Exclusive: The Resistance of Iranian Women: We Are All a ‘Neda’ Now

FamilySecurityMatters.org
Sara Ahmadi

When it comes to Iran, it is important for one to understand many things, especially considering the events of the last few months. I always think that nobody will know what our people – especially women – have gone through here in Tehran, the heart of Iran.

The bitterest reality is the presence of the mullahs who have imposed their rules on us. I was lucky to see a few years less of the misery these mullahs have brought for us because I was born a few years after the beginning of their rule!

Iran has attracted the attention of the world after the righteous uprising of its people for freedom and democracy; the decisive right of the people.

What is most outstanding in this uprising is the presence of the women of my homeland – the uprising that introduced the innocence of Iranians, especially Iranian women, to the world by the name of Neda (Neda Aghasultan) and the last scenes of her life in this world.

Though my friends and I had gone to her grave for several times and cried over it, we still feel national pride for introducing such a symbol to the world because all of us, the Iranian women, are all a “Neda.”

You know that you are living under the rule of the mullahs if you walk in the streets of Tehran the way you wish to walk. When you step outside of your home, you are forced to be something else. The eyes of these criminals watch you everywhere, watch all your moves, controlling everything from the way you dress to a sudden smile that forms on your lips. Your presence is like a dagger landing in their dirty minds; they cannot bear the free presence of even one woman on the street.

Before the years when I attended university, they only controlled the color of my dress, an extra band of my hair coming out of the compulsory veil and the length of my dress. Yet now they control everything – most of all, they wish to control my thoughts!

University! Just being able to be present there as a woman and not to be afraid that I am a woman is an everyday battle. I thought when I become a student I would have some authority in society as an adult, but this was just a dream. The natural right of every human being is a dream in my country.

I witnessed one of my friends being deprived of her education – someone who tried harder than I did. I got it, despite feeling that I would probably be next. But I didn't lose hope because I knew I wasn't the only one.

Since the beginning of our history and especially since the rule of the mullahs, the oppression of women has been “routine.” As I studied more and became acquainted with different people, I realized it is a misogynous state.

Of course there have been a great number of women who fought in the torture chambers and prisons of this regime and made the henchmen kneel. They proved themselves despite of torture and imprisonment and it must be said that it was because of their struggle that I, as an Iranian woman, am standing at this point.

Iranian women have learned that they will never give us our freedom on a golden tray – thus we have tried to be present where ever we could. The last election presented an opportunity. We found the outlet and took to the fields. We are present everyday, we fight everyday and the war is not over yet.

During the past eight months, my friends and I have had experiences each day; from being beaten to having our arms broken to being attacked by tear gas to being arrested, to name just a few. But what is important is that we have learned how to fight back. We have learned that we must move in front of men and throw stones, as maybe this would make those who still have something of humanity left in them to stop slaughtering our brothers. We learned that we have to seize the batons of Bassijies no matter what the price; we are no less. We understood that now that we have learned martial arts, we can defend ourselves and those beside us.

I well recall that one day a dirty Bassiji hit an old mother in her leg with his baton. A boy went to defend her but he couldn’t. I approached the Bassiji from behind and by my using two martial art techniques, the scene changed. The Bassiji was shocked.

This is the reality in Iran – this glorious presence of young Iranian women shoulder to shoulder with the men in the fields of resistance. Instead of being busy with everyday house chores, Iranian women are pursuing their rights with bravery that has astonished the world. The symbols of our struggle include Neda, Taraneh (Taraneh Mosavi was raped several times by Khamenei's henchmen after she was arrested and her body was burnt with acid to cover this crime) and others.

These days, in spite all the horror provoked by the regime, we realize we cannot just sit by and let them turn us into slaves. There have been thousands of political prisoners and those who have fallen for freedom from amongst us, like the martyrs of the massacre of political prisoners in 1988, who are all buried in Khavaran. The regime fears very much people's gathering in Khavaran. In this cemetery, I saw mostly the names of women, very young ones who were only as old as I am now.

I ask myself: didn't these women love life? Of course they did but what was important for them – as it is for me and other women of my country now – was the right of freedom of any human being, gaining the freedom of our homeland. What I wonder is whether the world is hearing our loud cry for freedom. Does the international society know our condition? Do they know that each day thousands of us are being crushed under the boots of these criminals, on the gallows or in torture chambers, just for reaching for freedom and nobody comes to their aid?

What I really wish from the bottom of my heart is for West, and especially the U.S., to stop their appeasement policy toward this fascist regime so that the people of Iran can uproot this demon of their history.

Contrary to what Ahmadinejad and his Supreme Leader think, the people of Iran do not have a tendency toward violence, we simply want our freedom. If this regime wanted to, it could solve the problem with by holding a free election – but we know that this is not going to happen. The only way left is uprooting this regime in its entirety.

As students and intellectuals residing in the capital, we understand the different political and social problems such as poverty, corruption, prostitution, addiction, unemployment and the pressures imposed by these problems on society. We well know that the wealth of our country is easily used by power-mongers, as atomic bombs and different terrorist acts ordered by the rulers. We are thus inspired us not to keep silent, but to be effective, our voices must be echoed.

World powers must stop supporting and appeasing this regime and must stand beside the Iranian resistance leaded by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, its president-elect.

The women in the Students Committee in Iran demand U.S. to delist PMOI as a terrorist group; a listing that was based on the dirty policy of appeasement with this regime.

My homeland and its people are filled with the pain and suffering caused by appeasement policies with this religious fascist regime that have gone on for years. After eight months of uprising in Iran, the world must understand that Iranians defy this regime in its entirety.

Iranian women are under medieval pressures and limitations, but we will not retreat from our struggle and resistance. We all cry together that we are all a “Neda,” a “Neda” (Neda means cry for summoning) for the freedom of our homeland of Iran – and we need your support.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Sara Ahmadi is president of the Student Committee in Iran and a supporter of the PMOI

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Khalij Times: Stand Up for Iran’s Women

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui

8 March 2010

Today is International Women’s Day: a day to celebrate the achievements in the promotion of women’s rights globally and to commit to advance them further. This is a day when at Amnesty International we seek to reinforce our work with local and international partners to end violence against women, both in situations of conflict and in the home and protect migrant women from exploitation and other abuses.

In recent years we have also been campaigning in a number of countries to reduce maternal mortality and the discrimination and poverty, which lies at the heart of so many abuses against women.

Fighting for women’s rights in these areas requires, first and foremost, that women themselves have the freedom to debate, advocate and organise without fearing arrest, torture or even death. Yet today many courageous women in all continents struggle just to do so.

The struggle for women’s rights thrives around the world and in the UAE you need only look across the waters to find brave women standing up for women’s rights in spite of increasingly difficult challenges created by political repression.

In June last year, one such woman made global headlines when she was killed whilst taking part in the post-election protests in Iran. On the television and on the internet, millions of people witnessed the death of Neda Agha Soltan, believed to be at the hands of a member of Iran’s Basij militia although no one has yet been brought to justice for her killing. Neda’s killing somehow has become symbolic of the destiny of Iranian women where, in spite of deeply rooted discrimination, Neda was one of thousands of women who took to the streets of Teheran to express her views. She paid a high price for that. But was her stand in vain? The current government has introduced new rules, which worsen women’s unequal treatment under the law. In September last year regulations came into force in Iranian universities which prevent unmarried female students from studying outside their home towns or cities, restricting their free access to higher education. The majority of Iranian university students are women, and there are no such requirements for male students. A controversial Family Protection Bill which activists believe will actually worsen a woman’s place in the family also looks set to be passed into law.

Women in Iran already face widespread discrimination under the law. They cannot be presiding judges or stand for the Presidency. They don’t have equal rights with men in marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. Evidence given by women in court is worth half that given by a man, and men get twice as much compensation for injury or death. While the legal age for marriage for girls is 13, compared to 15 for boys, fathers can apply for permission to arrange for their daughters to get married at a younger age — and to men much older than their daughters. Men have an incontestable right in law to divorce their spouse. Women do not.

Despite being treated as second class citizens by the authorities, Iranian women are claiming their right to be on an equal footing with men. They forced the issue of women’s rights onto the agenda of the presidential election. Women dissatisfied with the results of the election were prominent in the mass demonstrations by millions of Iranians who poured onto the streets.

Sadly, many were arrested, and Amnesty International collected damning testimonies from young women and men who had been taken into custody. Since then many women — including students, civil society activists, political activists and journalists — have joined the dozens of women’s rights activists already held in prisons. Around 50 members of the One Million Signature Campaign (also known as the Campaign for Equality), a popular movement demanding an end to discrimination against women in Iranian law, have been detained since its launch in August 2006. Early last month, Mahsa Jazini — a journalist and member of the Campaign for Equality — was arrested and held in Iran for some three weeks. She was told that the reason for her arrest was because she was a feminist. Only days ago, Mahboubeh Karami, another Campaign member, was arrested for the fifth time on March 2.

Members of the ‘Mourning Mothers’ — a group of women whose children were killed during the demonstrations and their supporters — have been arrested for peacefully protesting about human rights violations and demanding accountability.

Seven supporters of the Mourning Mothers — Leila Seyfi Elahi, Zhila Karamzadeh Makvandi, Fatemeh Rastegari, Mrs Ebrahim, Elham Ahsani, Farzaneh Zaynali and Manijeh Taheri — were arrested on February 7 and 8 this year and are detained in Section 209 of Evin Prison without charge or trial.

The women mentioned above and many others are very likely to be prisoners of conscience, held solely for their peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression, assembly and association, or on account of their family links. As such, they should be released immediately and unconditionally.

In spite of the myriad obstacles and injustices faced daily, Iranian women are showing the world that they want to control their destinies for themselves. Amnesty International joined a recent call made by women’s rights activists in Iran for freedom and gender equality to provide a voice for them when their own is silenced through repression or arrest. Too many women around the world will spend this year’s International Women’s Day in prison for peacefully expressing their views, or will be subjected to domestic violence, or will be tortured.

In Iran, just as in so many countries, groups like the One Million Signatures Campaign or the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign, run by the activists of Women’s Field, are working locally and nationally to expose violations. We should support the women of Iran along with activists for women’s rights all over the world on International Women’s Day — and every other day.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui is Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. For comments, write to opinion@khaleejtimes.com

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HRW: Iran: Stop Undermining Women's Rights

On International Women's Rights Day, Iranian Activists to Open Campaign for Equality

(Beirut, March 7, 2010) - Iran should stop infringing on women's rights and take immediate steps to meet Iranian women's demands for full equality, Human Rights Watch said today. Iranian women's rights activists have issued a call for freedom and gender equality in Iran in connection with International Women's Rights Day on March 8.

Their campaign, Call for Solidarity: Freedom and Gender Equality in Iran, seeks an end to state-led violence and other forms of repression directed against both men and women. On January 10, 2010, for example, more than 30 women were beaten at a weekly vigil in Tehran. The women were seeking news of their sons and daughters who had been detained during the protests following the June 2009 presidential elections. This campaign calls on the authorities to immediately release all political detainees, including many women's rights activists.

"This initiative of Iranian women's rights activists is crucial to the overall struggle for democracy in Iran," said Nadya Khalife, women's rights researcher for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch. "It is also a tribute to the strength of women, who continue to demand their rights and support fellow citizens in the toughest of times."

For more than 30 years, the women's rights movement has been at the forefront in the struggle for human rights and gender equality in Iran, Human Rights Watch said. Iranian women have been subjected to a range of discriminatory laws and practices, often under the guise of enforcing Islamic law.

As an example, the Legal and Judicial Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of the Parliament is pressing for passage of a Family Support Bill, including an amendment that would legalize polygamy. Under the proposed measure, a husband could take a new wife if his wife is diagnosed with a terminal illness, is away from home for six months, or even if she is imprisoned for a bounced check.

"Iranian women have bravely sought over and over to end gender-based discrimination, only to be met with threats, arrests, and imprisonment of activists," Khalife said. "Human Rights Watch calls on the Iranian government to allow women's rights groups to operate freely, without harassment, or worse."

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Iranian Women Launch Campaign for Gender Equality

Written by Benjamin Joffe-Walt
Published Sunday, March 07, 2010

International Women's Rights Day campaign launched two months after beatings of the 'Mourning Mothers'

Iranian women's activists have launched a campaign for gender equality to mark International Women's Rights Day.

The campaign, Call for Solidarity: Freedom and Gender Equality in Iran, targets gender-based discrimination against women and what campaigners describe as state-led violence.

Launched on International Women's Rights Day (March 8), the campaign comes two months after 32 women known as the 'Mourning Mothers' were beaten and arrested at a weekly vigil for their sons and daughters who have been missing since protests began after the disputed June 2009 national elections.

One of the 32 women remains in detention and 6 female supporters of the 'Mourning Mothers' have since been arrested. The women are believed to be detained in the notorious Section 209 of Evin prison, which is administered by Iran's Intelligence Ministry. Rights groups say none of the women have been charged with any offense or granted access to lawyers hired by their families.

"There have been many infringement on women's rights since the elections," Nadya Khalife, the women's rights researcher for the Middle East at Human Rights Watch told The Media Line. "Women are being detained imprisoned and harassed just like anyone else, so this campaign is not looking only at gender discrimination but positioning the women's rights movement as a component of the larger protest movement."

“Iranian women have bravely sought over and over to end gender-based discrimination, only to be met with threats, arrests, and imprisonment of activists,” Khalife said. “Human Rights Watch calls on the Iranian government to allow women’s rights groups to operate freely, without harassment, or worse.”

"There have been various campaigns over the past few years and there may be some provisions which have improved women's rights along the way but there are still many that are discriminatory and there remains a lot more to be done," she added.

Dr Eldad Pardo, an expert in Iranian gender issues at the Harry Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, said that while conditions for women in Iran have improved, women's rights issues are increasingly prominent in mainstream Iranian political culture.

”Things have improved since the 1980s, when there was pretty extreme gender apartheid in Iran," he told The Media Line. "But the general picture is that the Islamic Shiite legal system is still extremely anti-women. Women are still discriminated against, harassed by police patrols, forced to give away their children when they divorce and you still have stonings of women."

"As a result, the status of women has become a symbol of oppression for the Iranian opposition," Dr Pardo said. "The plight of women has become a metaphor for the plight of the Iranian nation and as a result women will continue to present a problem for the regime, because large sections of the Iranian population, particularly in the cities, would like to see straightforward equality, including gender equality and everything else."

Women's rights have seen gradual improvements over recent years in Iran. Efforts are underway to reform gender-based compensation laws, in which a family of a woman who dies is awarded half the amount awarded to a dead man. Iranian parliamentarians have also discussed reforms to gender-based inheritance rights and introducing laws against the ability of Iranian men to marry many wives.

But President Ahmadinejad's administration began strengthening sex segregation laws in his first term, beginning with a ban on women being present in government ministry offices after working hours. This was followed by a program to replace male teachers in girls' high schools with female teachers. Shortly thereafter the country's Science Ministry launched a plan to create separate entrances for men and women at the country's universities and segregate some of the classes.

Only a portion of the segregation programs have been implemented, but symbols of unrest in Iranian gender relations were apparent early in the election campaigns last year, as presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi openly asserted the need for greater rights for women, an end to legalized gender discrimination, an increase in women's participation in Iranian workplaces and politics and a curb in the powers of religious police.

The candidate attacked the various barriers faced by women's rights activists and pledged to review "all discriminatory and unjust regulations against women's legal and judicial security", to devise "comprehensive plans for the promotion of women's rights at the country's social, economic, and political stage" and to work towards "eliminating violence against women by adopting legal supportive measures."

Moussavi also promised to repeal the expansive powers of Iran's religious police, which require women to wear loose-fitting clothing covering the entire body and something covering the hair. Some Iranian women completely cover their hair, but most do not.

To differing degrees, the other opposition candidates followed suit and for the first time since the Islamic revolution, women's rights entered public discourse and women have been at the forefront of Iran's burgeoning protest movement since the disputed elections.

Following Ahmadinejad's reelection, the government has made various moves to further segregate office buildings, hospitals, public parks and primary schools, and in the half year since the president was reelected a number of Iranian ministers and religious leaders have called for a more strict adherence to sex segregation in various aspects of public life.

Most notably, the former speaker of the Iranian parliament Haddad Adel, who is close to both President Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme religious figure Ayatollah Khamenei, called on the country's new science minister Kamran Daneshjoo to segregate Iranian universities.

"Islamization of universities is a long awaited task for the new minister of science and we hope to accomplish it soon with the help of theology centers around the country and the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution," Adel was quoted as saying.

Late last month the minister seemed to comply, stating that Iran "shall segregate students on sexual lines as the Islamic worldview requires."

The Legal and Judicial Commission of Iran's parliament has also been pushing a new Family Support Bill, which includes an amendment legalizing polygamy.

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Life inside EVIN

oudabeh Ardavan's prison drawings

Interview by Fariba Amini
September 26, 2002
The Iranian

Soudabeh Ardavan is from Tabriz, a former political prisoner now living in Sweden. She is in her early 40's. She spent eight years of her precious life in the Islamic regime's jail. She is also an artist who drew prison life while she was confined in a cell with other women.

Through these images, drawn from the time she became a prisoner in 1981 until she was released in 1989, Soudabeh tells a story of those horrible days. While in prison, her mother had a stroke because she had thought Soudabeh was among the many executed prisoners; she could not bear the thought of it. She died at age 57, a year after Soudabeh was released.

Soudabeh Ardavan speaks of those days. She and fellow inmates were kept in a small cell made for three people, but at times, the cell was shared with as many as 40 prisoners. Sanitary conditions were very poor. There was no proper clothing, and prisoners were given little food and minimum access to the shower. As punishment, prisoners were denied the use of toilets.

Prisoners would sleep on the floor, leaving enough space for the injured who had been severely tortured by guards to get confessions. Soudabeh had not confessed. She was considered a "sar mozei" -- a term used for those who had resisted torture. Those who had repented were called "tavaabin".

She tells her tale, enough to make you shiver. It makes you wonder if it is possible in this day and age, for a human being to be treated with such cruelty only because they were young and outspoken.

She was a university student interested in politics, books and publishing. She was studying architecture and interior design at Tehran's Polytechnic Institute. It was during the Cultural Revolution when the wide-scale crackdown began. The ruling revolutionaries wanted to get rid of "corrupt elements".

She was charged with participating in demonstrations against the Islamic Republic. At first, she was detained, interrogated, and finally, blindfolded on the floor, and sentenced to two years in jail. There was no judge nor a jury or a lawyer. "Islamic justice" did not take more than a few minutes.

It was the most despicable time in the history of the Islamic regime. Interrogation, torture, execution were the order of the day. For the next 8 years, she would be transferred, from Evin to Ghessel Hessar prison, back and forth, from one unit to another, spending time in between in solitary.

She remembers the first time she entered a cell. She thought she had entered a girls school. The prisoners were all young girls, in their teens. Sometimes, there were older women, as old as one's grandmother. They had apparently aided the prisoners or were family members.

Her three famous prison mates were Bijan Jazani's mother; Maryam Taleghani, the daughter of Ayatollah Taleghani, and writer Sharnoush Parsipour.

She tried to write her story through the many pictures she drew. First she hid them for fear of punishment. Then she would get rid of them. Later, she would keep her artwork and somehow smuggle them out. Other prisoners would help her find paper and pencils. She drew her cell mates, guards, life in prison, and cell conditions.

Excepts from my interview with Soudabeh:

I tried very hard, under excruciating conditions and fearing for my life as well as others in my cellblock, to capture moments, horrifying moments and sometimes beautiful ones. I drew pictures of the guards, their faces so cruel, without humanity. I drew pictures of cell mates who had become like sisters to me; their innocence, their youth, their fears.

I drew pictures of all of us cleaning the small area we lived in. Or the outside courtyard where we would exercise, when allowed. I drew pictures of the ugly, the unclean, the pure and the blue sky with white birds, hopinng to see freedom one day. I drew everything and anything.

First it was all black and white. I had no colors. Sometimes I would use the petal of a flower or tea to create color. Then someone threw a box of color magic markers through the cell. So I drew color pictures.

I tried to capture a time when evil had taken over all our lives. When the outside world was unaware of the crimes taking place in the jails of the Islamic regime. When revolutionary guards would come to our cells, beat us, flog us, torture us and then leave. And we would ask ourselves why? Why so much inhumanity? Are these people from the same land we have come from?

Most of the guards were extremely vicious and used foul language to humiliated us, and destroy us psychologically -- as they had attempted with physical torture. Most of us did not confess and kept our mouth shut. That would make them more furious. Then more floggings and beatings would begin.

From time to time, the head guard would come in. They were two women. They looked ugly and big and extremely rude. They were pros. I was told they were there from the Shah's era. Their names were Bakhtiari and Alizadeh. They would kick us real hard. The Bakhtiari woman wore a soldier's outfit and she would constantly curse us and beat us. She barked like a dog!

Most of the time, in our cell, we did not have to wear our scarves or the chador, only when the male guards would come in. There was the head of the prison, a man called Haji Rahmani. He was huge, quite a character, very vicious. We would be ordered to put our hejab and then he would come in and beat us. I believe he now holds a post in the Ministry of Intelligence.

Sometimes those who had repented -- tavaabin -- would spy on us and at other times they too would beat us. They were the ones who had asked for forgiveness and as a result of their "good behavior" they would be given a special task of making life even more miserable for other prisoners. Sometimes, they would even hold a gun in front of us to frighten us. We were very careful when they were around. We would not talk or say anything in front of them.

Out of the 8 years I was imprisoned, I remember only three months when I felt good. That's when we were taken to a prison block, which had a nice courtyard. There were flowers and trees. And no sign of tavaabin! We felt free, sort of speak. We could talk and walk and socialize without their presence. To some degree, we were not watched and I could breathe a little.

A few months later, when we were once again moved, we heard of the horror stories about the mass executions in prison. In the summer of 1988, right after the ceasefire between Iran and Iraq, there were many prisoners whose terms had ended but werenn't released.

Khomeini had personanlly ordered the male "infidel" prisoners be executed and the women lashed five times a day according to Islamic law. [Amnesty has reported close to 5000 prisoners were murdered in the prisons of the Islamic regime in 1988].

Death sentences were carried out against those who did not repent and beg for mercy. Twenty-five were taken from our cell alone. So many young men and women were amongst them. They were followers of the Mojahedin Khalgh or Fadaian, and many others. I was one of the lucky ones. I was released.

What can I say? The time I spent in prison will never be erased from my memory. So many lives were shattered. So many families lost loved ones. Many parents, facing the loss of their sons or daughters would eventually die from grief. Now, I am trying slowly to build a normal life.

I am studying Swedish and attend art school. I am also working on a book with two other former political prisoners. It is the first time we are telling our stories. A Swedish psychologist and a journalist have also collaborated on this book. My book containing more than 100 prison drawings, will be published by winter 2002.

I am hoping people will see these paintings and never forget the many innocent lives lost in those years, the many of us whose lives changed forever. The drawings tell a tale of the darkest history in our country.

As for the future, I hope to continue my life without feeling remorse. I am not vengeful. I do not want revenge from my captors. I only hope that one day, those who were directly involved in these crimes will be tried in a court of law and none would ever be able to hold political or governmental office. I do not believe in the death penalty. I want justice to be served but only under international law. And I truly believe that one-day; soon, justice will be served.

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Parvin Ardalan; Iranian women's Fight for Equality

Parvin Ardalan is a leading woman’s rights activist, writer and journalist from Iran. She was awarded the Olof Palme Prize in 2007 for her struggle for equal rights for men and women, but was denied to leave the country. One and a half year later she was finally able to go to Sweden to receive the prize. On the 6th of October she attended a conference about international solidarity within the feminist movement in Stockholm.

This is the speech she held:

It’s my pleasure to be here to explain about what women activists in Iran are
doing and to share our experiences in this way. Of course we learn from each
other, for instances in the One million Signatures Campaign we learned from our
sisters in Morocco. And then our siteres in Afghanistan learned from us, and so
this process it continues. I would like to start to talk about some methods used
by women activists in Iran: Horizontal working, decentralization of power, and
consciousness rising.
Horizontal working: In societies like Iran the
hierarchical way of working and dividing responsibilities is not limited to
political and governmental institutions. This character has a fundamental impact
even on personal relationships and sometimes even grassroots organizations that
intend to work differently.
Therefore, we in different women’s groups and organizations should frequently put our behaviors, thinking and practices to the test. For example in our different activities among women activists in Iran we observed how many of us were practicing what we were challenging. We took advantage of the different advantages we had. For instance one used her age and experiences, another used her education level, a third one used her urban and middle class position and so on. That is why we needed to develop workshops and group discussions in order to discuss these issues
constantly.
Decentralisation of power:

By avoiding accumulating (put together) all the information, important connections, experiences to one or few people, we had two intentions: 1.We help each other to grow and gain new skills

2. We will also reduce our weakness, because when everything is dependent on one
or a few people, everything will also disappear suddenly when that person disappear for any reason, especially in our unsecure society.
That is why overlapping of experiences and decentralization of power always come together.
By advocating for shared responsibilities we try to overlap our resources, knowledge and experiences.
Consciousness rising: Face to face meeting with women and men from different groups. A special kind of Street theaters to see how people interact. These methods show how we not only challenge the legal system, but also how we confront people and their cultural patriarchal values on a daily basis.
These three characteristics; challenging the hierarchical way
of working, meeting people face to face, and consciousness raising forced us not
only to demand equal treatment from the law or government, but also the fact
that we had to try to put them in practice ourselves.
And in this case with
documentation/writing/interviewing. In doing so we try to highlight women
activities and not let those experiences and actions get lost and become invisible as they always do.
Law or the legal system: Those were the methods used by women activists…now I would like to talk about one of the issues that
women activists dealt with; the law or the legal system and how we use these
methods.
Some of the injust laws that women rights activist dealt with are:
Family law: like divorce, marriage, inheritance, number of the partners.
Criminal law: like criminal age of criminal responsibility law hejab , Diyeh - Blood Money- Laws that support honor killings
Civil law : Citizenship Marriage - In our country, Iran, according to the existing Law, is to satisfy the "condition of the father’s consent".
Divorce: According to the law, divorce is the exclusive right of a man, and a man can divorce his wife whenever he pleases.
Number of partners: Among other cases of inequality in the present marriage law is the discussion of the number of partners. That is, multiple wives for men; in such a way that a man can have 4 aghdi (permanently married) wives and infinite sighehi (temporarily married) wives.
Age of criminal responsibility: The age of criminal responsibility for girls is 9 lunar
years (8 years and nine months) and for boys is 15 lunar years (14 years and 6
months). Thus if a 9-year-old girl committed a crime, she will be treated just
as an adult would be treated with all the penal laws (even execution) applicable
to her.
Citizenship: Citizenship is an important legal issue. According to the law of Iran, the citizenship of a woman does not transfer to her child.
Diyeh - Blood Money: In Iranian law a woman’s life is considered to be worth half that of a man. For example, if a brother and sister are hit by a car on the street, and both have both legs broken, the compensation that the brother receives, is double that of his sister.
Inheritance: According to civil law, after the death of the father and mother, sons receive 2 times as much in inheritance as daughters.
Laws that support honor killings: Among the discriminatory laws, one can note the law that gives a man permission to kill his wife whenever he sees her in bed with another man and the law will not punish this man. This law has allowed men to kill women.
Bearing Witness:
There are some crimes women can not testify to, these include sodomy,homosexuality, and prostitution.Other Discriminatory Laws: There are many other discriminatory laws in Iran’s legal system. In our constitution a woman is only recognised as a citizen once she is a mother (married), therefore she has no standing as an independent person in any law derived from our constitution.

1. The condition "Rajal-e siyaasi" - which has been interpreted as "man of politics" to date - appears in the conditions for becoming President. This means that a woman cannot become the country’s president.
2. Compulsory prescribed dress for women, regardless of their creed or beliefs. For example, Christian women whose religion does not require them to wear hijab will be
punished for not wearing it. If they choose to dress in a way different to how authorities deem fit, they can be jailed or fined.
3. Social Security laws. Even though women pay the same amount of money for insurance as men do, their children can not benefit from their retirement pension or health insurance. This means that a mother can not provide any sort of comfort for her children after her death.
4. Stoning is the frightening punishment prescribed by our law for people who commit adultery. This punishment is usually only performed on women, because according to the law, a man can have an infinite number of temporary marriages (sigheh) and therefore can claim that the woman who he had a relationship with (provided she was single) was his temporary wife.So what do we do in with these legal system? Different women organisations have dealt with the legal system in different ways during different time periods:
1. One type of the Governmental organisations put their effort only on educating women of the content of the law/ without any intention to criticise or attempt to
change the laws. For instance they never criticise violence against women / or
so called ’domestic violence’ and of course do not care about the extended public violence that women face everyday on the streets. Most of these groups are groups who will follow the law and are governmental organisation rather than being non-governmental. These groups are decreasing.
2.The second strategy that we started to use for almost the 2 end decade after revolution was based on educating and informing women on the content of the law in order to help each and every woman to develop individual backup plans. For instance lawyers like Shirin Ebadi, Mehrang Kar and others wrote many books about these issues. The purpose was for example to tell women "if the marriage is a contract you should enter to this contract with open eyes and be aware of the rights, obligatiosn
and limitations that you will have". We were advised to add some points to the
existing contract in order to disarm them. For example if I wanted to get marry
I add some points in regards to my right to work outside of home, or equal right at the time of divorce or custody of children in the contract.
3.The third strategy that started by one million signature was to ask for the change of the laws…so you see we move from individual tactics to ask for change in the very
legal system to pleural tactics. So to rap up this part and tie it to other
feminist methods around the world our activities contain three components/
characteristics:
A. to aim to prevent or support those who were victims of the law (for instance single poor mothers who didn’t have any financial or social support) support and prevent B. to inform and educate C. To resist and change the dominant structuresNow I want talk about the current movement and its link to women movement - In my point of view, women movement, students’ movement, ethnics and workers movement were those who opened the way for this movement. For people who have not followed what happening in Iran, this movement came from nowhere came or as our autrity but for us this is a result of what we have working on in years. Not that I was not positively surprised but I didn’t see that as a wonder.
The other issue that is raised is the presence or lack of presence of women and women issues in regards to current movement. First of all as many of you havealready seen in many you tube clips women have not only participated widely in the demonstration they also had a leading roles. The mourning mothers, the women who actively try to prevent violence and women who brought new and secular slogans into demonstration are just few examples.
One important issue regarding the physical presence of women in the demonstrations is that even in 1979 revolution women participated actively in the revolution and demonstration. But the big difference here is not only that now we had gender mixed demonstration (in contrast to 1979 that women and men were
separated) but also this time we didn’t only have women’s bodies out there,
women were out there with gender analysis and specific demands.And this once
again is a result of what women have done in the last 30 years. Iranian women
were not only the first victim of the Islamic revolution, they were also the
first struggler.
Aytollah Khomini issued a fatwa for compulsory veil two weeks after he returned to Iran. Women were the one who had the first demonstration against Aytollah Fatwa. That is what I consider women
not only the first victim of the Islamic revolution but also the first one who
resist and struggle.

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The Islamic Republic`s Fear of Women Activists

Shahrzad News:

The Islamic Republic has arrested a number of women`s rights activists, fearing they will be linked to the People`s Movement.

Despite the fact that these women are suffering from persecution, they are still determined to work toward achieving a civil society. Some of the names of the women who have been recently arrested include: Badralsadat Mofidi (secretary of the Union of Journalists), Bahareh Hedayat (member of the Central Council and Consolidation Unity of Students), Nasrin Vaziri (reporter of ILNA and Khabar Online), Shiva Nazar Ahari (journalist and human rights and women’s activist), Parisa Kakaee (human rights activist, journalist, and member of the One Million Signatures Campaign), Mansoureh Shojaei (researcher, member of the Women’s Cultural Centre and the One Million Signatures Campaign), Negin Derakhshan (member of the editorial team of the newspaper Tehran Today), and Atieh Yousefi (member of the One Million Signatures Campaign. Translators note: Atieh Yousefi was recently released on bail).

Also, among the arrested are women affiliated with Shirin Ebadi. Their names include: Jinoos Sobhani (secretary office of CDHR), Noushin Ebadi (sister of Shirin Ebadi and a dentistry professor), Forough Mirzaei (a colleague of Shirin Ebadi who holds a Masters in human rights), Maryam Zia (Shirin Ebadi’s friend and President of the Struggle for a World Deserving of Children).

Mothers for Peace members, Zohreh Tonekaboni and Mahin Fahimi, were also arested and sent to prison.

The names of the women listed are not the only ones who have been arrested in the social and political civil society arena.

The women detained in Evin prison and other prisons in the Islamic Republic who continue to resist the physical and psychological pressures inflicted on them include: Azar Mansouri (deputy head of Partcipation Front), Mahsa Hekmat (reporter), Somayeh Rashidi (member of the One Million Signatures Campaign), Mehrnoush Etemadi (member of the Online Campaign), Shabnam Madadzadeh (deputy secretary of the office of Strengthening Unity), and Atefeh Nabavi (member of the women’s and student movement).

Many other women in the civil movement who have been arrested and released on bail are waiting for their court hearing. Among the most recognized names include: Jila Baniyaghoob, Shadi Sadr, Hengameh Shahidi, Jelveh Javaheri, Somayeh Tohidloo, Faribah Pajooh, Mahsa Amrabadi, Farnaz Kamangir, and Zeinab Peyghambarzadeh.

The women who are listed [in this article] are only some of the names of those who were arrested and detained during post-election protests. These women have turned a new page in the civil movement.

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