WUNRN
8 June 2010
IRAN - WOMEN'S ACTIVISM FOR RIGHTS
STRONG AMIDST CRACKDOWNS
The protest movement is now a year old – but the feminists at its helm can look back on decades of courageous activism.
This weekend
one year will have gone by since the Iranian people took to the streets in
droves to protest at the fraudulent elections that returned Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad to the presidency. These peaceful demonstrations were met with
extreme violence carried out by the Iranian regime. Since that day, the people
have not backed down and continue to fight peacefully for basic human rights.
Meanwhile, the government continues its crackdown on any opposition or dissent
with ever increasing brutality.
Just a few
weeks ago, on 9 May, the lengths to which the regime will go to crush its
opponents came to light. Five political prisoners were executed in secret. Not even their
families or their lawyers were notified.
Shirin Alam Holi, a 28-year-old Kurdish woman, was executed along
with four men. In letters from Evin prison, Shirin wrote of being tortured to
confess to charges of terrorism. She refused to confess, sealing her fate. At
least 25 other men and women await the same fate on death row.
However, as we see time and time
again, the harsher the repression, the stronger the movement grows. And as the
story of Shirin Alam Holi demonstrates, women are at the forefront of the
struggle for human rights in
But it is
interesting to observe that this powerful feminist movement was not born out of
the elections. It has been gaining strength and momentum since the Islamic
revolution of 1979 – when the regime began imposing laws that were
discriminatory against women – and even predates the revolution. Women in
With no leader or central office,
for 31 years the women's movement has resided in every Iranian household that
cares about human rights. In the past year, the now famous Green movement has
emerged and modelled itself on this seemingly unstoppable force. With women's
rights activists at the helm, the Green network of groups and people is
consistent in its demands for democracy and human rights.
Take the Mourning Mothers. Every week since June 2009, mothers whose
children are in prison, are missing, or have lost their lives in
state-sanctioned violence, gather in
Every Saturday they gather
peacefully and every Saturday the police attack, beat, and arrest them. This
excessive violence and repression by the government has sadly become routine in
Iran – but has not deterred the Mourning Mothers. Courageously, they are
defending their human rights and, ultimately, those of women everywhere.
In December,
a wave of arrests and violence followed peaceful protests taking place on the
Shia Muslim holy day of Ashura. Dozens of women journalists and human rights
activists were targeted, and I was no exception. In an attempt to stop me from
doing my work from abroad, the government arrested my sister, Dr Noushin Ebadi. She has never been politically active or
participated in any rallies or demonstrations, but was arrested and detained
for three weeks solely because of my work fighting for human rights.
This brave
group of women will not stop. They prove that there is no end to the creative
ways that Iranian women will fight back. The One Million Signatures campaign
has been working since before last year's election to collect signatures from
Iranian men and women who oppose discriminatory laws and practices. On 11 March
the Change for Equality
website, which promotes the campaign, was awarded the first ever Netizen prize by Reporters Without Borders. The next day –
ironically the World Day Against Cyber-Censorship – Iranian authorities shut
down the website for the 23rd time since it was launched in 2006. It was up and
running again just hours later.
The struggle for human rights and
gender equality continues in Iran as we mark the anniversary of the disputed
elections. This global day of action has united activists, students, NGOs and
concerned citizens worldwide to spotlight the horrific human rights abuses that
have become all too common.
Women will be at the forefront of
this weekend's peaceful activities, as they were today and will be tomorrow.
Mark my words, it will be women who will bring democracy to Iran.
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