WUNRN
Show Your Support by Clicking Website Link Above, Scrolling to Bottom of Page, and Clicking to Sign This Solidarity Statement for Freedom and Gender Equality in Iran.
We (a group of Iranian feminists and women’s
rights activists) demand an end to state-led violence and repression, as well
as the immediate release of all political detainees in Iran. We invite all
women’s rights defenders, activists, organisations, and networks worldwide to
demonstrate their solidarity with the Iranian women’s movement and the broader
movement for democracy in Iran by organising initiatives under the slogan
“freedom and gender equality in Iran” throughout March 2010.
Over the past thirty years, the Iranian women’s movement has been at the
forefront of the struggle for freedom and equality in Iran. Gender
discrimination intersects with other forms of subordination – whether based on
class, ethnicity, political orientation, religion, and so on. Thus, the
peaceful resistance of women and men in defence of gender equality in all
social spheres – legal, political, cultural, economical, etc. – has profoundly
impacted the Iranian movement for democracy. Iranian women have long demanded
freedom and gender equality; they have employed both individual and group
strategies, initiated various campaigns, and faced insults, threats, arrests
and imprisonment in the process. Many of these women are currently in prison.
Over the past eight months, the grass-roots protest movement that emerged
following the disputed presidential elections has been suppressed by mounting violence.
Physical and psychological violence – through arrest, torture, rape, extended
imprisonment, and even execution – has been exercised against civil and
political activists in Iran. As of now, numerous women activists from various
movements – women’s, workers, students, civil, and political – are detained
and/or have received heavy sentences. The list of detainees grows everyday.
These circumstances, along with a new wave of arrests of women activists, have
granted the authorities space enough to expedite legislations of a further
gender-discriminatory nature, such as the “Family Support Bill,” which aims to
further limit women’s rights in the name of ‘strengthening’ the family. For the
past thirty years, Iranian women have been subjected to a range of
discriminations justified by the Sharia-derived laws. On the 30th anniversary
of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW), to which Iran is not a signatory, the women of Iran are facing
increased discrimination. Fifteen years after the Fourth World Conference on
Women and the drafting of the Beijing Platform for Action, in which the
government of Iran participated, the Iranian government has yet to abide by its
international obligations and work towards the elimination of discrimination
against women.
During these critical times, the transnational solidarity of feminists and
women’s rights activists with their Iranian counterparts is not only limited to
the struggles of women; it also supports the broader movement for democracy in
Iran. Various civil rights movements in Iran have long been in communication
with both the transnational Iranian and the international communities. Global
solidarity is crucial to giving voice to their repeated calls for freedom and
equality in Iran.
We invite all women’s rights defenders, activists, organisations, and networks
worldwide to demonstrate their solidarity with the Iranian women’s movement and
the broader movement for democracy in Iran by organising initiatives under the
slogan “freedom and gender equality in Iran” throughout March 2010.
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