionist war does not bring 'democracy' to the invaded
land. That is the given. What is also established is that under a
puppet regime the social conditions and/or the legal status of women
will not significantly improve (as in Afghanistan) or will
drastically deteriorate (as in Iraq). While the US government
covertly and overtly supports, funds and arms an array of
conservative and regressive political players outside Iran - from the
Shah's son to the Mojahedin - in preparation for a regime change in
Iran, it is crucial that we support Iranian women's indigenous,
self-organized resistance movement. A campaign for equal rights is
not a by-product of an independent democratic movement but the very
foundation of democracy and self-rule.
On IWD 1979, international progressive voices and forces failed to
raise and stand in solidarity with Iranian women. We cannot allow
ourselves to remain uninformed or silent again.
The Electronic Vigil in Solidarity with Women's Rights Activists in
Iran will be ongoing until further notice.
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