'Courageous' women front Iran's resistance
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- capt_ayhab
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Opposition a reaction to measures pushing females to the sidelines
Jun 24, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (21)
Cathal Kelly
STAFF REPORTER
The brutal death of the young Tehran woman Neda Agha-Soltani continued to prompt revulsion inside and outside Iran yesterday, but it also drew more attention to the role the women's movement has played in the current uprising.
"We have seen courageous women stand up to brutality and threats, and we have experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death in the streets," U.S. President Barack Obama said at a White House news conference yesterday, noting the recent events in Iran.
"While the loss is raw and painful, we also know this: those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history."
The 26-year-old woman, who is widely known simply as Neda, was shot dead Saturday near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators who allege rampant vote-count fraud in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Her final seconds of life were captured in a widely distributed Internet video.
"It's heartbreaking," Obama said of the video. "I think that anybody who sees it knows that there's something fundamentally unjust about it."
Since the first embers of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Iran flared 10 days ago, women have been at the front of the battle line. Photographs show them confronting security forces and urging others in the crowd – many of them men – to press forward.
"There is an unfortunate distorted image of Iranian women. Everybody (in the West) is surprised at what's happening in Iran because they have this image of women victimized by their state, by their husbands," said Farzeneh Milani, a University of Virginia professor who has studied the Iranian women's movement for three decades.
"The truth of the matter is that the women's movement in Iran goes back to the middle of the 19th century."
Women have played a role in each one of Iran's cultural spasms. Many of the pro-Islamic activists during the 1979 Islamic Revolution were women. But the current reformist movement is a reaction to government measures aimed at pushing women to the sidelines of public life.
In 2005, the regime began a modesty campaign, the goal being a stricter enforcement of veiling.
"I call it gender apartheid, the separation of men and women in all spheres," said Shahrzad Mojab, an activist who fled Iran in 1983 and now teaches at the University of Toronto. "It really has been building up over the last 30 years."
As it followed a period of relative liberalization under former president Mohammad Khatami, the modesty campaign provoked a backlash. In 2006, a demonstration of women in Tehran was attacked by security forces. That spawned the so-called "one million signature" campaign aimed at reversing the new laws. Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi is one of the leaders of that movement.
Another key figure has been Zahra Rahnavard, wife of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
"(Rahnavard) has been a major force, sometimes much more important than her husband," said Gholam Reza Afkhami, of Washington's Foundation for Iranian Studies.
Much of the current network has blossomed inside educational institutions in large cities. Despite efforts to marginalize them, Iranian women still make up 65 per cent of all students at universities.
"Iran must be the only country in the world that's thinking of affirmative action for men," Milani said.
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- capt_ayhab J. Tahouni
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wendie
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They are shutting down the protestors, it is such a shame and loss! I think we should gather at town and city centers on Tuesday, June 30 at noon local time, with a picture of Neda and a sign that says "No government shall repress its women" but I don't know how to organize this. I wish we could just post an email and make it viral or something! The Iranians are protesting for democracy, to make their votes count, but underlying the urgency is that this is the Iranian women's one chance to get their rights back as functioning persons in the 21st century, with basic freedoms to live without fear and to work professionally. It is also our golden opportunity to fight against repression of women in every country by showing support and solidarity.
- 2 years ago
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wendie
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nursediesel
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I agree regarding the apologizing. It belittles the USA for us to grovel continuously for past deeds. Makes us look weak to other nations. Everyone makes mistakes we made decisions and should stick by them. Just fix the wrongs that are necessary not every little faux pas!
- 2 years ago
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nursediesel
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Birdmanbob4
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Nurse Diesel I could not have said it better...Obama may have visualised speeches he could not wait to say to the "X" leader of Iran...but as they say the situation on the Ground has changed ! Any further comunication with the "X" leaders just makes them Stronger...= ...Helping Murders...Then another President in the Future will have to Apoligise for Obama's action's ...Me thinks we have done enough Apoligising allready don't you?
- 2 years ago
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Birdmanbob4
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nursediesel
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I think Obama is confused and not sure how to handle this situation because he just 'reached out' to Iran's corrupt government and doesn't want to dis' them or make himself look like an idiot for making a statement against those he has associated his islamic backround with.
- 2 years ago
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nursediesel
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Birdmanbob4
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I am deciding weather Obama's responce falls under the old saying: "A day late and a Dollar short" Or "Better late than never" The words he said were like reading my mind or my blog post's or hundreds of thousands of Blog post's just like mine. Or maybe it was Neda who got to him and woke him up! He mentiond her twice. in his news Confrence. He was asked weather he recived a lot of pressure from John McCain and others he replied with a smile. "What do you think" Reglardless of what woke him up I hope he stays awake. When the leaders of the world want to start to act like Hitlers or little Hitlers the best thing they could here from America is Scilence. It does not matter weather you are Republican or Democrat nobody wants to see American Blood spilled to Stop a Hitler. witch is why the last time the Real Hitler commited the Murdering of innocent got to continue for so long. There was a Lesson to be learned from that war and our sitting on our hands for so long. The invention of the internet this time will open our eyes to all the killing of the Nedas much sooner than before. The World now can see that the brutal un elected Government of Iran is a Hitler. it is inevitable he will be taken out. How long we wait is the Question. The soonen we act the less Nedas have to Die. We all hate to be forced to be the Police of the World. We all agree that is the case. President Clinton used US forces to go in to Bosniea to Stop the Murdering of Thousands of Muslams and no one refers to that as Meddeling. President Obama must do the same....It is time to lead Mr. President
- 2 years ago
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Birdmanbob4
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Zurama
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I just can't believe the US has not spoken out against the Iranian regime.
If Obama must appease the dictatorship, then at least have a group of influential American women in government condemn the killing of civilians and show solidarity with the women of Iran, who are at forefront of the uprising.
Even the French president beat Obama to the punch......pathetic.........
- 2 years ago
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Zurama
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Birdmanbob4
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Zurama:
Good advice for Obama would be "Change what you can, Except what you cant, and know the diffrence!" It does little good apoligising for what happend in 1952 I do belive if Obama could now go back in time he would make a diffrent speech.
- 2 years ago
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Birdmanbob4
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capt_ayhab
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Excerpt Continued:
After giving the resistance reason to organize, the regime went further last year. It attempted to ease restrictions on polygamy and reduce the tax traditionally paid by husbands to new wives. That drew many conservative Iranian women, those who had supported the regime's strict moral measures, toward the reformist movement.In the past days, we've begun to learn how potent a force the government has unwittingly created.
"(Women) didn't set the agenda in 1979," said Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, a professor at the University of Toronto.
"Today we are seeing what is historically the first national movement with a leadership that is predominantly female. Women are running this resistance."
While the movement is vast, Neda has become its public face.
In an apparent effort to deflect attention drawn by the killing, state-sponsored Iranian TV yesterday said that Neda had not been shot by a bullet fired by security forces. It also said that the filming and swift spread of the video of her death suggested the incident had been staged.
End Excerpts - 2 years ago
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capt_ayhab
