Zahra Rahnavard joins a gathering of women activists who continue to fearlessly fight for human rights.

”Bahare Hedayat’s extraordinary courage and her persistent defense of students’ right to freedom of speech and expression are the reasons we are nominating her for the Student Peace Prize 2011”, says Ligia Deca, Chairperson of the European Students’ Union.

Bahareh Hedayat (29 years old) is one of the student union leaders still under arrest after the protests against the policies of the Iranian government. The European Students’ Union has actively followed the situation of the Iranian student unions. Go to original article.

Iranian female journalists are veterans of government closure of their print publications and early Internet ventures. Now they are prevailing against the region’s most advanced censoring and monitoring software.

Iranian women have pushed the battle for equal rights online even as security forces aggressively monitor the Internet and shut down pro-democracy Web sites that fall out of step with the regime. Go to original article.

A powerful and provocative look at the seismology of the Iranian social order and the connective tissue that sustains Iranian women in particular, Women Without Men represents a very different kind of Persian cinema from that typically seen in the west—a cinema-in-exile rooted less in allegorical neorealism than a forthright magical realism. Whether micro-distributor Indiepix has the resources to exploit a picture of this type remains to be seen—in better times it would have been easy to imagine an October Films or even a New Yorker Films managing a fruitful platform release throughout the summer months. The current independent and foreign distribution vacuum, however, adds a layer of uncertainty as to whether audiences will have the time and opportunity to find the film. Go to original article.

In August 2006, Akram Mahdavi’s husband was killed. She recently wrote a letter to Haj Kazem, the director of Rajai Shahr prison. Mahdavi stated that she “cannot endure the tortures in prison anymore.” She has demanded for her case to be reviewed as soon as possible. She has also requested to be executed if she does not receive a pardon from the victim’s family. Go to original article.

GVF — Members of an Iranian women’s group met with Zahra Rahnavard, wife of one of the Green Movement’s leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi. A number of women journalists, students and lawyers were also present in the meeting.

Members of the women’s society called Zanane Noandish (Forward Thinking Women) met with Zahra Rahnavard on Wednesday. The group’s Secretary-General Fatemeh Rakei congratulated Ms Rahnavard on for the occasion of the Iranian New Year and presented a report of the group’s activities to the Dr Rahnavard.

According to an Iranian women’s website, Zahra Rahnavard welcomed the increasing role of women’s groups and organisations in political and party oriented activities. “Without the presence of women, there would be no great points in the history of our country and the Green Movement could never reach such heights without women.”

Zahra Rahnavard also said that the current interpretation of Islam regarding women’s rights were not at all “Islamic” and added: “Throughout these years, certain people have attempted to misrepresent their own backward theories as Islam. Islam is a progressive religion and has the capacity to interact with the modern world.”

She also maintained that Islam has new ideas and a lively and dynamic Ijtihad (independent interpretation of Islam) has created an opportunity for improvement and adaptability with the time which we live in.

The former prime minister’s wife also called on discriminatory laws against women to be removed. “All segments of [women's society] in our country, especially women from deprived sectors suffer from a great deal of discriminatory laws and I am certain that even the free spirited men of our country suffer from these discriminations and are ashamed of them.”

In the end, Rahnavard recalled the close relationship between the Green Movement and the women’s movement in Iran. “A number of great movements such as women’s movements, worker’s movements, student movements, teachers’ movements are within the enormous Green Movement and their demands are common slogans such as freedom, removing discrimination, respect for law, seeking democracy. The resistance of these movements will help in the victory of the Green Movement.

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Free Iran:  Notice the women in this picture.  With the exception of one or two of them, the rest don’t look particularly like the northern Tehrani types.  They seem like ordinary Iranians who never the less are seeking women’s rights.  This movement is not limited to just the middle class.

Also:

The Star:Women Without Men director Shirin Neshat wears her heart on her sleeve

Go to original article.

Source: Kaleme
Date:  Thursday, March 11,  2010

Dr. Zahra Rahnavard, painter, sculptor and a professor at the University of Tehran, begins her talk by wishing the release of all political prisoners, especially the woman. She says: “I hope that all female prisoners will be released before the new year. Everybody, from women’s rights activists to journalists to human rights activists and child’s rights activists, to the nameless women who were arrested while protesting in the street, and the female students who have done nothing but to demand their rights.

Rahnavard did not forget the mourning mothers. “our hearts and prayers are with those mourning mothers whose flowers have withered. The mothers of Neda, Sohrab, Seyed Ali, Ashkan, Kianoush, Ramin Ramezani, Alireza Eftekhari, Mahram Cheghini and the mothers of innocent martyrs like Naser Amirnejad, Iman Namzai, Kaveh Sabzalipour and those whose names we don’t even know. And those mothers and families whose loved ones have endures great injuries after the election, some have been injured in the protests, some have been tortured while in custody, and some have been in prison for months now.

And then she takes the opportunity to wish a happy new year to all the freedom loving men and women: “I hope that the coming year will be year of freedom, democracy, justice and the end of discrimination, especially against women.

The Kalemeh website has conducted a lengthy interview with Dr. Rahnavard which follows:

It’s a good idea to start this interview with a question about women and the green movement. A while ago women’s rights activists released a statement writing that in none of the statements and discussions released after the day of the election, has there been any attention to their demands. These activists write that they believe the issue of women is a big part of the current crisis, and without attempting to solve these issues, no solutions would be sustainable. That is why a group of these activists wrote a critical letter to Karoubi and Mousavi. What do you think about this?  Do you believe that from the day after the election, the candidates were oblivious to women and their issues?

Truly, why do we women have to sit around and wait for someone to mother us? We have to be the ones who step forward. We can learn much from the story of great women in history. We have thousands of years of history to draw on. From the day time, which, according to the Koran, humanity was one unified nation, or the time when, according to some theorists, women were the prime decision makers, when, according to archeological findings, the gods were female and ruled the world. If not anything, the history of civilization tells us that the first industrialists, cloth weavers,  potters and farmers (if not hunters) were women. Of course, in those times, there were unwritten agreements which, according to the physical, economical, religious and traditional beliefs, men and women divided tasks. And since it has not been historically proven that there once was a society ruled solely by women, at least we know that there was a time when even if they were not the pinnacle of rule, they played a huge role in the laws and governance of their society.

Now what is stopping us from learning from them? In the third millennium,  during the recent  election women were maybe treated as first rate citizens but  right after the election that status was taken away from them with speed of light . Despite what happened,  we are in pursuit of our demands such as freedom , removing discrimination [against women] violence and stopping polygamy. Go to Khordad 88.

Beautiful song dedicated to the brave women of Iran on Internation Womens Day.

Hat tip to: IranBrave

The revolutionary Girl – دختر حماسه ساز

Zamaaneh: Zahra Rahnavard issued a statement today, condemning “backward” laws that discriminate against women in the Islamic Republic.

In her statement, which was published today at the threshold of the International Women’s Day, in the Kalemeh website connected with the opposition leader MirHosein Mousavi, she declared that the “family protection” bill is based on “hedonism” and will destroy the family unit.

Rahnavard added that the bill was “discriminatory and anti-woman” and the direct product of the Islamic Republic’s “dominant culture and made-up laws.”

Articles 23 and 25 of the “family protection” bill, which was prepared two years ago and is now under review at the parliament, have aroused great controversy in Iran.

According to article 23 of the bill, men are allowed to marry several women concurrently without obtaining the approval of their first wife so long as they obtain a legal permit by showing financial means.

Article 25 maintains that the prenuptial sum agreed upon to be paid to the wife in case of a divorce, referred to as mehrieh in Iran, is subject to government taxing.

These two articles were previously omitted from the bill under pressure from women’s rights activists, but were recently reintroduced back into the bill by the Cultural Commission of the parliament.

Zahra Rahnavard also condemns “inequality of men and women and laws pertaining to divorce and citizenship” as examples of “backward and discriminatory” laws against women.

She writes: “I am certain that the liberated men of our country are also pained and ashamed by this discrimination.”

Zahra Rahnavard also addresses the continued arrest of women’s rights activists who have been repeatedly detained for trying to defend their rights by participating in gatherings and for their media activities. She writes: “The reputation and legitimacy of a system is tied with the respect is dons on its people and their demands, especially the level of its respect for its women.”

Rahnavard urges the Islamic Republic to respect women and their demands, and also expresses great hope that the Green Movement would take giant steps toward eliminating discrimination against women.

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. Go to Media Line.

Two Afghans and an Iranian are among this year’s winners of the U.S. government’s International Women of Courage Award.

Shukria Asil, an Afghan provincial council member, Shafiqa Quraishi of the Afghan Interior Ministry, and Iranian women’s rights activist Shadi Sadr were among the 10 winners announced by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on March 1. Go to Radio Free Europe.

Shadi Sadr, a woman’s rights activist, speaks to Voice of America (VOA) after the U.N. gathering in Geneva on Monday February 15, 2010

Translation of Video

Reporter: A press conference was held following Monday’s (U.N.) gathering on human rights in Geneva. Shadi Sadr, a lawyer and women’s rights activist, was one of the attendants at the press conference. Noting the report that the Islamic Republic has published with regards to the human rights gathering and based on the large number of civil rights and political activist arrests and killings, how will the Islamic Republic be able to defend itself? Go to original article.