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March 8
International Women’s Day Put On View
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The Women’s Cultural Center, a women’s NGO based in Tehran, had
invited “those who believe in equality” to join them in Laleh
Park to declare their opposition to America’s impending attack on
Iraq. Entitled, “Women for Peace, and Peace for Everyone,” around
300 women and 100 men answered the call and sat together on a
rare clear and sunny day, held placards, and openly discussed
issues of concern.
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The Laleh Park gathering was exceptional on several counts-
not only was it the first public protest against the war,
but it was also the first non-state sponsored assembly in
years where citizens showed their opposition to U.S. policy.
Save for student protests, it was also a rare instance where
Iranians exercised a political right besides the vote. As it
turned out, war was only one form of violence the planners
intended to address. The event was more an assertion against
gender violence and inequality on an international and
national scale. |
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Speaker Firoozeh Mohajer addressed her talk especially to
George Bush, who although not the only perpetrator of
capitalism, violence and patriarchy, has nevertheless become
their most virulent enforcer. Sanctions, war, environmental
damage, globalization, AIDS, and human trafficking were
condemned. Sexual violence and gender discrimination in
education and employment were identified as some of the
greatest dangers facing women in the region.
Of course the most passionate attacks were reserved for Iran.
Noushin Ahmadi Khorassani asked the audience how to celebrate
International Women’s Day when suicide and self-immolation
rates among women increase by the day. Zohre Arzani
challenged government ministers to reveal the numbers of
women in managerial posts and especially took the Ministry of
Education to task, pointing out that 70% of its staff are
women.
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Sharia based personal status and family laws were an
especially sore area. Unequal inheritance, women’s inability
to file for divorce, and most fundamental, as pointed by
human rights attorney, Shirin Ebadi, diyeh, or blood money. A
woman’s diyeh, essentially the monetary value of her life, is
one half of a man’s. The result is that men who murder women
are often left unpunished (the penalty is death) because the
exchange of life isn’t equal. Because his blood is worth
twice the woman’s, the victim’s family must deposit money to
the murderer’s family to square the discrepancy before he can
be put to death.
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A young woman’s public airing of sexual harassment on the streets
during the open-mike was met with the most applause and cheers.
The infusion of her anger and frustration suddenly gave the event
a Take Back the Night quality. In front of tens of police
officers, she accused law enforcement of inaction and complicity
and condemned them for furthering the violence by blaming the
victim and rendering them the accused.
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The Laleh Park gathering is part of a growing formation of a new
visibility of Iranian women. Sponsored by a secular organization,
the nexus binding the participants was a stand against war and
for equality. After International Women’s Day in 1979, when women
marched the streets to protest the mandatory imposition of the
veil, women were deprived of a public space to collectively
articulate their concerns. The quest for a civil society in
recent years has led to a flourishing of non-governmental
organizations, and women’s NGO’s have been increasing in numbers
and strengthening their presence in kind. |
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