Woman

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Advocates hope Iranian girl will avoid execution

The trial of an Iranian girl convicted of killing a man who attempted to rape her concluded Wednesday, according to a former Miss World Canada who has advocated on her behalf.


Nazanin Fatehi, 19, has had her case championed by former beauty pageant contestant Nazanin Afshin-Jam.
The four judges overseeing the case have agreed that the killing was not premeditated, so Afshin-Jam said she is hopeful Fatehi will avoid the death penalty and may even be released from custody.


"At this point, they might still give her a prison sentence or they might release her completely," Afshin-Jam told CTV Newsnet.


"We're not expecting anything because at this stage it would be foolish to assume anything, but based on the people who were in the courtroom today, they seemed pretty happy and said that Nazanin was smiling."


According to Afshin-Jam's website for Fatehi (HelpNazanin.com), more than 200 people came to support the young woman in court. In other similar cases, there are usually about 12.


Fatehi was sentenced to death in an Iranian court a year ago, after admitting to stabbing to death one of three men who tried to rape her and a 16-year-old relative. Fatehi was 17 at the time.


In June, her death sentence was stayed and a new trial ordered.


According to the Iranian daily newspaper Etemaad, Fatehi and her niece were in a park outside Tehran with their boyfriends when they were approached by three men. The boys fled after the men pushed the girls to the ground. Fatehi drew a knife and stabbed one man in the arm and another in the chest, killing him.


"I say to myself, if I was still in Iran that could have been me," said Afshin-Jam.


Under Iran's strict laws on chastity, if Fatehi had allowed the men to rape her and her niece, the girls would have been subjected to 100 lashes.


If they had been married at the time they were raped they would likely have been found guilty of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.


Self-defence is a valid defence for murder in Iran, but it depends largely on the circumstances. For example, the fact that Fatehi and her niece were in a park in the evening could have affected her defence.


"Under Shariah law, the life of a woman is worth half that of a man and therefore her testimony as well in court," explained Afshin-Jam on Tuesday.


Afshin-Jam, who won the Miss Canada pageant in 2003 and was born in Iran, took up the cause last year.


She has since become the figurehead of what is now an international campaign to have Fatehi freed. The European Union has denounced the death sentence and Amnesty International is lobbying for Nazanin's release.

[Wild]

che loosin

[Rasputin]

اين دختر جوان كه نازنين نام دارد پيش از اين در شعبه 71 دادگاه كيفرى محاكمه و به قصاص محكوم شده بود.
نازنين كه مدعى است در دفاع از خود مرتكب قتل شده است پس از صدور حكم به آن اعتراض كرد كه پرونده براى رسيدگى بيشتر به ديوان عالى كشور فرستاده شد.
قضات ديوان عالى كشور پس از بررسى پرونده حكم قصاص متهم را نقض و پرونده را براى رسيدگى دوياره به شعبه 74 دادگاه كيفرى استان تهران فرستادند.
مهاباد معروف به نازنين 17 ساله كه داراى سابقه فرار از خانه است در اين پرونده متهم به مباشرت در قتل جوان 23 ساله*اى به نام يوسف در تاريخ 9 اسفندماه سال گذشته است.
نازنين در اين روز در يك درگيرى در اكبرآباد كرج پسر 23 ساله*اى را با ضربه* چاقو مجروح كرد كه پسر جوان پس از انتقال به بيمارستان به علت شدت جراحات جان سپرد.
درنخستين جلسه محاكمه متهم كه 13 دى ماه سال گذشته برگزار شد پسر 18 ساله*اى به نام حميد به عنوان مطلع در جايگاه حاضر شد و در خصوص روز حادثه گفت: آن روز من، نازنين و دختر و پسر ديگرى كنار خيابان ايستاده و در حال صحبت بوديم كه دو نفر به نام*هاى محمود و سلمان به سمت ما آمدند و خواستند كه از آنجا برويم.
ما موتور خود را روشن كرديم و قصد داشتيم از محل برويم كه يكى از آنها سنگى به سوى ما پرت كرد.اين كار او باعث شد كه سميه و نازنين با آنها درگير شوند.
در حين درگيرى يوسف نيز وارد ماجرا شد كه در يك لحظه متوجه خونريزى از شكم او شدم.
سپس جوان ديگرى به نام روزبه نيز به عنوان مطلع به جايگاه آمد و با تكرار ادعاهاى حميد اظهار داشت: ما با نازنين در خانه فساد مردى به نام جهانگير آشنا شديم. روز حادثه دو پسر جوان از ما خواستند كه همراه آنها به خانه مجردي*اشان برويم كه اين موضوع باعث درگيرى ما شد.
قاضى عزيز محمدي* رئيس شعبه 71 دادگاه كيفرى تهران در ادامه جلسه رسيدگى به اين پرونده از متهم خواست كه با حضور در جايگاه به دفاع از خود بپردازد كه او گفت: من اتهام قتل را قبول دارم ولى او را به صورت عمدى نكشتم. روز حادثه همراه برادرزاده 14 ساله*ام به نام سميه براى خريد لباس عيد از خانه خارج شديم كه در ميان راه او حميد را ديد و خواست كه همراه او برويم. او سوار موتور حميد شد و من نيز سوار موتور روزبه* ، دوست حميد، شدم.
در ميان راه روزبه گفت، مي*خواهد سيگار بكشد به همين خاطر در محل حادثه توقف كرد. در آنجا دو پسر جوان به سمت ما آمدند و خواستند كه همراه آنها به خانه مجردي*اشان برويم.
من از روزبه خواستم كه از آنجا برويم سوار موتور شده* بوديم كه يكى از آنها سنگى پرت كرد. سميه به سمت آنها رفت و به خاطر اين موضوع با دو پسر جوان درگير شد.
من هم در دفاع از برادرزاده*ام وارد درگيرى شدم. در اين هنگام يوسف هم به آن محل آمد.
او مرا محكم گرفت و لباس و كاپشنم را پاره كرد. من با چاقويى كه براى دفاع از خود همراه داشتم خطى روى دست او كشيدم و همراه سميه فرار كرديم.
نازنين ادامه داد: يوسف با موتور به دنبال ما آمد كه من در دفاع از خود چاقو را به سمتش پرت كردم. نمي*دانم چاقو به كجاى او اصابت كرد.
متهم به قتل كه تاكنون دوبار در زندان خودكشى كرده است در آخرين دفاعش نيز مدعى شد قصد كشتن يوسف را نداشته است.
پس از محاكمه نازنين در شعبه 74 دادگاه كيفرى استان تهران قضات اين شعبه او را از اتهام قتل عمد تبرئه كرده و عمل او را دفاع مشروع تشخيص دادند.

[mahsaak]

bichareye bad bakht, kojasho fekr mikard ke bekhatere adamhaye binamoosi mesle un 2 pesar ke ebkhatere ye an lezat zoodgozar , mikhan sue estefadeh konan, be zendan bere, unam be etehame ghatl, ahr chand too irana z in etefaghat ziad miofteh. ama masulesh bishatr pesaran, age una pa nadan , age una ba petal intor bazi nakonan, hargez in moshkelat pish nemiayad,

albate taghsire khodeshe ke fa kardeh bood, va chetor hazer shod, bardarzadeyee ke faghat 14 saleshe ro begzorad dar un sen be in chiza keshideh shavad????

moteasefam baraye in tasmimate zood hengame va gheire aghlanie baz az javoona

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Iranian woman living in Moscow airport seeks asylum in Canada

An Iranian woman who has been living in Moscow's international airport for the last nine months continues to be in legal limbo as she seeks asylum in Canada.

Zahra Kamalfar, who was granted refugee status by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Office in late November, said she wants to go to Canada with her two children.

She said her brother has been living in Vancouver since he fled Iran as a refugee more than a decade ago.

Zahra's lawyers said she's applied for asylum in Canada but there's been no response, leaving her stranded at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport.

"I want to go Canada because I want go someplace that is good place, that is good place for future [of] my child," she told CBC News.

"Canada is number one in the world because person from Canada is very nice and they understand respect," her 18-year-old daughter Anna said.

Her lawyers said she arrived in Russia nearly two years ago, after fleeing Iran during a prison sentence.

She took her two children, got phoney travel papers and left for Canada, via Russia and Germany.

[Rasputin]

Delara Darabi, a 20-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death on charges she killed a cousin when she was 17, tried to kill herself at Tehran's Evin prison. Her mother told Tehran daily Etemad that her daughter is clinically depressed and only weighs 35 kilos. Dozens of petitions have been made worldwide since Delara's story caught the attention of the international media after a journalist who had been following her story organized a show with paintings Delara made during her imprisonment. Delara denies she killed her cousin.

The exhibition of her paintings, entitled 'Prisoner of colours', was organised by journalist Assieh Amini in October last year at Tehran's Golestan gallery.

A minors' tribunal sentenced Darabi to death for knifing to death her 17-year-old cousin with the help of a young man, 21, who was sentenced to ten years in jail. Darabi's attorney, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, has pleaded her innocence in the first trial and two appeal cases in vain.

[Rasputin]

Nobel peace laureate and lawyer Shirin Ebadi said three women's rights activists have been accused of acting against Iran's national security and face prosecution, the ISNA news agency reported.



"On January 27 the passports of a number of journalists who were going to India were taken away, some were interrogated and finally three were arrested," Ebadi was quoted as saying by the student news agency.

"After 24 hours those three were released on bail and they were told they will be put on trial in two month's time on charges of acting against national security by taking part in an educational workshop," she added.

"But they were not taking part in that educational workshop," said Ebadi, who is a lawyer.

On Sunday, Mansureh Shojai's son, Bamdad Davudi, told AFP that his mother, Talat Taghinia and Farnaz Seifi were arrested at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on Saturday morning.

The three women were involved in a campaign dubbed "One Million Signatures" aimed at changing Iran's "discriminatory laws" for women by collecting signatures, online and in person, the web-based magazine Zanestan reported.

[Rasputin]

In a time of pending war against Iran, after the catastrophic consequences of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq (with more than 655,000 deaths in Iraq alone), a particularly lucrative industry of Iranian and Muslim women's memoirs has mushroomed in the aftermath of the 9/11 atrocities. These women's memoirs have assumed center-stage in appropriating the legitimate cause of women's rights and placing it squarely in the service of Empire building projects, disguised under the rhetoric of the "war on terror."



As feminist scholars of Iran and its diaspora, we suggest that these memoirs and their authors must be understood not only in terms of the politics of reception in the United States but also in terms of the U.S. imperialistic project that is informed by the historical Euro-American colonial discourses of civilization. At a time when the neo-colonial and imperialistic projects seek to build a case for military attack or "regime change" in Iran, we ask, how are these memoirs complicit with these projects?



We identify this memoir genre as a part of industries of knowledge-production that reinforce and fuel the gendered and raced context of global capitalist relations, where the binarized notions of "freedom" and "progress" in the "West" are juxtoposed to "backwardness" and "barbarism" in Iran and in the rest of the Muslim world. Identified as an authentic and authoritative site where the "silenced" Iranian woman finally finds a voice with which to speak, these memoirs reproduce reductive but familiar narratives which pin the constructed "Third-world woman" against her male counterpart while setting the stage for what is presumed to be her salvation.



In this context, the patronizing language of women's rights as human rights presumes and actively constructs the category of the oppressed "traditional" Iranian woman, often unaware of her own imprisonment by Islam and patriarchy. The "sombre" woman, in this narrative, must be trained to realize her rights as an individual, imagined as a "modern woman" who embodies an idealized middle class norm of Euro-American consumption.



Once the favored tale of "civilizing missions", the contemporary rescue fantasy now has a new twist. Rather than being spoken for by ambassadors of "civilization", Iranian women are able to speak for themselves courtesy of international publishing houses. Women selected according to the resonance of their experience within this narrative become the mouthpiece for the "authentic" Iranian experience, making the current construction of the "rescue fantasy" more insidious than ever.



These memoirs have proved widely popular in the mass market, while the mainstream media legitimizes their authors as "Iran experts" and "women's rights activists," thus ignoring the well-informed and critical Iranian feminist scholarship in Iran and its diaspora. In fact, we are not the first to challenge the construction and mobilization of gendered "victims" in furthering imperialistic projects. We draw from a rich body of feminist scholarship such as those of Roxana Bahramitash, Inderpal Grewal, bell hooks, Minoo Moallem, Negar Mottahedeh, Ella Shohat, and Gayatri Spivak to call for a critical analysis of women's participation in these industries and question the taken-for-granted notions of civilization, terror, freedom, democracy, and fundamentalism. We ask why this critical scholarship is ignored, while others have been tokenized and granted generous media coverage?



As an example, we call attention to the way that Hamid Dabashi's astute critique of the memoir genre, "Native Informers and the Making of the American Empire" (al-Ahram, 1 - 7 June 2006, Issue No. 797), was maliciously attacked and his arguments deliberately distorted by North American neoconservative outlets as an assault on Iranian women's struggle for autonomy, freedom and democracy. That Dabashi's critique was singled out while the works of women feminist scholars were ignored is a telling example of the sexist assumptions and essentialist gender and racial binaries that underpin the genre's popularity. Assuming a monolithic category of "woman," such binaries grant authenticity of voice to certain women such as Azar Nafisi, who are assumed to represent all "Iranian women," while denying legitimacy to Hamid Dabashi, who becomes the ideal type of the "misogynistic Middle Eastern man." Furthermore, by dividing the world into binaries of East and West and assuming an inherent notion of Iranian-ness, both the promoters of this genre and nationalist elites tokenize certain Iranian writers and make them the representatives of a homogenously imagined Iranian people and culture.



We deplore the marginalization of critical engagements with this genre and declare that the version of the romanticized and Orientalist portrayal of Iranian history and women's struggle depicted in the recent memoir industry is not only a gross distortion and undermining of Iranian women's active participation in political and cultural spheres, but it also deliberately represses working class and rural women's hardships, hopes, desires, and aspirations.



In today's Iran, women are at the forefront of literacy, educational, artistic, journalistic, and legal advancements. In a social, literary, and political tradition of resistance that extends from generations of peasant and working class women down to Tahereh Qorrat al-Ayn, Shirin Ebadi, Shams Kasma'i, and Forough Farrokhzad, Iranian women continue to struggle for their dignity and civil rights. Iranian women took two monarchic dynasties to task and they now hold the Islamic Republic responsible to address their demands. Any military or economic sanctions against Iran will only set Iranian women back in their achievements, and cause nothing but hardship and tragedy (as disastrously evident in Iraq today).



We are firm believers that historically, any militarist mobilizations, nationalist or imperial have been to the detriment of Iranian women's lives and their struggles against misogynistic laws as well as their aspirations for welfare and democracy. We object to militarism imposed by "local" and diasporic nationalists, religious or secular fundamentalists, or neo-colonialists and imperialists. We consider any bullet fired at the direction of Iran, or any other country, targeted against the historical struggle for freedom, equality, dignity, and democracy.



A longer version of this article will soon be available at www.diasporawatch.com



Niki Akhavan, University of California at Santa Cruz, USA



Golbarg Bashi, Bristol University, UK



Mana Kia, Harvard University, USA

[Rasputin]

Iranian taxi company breaks rank to enlist women cabbies

The taxi driver who tried to molest passenger Marzieh Khatoon Shariati did not know what he was starting.
Assuming her to be easy prey as she travelled with her infant son in the back of his cab, he pulled up at an isolated spot and suggested sex. Instead, he was overpowered as Mrs Shariati, deploying skills honed as a karate instructor, put him in a stranglehold and ordered him to drive to her destination.

The experience inspired Mrs Shariati, 48, to become one of Iran's first female taxi drivers in a pioneering scheme allowing women entry to an exclusively male preserve, while paradoxically reinforcing the country's official bias towards gender segregation.
She is one of 20 full-time women drivers recruited for a new service dedicated to female passengers.

Taxi Bisim Banovan (Ladies' Wireless Taxi) has been formed to provide a safe environment for female travellers in Tehran, where an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 women use private cabs each day. No male passengers are allowed and only female job applicants are accepted. Preference goes to those who are married or are family breadwinners. The telephone operators are all women, some of them multilingual to cater for foreign passengers.

All the directors, by contrast, are men. But they proudly hail their enterprise as meeting women's need to travel free from fear of attack or harassment.

The initiative comes against a backdrop of rising instances of rape and sexual assault. Police estimate that 30% of offences are committed by men working as taxi drivers and have advised women not to travel alone in private cabs.

Mrs Shariati, a former driving instructor, agrees. "I was able to escape from my predicament but a woman less self-confident and physically fit would likely be terrified and overpowered," she said. "This is something that women want and welcome. My passengers feel more comfortable with me. They can speak to me freely and easily."

Gender segregation in cabs is much more lax than on public transport, where women sit at the rear of buses and have separate rail carriages. They commonly cram into shared taxis next to strange men in flagrant breach of Iran's Islamic prohibitions on sexual mingling.

However, the company's bosses insist they are not trying to enforce religious edicts. With plans to expand to 2,000 taxis and operate nationwide, they claim instead to be agents of female emancipation by creating jobs for women.

"Our agency is a symbol of freedom and democracy, not of segregation," said Mohsen Oroji, the managing director. "We are providing a service for those women who choose us. It's not obligatory.

"The issue has nothing to do with religion or prejudice - it's about welfare and comfort. Our customers include non-Iranian women.

"I don't believe this problem is limited to Iran. I've been to Britain and France and seen women carrying alarms and emergency sprays in their purses."

The taxis' presence on Tehran's notoriously congested roads has provoked some ugly male responses. Omekolsoom Shahpasand, 54, who quit working as a hairdresser to become a cab driver, said several men had tried to intimidate her with aggressive manoeuvres.

"Most of the negative reaction comes from motorcyclists, who drive up close and wolf-whistle or boo," she said. "But I've also had the opposite reaction. Women drivers have rolled down their windows and shouted encouragement."

[Rasputin]

Advocates hope Iranian girl will avoid execution

The trial of an Iranian girl convicted of killing a man who attempted to rape her concluded Wednesday, according to a former Miss World Canada who has advocated on her behalf.


Nazanin Fatehi, 19, has had her case championed by former beauty pageant contestant Nazanin Afshin-Jam.


The four judges overseeing the case have agreed that the killing was not premeditated, so Afshin-Jam said she is hopeful Fatehi will avoid the death penalty and may even be released from custody.


"At this point, they might still give her a prison sentence or they might release her completely," Afshin-Jam told CTV Newsnet.


"We're not expecting anything because at this stage it would be foolish to assume anything, but based on the people who were in the courtroom today, they seemed pretty happy and said that Nazanin was smiling."


According to Afshin-Jam's website for Fatehi (HelpNazanin.com), more than 200 people came to support the young woman in court. In other similar cases, there are usually about 12.


Fatehi was sentenced to death in an Iranian court a year ago, after admitting to stabbing to death one of three men who tried to rape her and a 16-year-old relative. Fatehi was 17 at the time.


In June, her death sentence was stayed and a new trial ordered.


According to the Iranian daily newspaper Etemaad, Fatehi and her niece were in a park outside Tehran with their boyfriends when they were approached by three men. The boys fled after the men pushed the girls to the ground. Fatehi drew a knife and stabbed one man in the arm and another in the chest, killing him.


"I say to myself, if I was still in Iran that could have been me," said Afshin-Jam.


Under Iran's strict laws on chastity, if Fatehi had allowed the men to rape her and her niece, the girls would have been subjected to 100 lashes.


If they had been married at the time they were raped they would likely have been found guilty of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.


Self-defence is a valid defence for murder in Iran, but it depends largely on the circumstances. For example, the fact that Fatehi and her niece were in a park in the evening could have affected her defence.


"Under Shariah law, the life of a woman is worth half that of a man and therefore her testimony as well in court," explained Afshin-Jam on Tuesday.


Afshin-Jam, who won the Miss Canada pageant in 2003 and was born in Iran, took up the cause last year.


She has since become the figurehead of what is now an international campaign to have Fatehi freed. The European Union has denounced the death sentence and Amnesty International is lobbying for Nazanin's release.

[Rasputin]

بنابر گزارشی در ايالات متحده، تصويری که رسانه های اين کشور از دختران جوان به عنوان وسيله ای برای شهوترانی ترسيم می کنند باعث آسيب روحی و جسمی آنها و حتی دختران خردسال شده است.
اين گزارش که توسط "انجمن روانشناسی آمريکا"، American Psychological Association تهيه شده، هشدار داده که نگاه رسانه های سراسری اين کشور به دختران جوان (نشان دادن آنها در حد يک وسيله شهوترانی) تاثير منفی بر سلامت روانی آنها می گذارد و باعث بروز عارضه های روانی همچون اختلال در خوردن، کاهش عزت نفس و افسردگی می شود.

در همين حال، بنابر يک نظرسنجی که توسط بی بی سی انجام شده، بيش از نيمی از دختران و زنان جوان بريتانيا می گويند که به قدر کافی لاغر نيستند و برای بهتر شدن ظاهرشان حاضرند زير تيغ جراحی پلاستيک بروند.

هشت درصد از 25 هزار دختر و پسر 17 تا 34 ساله ای که مورد سوال بی بی سی قرار گرفتند نيز اذعان کردند که برای کم کردن وزن خود از روش برگرداندن غذا استفاده کرده اند.


انجمن روانشناسی آمريکا برای مقابله با نگرش جنسی به دختران توصيه کرده رسانه ها نگرشی مثبت تر در مورد زنان را اشاعه دهند و والدين، مدارس و کارشناسان بهداشتی در مورد تاثير اين گونه تصاوير بر دختران و پسران هشيار باشند.



نگرش جنسی در فرهنگ آمريکايی

روانشناسان آمريکايی در اين گزارش آورده اند که مطالب نشريات، برنامه های تلويزيونی، بازی های ويديويی، ترانه ها و تصاوير ويديويی گروه های موسيقی مختلف که نگاهی جنسی به دختران و زنان دارند نه تنها ممکن است باعث خودکم بينی آنها نسبت به ظاهرشان شود بلکه همچنين تاثيری منفی بر سلامت رشد جنسی دختران و پسران می گذارد.

در اين تحقيق همچنين از آگهی های تبليغاتی که برای فروش کالاها از تصاويری با بار جنسی استفاده می شود، انتقاد شده است.

اين گزارش، "نگرشی جنسی" را اين گونه تعريف می کند: وقتی ارزش فرد فقط با جاذبه جنسی يا رفتار جنسی او و نه ديگر خصيصه هايش محک زده می شود و وقتی فرد فقط به عنوان وسيله ای برای ارضاء شهوت جنسی به تصوير کشيده شود.

انجمن روانشناسی آمريکا در گزارش خود آورده: "عروسکی که دامن کوتاه سياه چرمی و چکمه های تنگ ساق بلند به تن دارد، لباس زير دختر بچه های هفت ساله که با واژه های نامناسب تزئين شده، ترغيب دختران پنج - شش ساله به عشوه گری در مسابقات زيبايی کودکان، همه و همه بخشی از فرهنگ آمريکايی شده که به زن و دختر به عنوان يک وسيله شهوترانی و نه انسان نگاه می کند.


برخی بزرگترها در همه چيز مسائل جنسی را می بينند. اما کودکان به عروسک های برتز نگاه می کنند و آنها را فقط زيبا توصيف می کنند. عروسک نمی تواند الگوی يک کودک باشد


اسحاق لاريان، رييس شرکت ام جی ای

دکتر آيلين زوربريگن، که هدايت تهيه اين گزارش را برعهده داشته، می گويد: "نگرش جنسی به دختران در موفقيت تحصيلی آنها نيز تاثير منفی گذاشته و آن دسته از آنها که خود را در حد يک شی تزئينی می بينند در برخی دروس مدرسه، از جمله رياضيات و يا حل مسائل فکری موفقيت کمتری دارند."

مخالفان اين گزارش می گويند که رسانه ها و صنايع تبليغاتی مسئول مشکلات روانی و جسمی کودکان و جوانان امروزی آمريکا نيستند.

اسحاق لاريان، رييس شرکت توليدکننده محصولات تفريحی "ام جی ای" و همچنين سازنده عروسک های پرفروش "برتز"، می گويد: "برخی بزرگترها در همه چيز مسائل جنسی را می بينند. اما کودکان به عروسک های برتز نگاه می کنند و آنها را فقط زيبا توصيف می کنند. عروسک نمی تواند الگوی يک کودک باشد. اين وظيفه والدين است که الگوی او باشند."

انجمن روانشناسی آمريکا برای مقابله با نگرش جنسی به دختران توصيه کرده رسانه ها نگرشی مثبت تر در مورد زنان را اشاعه دهند و والدين، مدارس و کارشناسان بهداشتی در مورد تاثير اين گونه تصاوير بر دختران و پسران هشيار باشند.

دکتر زوربريگن گفت: "ما به عنوان يک جامعه بايد تصاوير جنسی از دختران را با تصاويری مثبت تر، مثلا نشان دادن اين که هر کدام منحصر به فرد هستند و همچنين نشان دادن توانايی های زنان و دختران، جايگزين کنيم. هدف ما بايد دادن پيامی به دختران و پسران در سنين بلوغ باشد که منجر به سلامت رشد جنسی آنها شود."

اين گزارش همچنين آورده که دولت ها نيز مسئول هستند که برای کاهش اين گونه تصاوير از زنان و دختران در رسانه ها اقدام کنند.

[Rasputin]

The “One Million Signatures Campaign Demanding an End to Discriminatory Laws against Women” was launched five months ago. Our demands in this effort are clear: an end to discriminatory laws against women. The identities of activists involved in the Campaign are even clearer. They include all citizens who have taken on the responsibility of collecting signatures demanding changes to discriminatory laws and all those who distribute educational pamphlets, describing and explaining current laws.

The identities of our supporters are also clear. Our supporters are comprised of women and men committed to justice -- all of whom have proven this commitment in their steadfast pursuit of cultural and legal advancement and progress. The strategy of the Campaign, too, is clear. The campaign utilizes a peaceful and civil approach of face-to-face education, where dialogue can take place with respect to current laws (especially family law) with citizens who are provided an opportunity to express their viewpoints and in cases of agreement sign a petition demanding changes to the law.

For over a century, our mothers and grandmothers have expressed demands along the same lines. In fact, for the past one hundred years, they have written about these very issues and analyzed and explained the impact of discriminatory laws on the lives of both men and women. Divorce rights, child custody rights, increase in the legal age of girls, abolishment of laws that support honor killings, fair employment rights, etc., these are the specific issues that the majority of activists involved in the Campaign are working to redress.

The information about the Campaign and its activities and articles by Campaign members, are shared on a website, aptly called, “Change for Equality.” This site belongs to all those who have supported this effort and those who write for the site and in so doing speak of their personal experiences, so that their efforts and ideas can be recorded as part of the broader history of the women’s movement. In fact, this site provides a medium for the exchange of ideas and reflects the words of all those who speak of the Campaign and about women’s rights, including Ayatollah Bojnourdi, Member of Parliament, Fatemeh Alia, Dr. Khosrow Khavar, Shahla Shafigh, Dr. Nayereh Tohidi, and Mr. Keyvan Samimi, among others.

The Campaign is aiming to collect one million signatures over the course of 2 years, with the intent of presenting these signatures to the parliament. The priorities identified by those who sign the petition will in turn define the priorities of the Campaign with respect to changes proposed to the law. Legal changes will be proposed through draft legislation prepared by scholars like Shirin Ebadi and presented to the parliament for consideration.

The Siege of Containment Grows Tighter Each Day
So, what part of our activities within the campaign are unjustified and worthy of punishment? I raise this question because since the inception of the Campaign, its members have suffered the wrath of the security forces. We have become powerless, asked for mercy and are now wondering exactly what crime we have committed deserving of such retribution -- a retribution which has been inflicted upon us quietly and gradually.

In our interrogations you reiterate: “we have no problems with your demands!” We ask ourselves “which part of our activities then are indeed problematic?” When we hold peaceful protests, we are greeted with violence and are told that with public protests we are crossing the “red line” of the regime. In the past few years, we have tried all possible civic and peaceful strategies for giving voice to these very demands which you claim not to be problematic. Once again, we have chosen the most peaceful of strategies, so that god forbid, we do not cause any problems for anyone -- meaning face-to-face dialogue and the collection of signatures. Truly, we wonder, is there a more civic and peaceful strategy than that adopted by the Campaign?

But, unfortunately, we have come to realize that the “red line” of the regime and its limits, are indeed endless. You ask “why do you first want to collect signatures?” “If your intent is to take these signatures to the parliament, why don’t you just go to the parliament in the first place?” Perhaps reformist women who want to engage in direct discussions with members of parliament are advised as such: “why talk to MPs, you should seek Fatwas in support of your demands from religious leaders?” And again, those women who seek Fatwas from religious leaders, are urged to “first focus on enlightening women”. In short, it seems that all the various women’s groups with their different perspectives and strategies are somehow deluded. So, perhaps this is the reason why you don’t have a problem with our demands, rather the real problem is with our individual strategies in the women’s movement.

We believed that since we are being prevented from conducting peaceful protests, perhaps the collection of one million signatures in support of our demands, with the intent of submitting them to the parliament, would go to prove that we are not looking for a fight rather we are looking to achieve our very just demands. Despite all this, since the inception of the Campaign five months ago, members of the campaign have had the misfortune of experiencing a crisis of some sort on a bi-weekly basis. As a result, we have been forced into a state of fear and anxiety, forced to comfort one another, forced to address the multiple crises at hand, and forced to continually reassure one another that we are indeed not engaged in any sort of illegal activity -- so why is it that we live in such fear? Are we asking for anything more than justice and our basic human rights? We remain astonished and can’t understand what all the arrests, threats and the harassment (sometimes carried out overtly and sometimes carried out covertly and quietly) are for?

[Rasputin]

Misfortune and Disaster Befall us Quietly
Examining the problems and misfortunes experienced by members of the Campaign over the past five months, we quickly realize that in fact you have no problems with our demands, rather the problems stem from the presence of each and every individual involved in the Campaign:

* The seminar launching the Campaign was cancelled by security forces. We were told that “the problem was not with the seminar itself, rather there was a problem with the fact that members, in promoting and announcing the seminar, had an interview with a foreign broadcast (Radio Farda).” So, it was that our seminar was banned and our Campaign targeted from the very start. Quickly, we too realized that no one has a problem our demands or the conference hall in which our seminar was being held, rather the problem is with the fact that we chose to inform the public about our seminar. We knew for certain that if we were to hold our seminar in an empty hall, delivering speeches to ourselves and for ourselves, there would be no problem.

* Zeynab Payghambarzadeh, a young and active member of the Campaign was arrested on the metro, while collecting signatures and distributing pamphlets about the Campaign. She remained in prison for five days. And we realized that there was no problem with Zeynab or her demands, rather the problem was with those who “deceived” Zeynab in the first place, forcing her to join the Campaign.

* Nasim Sarabandi and Fatemeh Dehdashti, two young members of the Campaign were also arrested on the Metro. In their possession were a few statements in support of the Campaign and a number of educational brochures. So, they were arrested and transferred to prison. Authorities told these young women that they had “no problems with them or with their demands as expressed through the Campaign, rather they had a problem with the persons who deceived them and other young women, sending them to public locations in search of signatures -- people like Shirin Ebadi.”

* Because of the distribution of a few pamphlets explaining the goals of the Campaign in her place of employment, Shahla Entesari, another member of the Campaign was dismissed from her job. Certainly there is no problem with our demands, but it is better that those who work to achieve these demands are fired from their work and forced to expend their energies on finding new employment and making ends meet, rather than pursuing the goals of the Campaign.

* Over the course of the past five months we have requested permits for the convening of seminars from at least 10 cultural centers, but since there is no problem with our demands, we were denied permits in all cases. We hold protests, and are told to hold seminars instead. We try to hold seminars, but are denied permits or we are told that our speakers are problematic, we change the speakers, and after endless hours of negotiation, somehow our request for a permit is still denied.

* When we are denied space for our seminars, we have no other choice but to hold our meetings in homes of Campaign members. One such meeting was held in the basement of Mrs. Mahlagha Mallah’s apartment building, a 90 year old woman with a strong commitment and background of defending the environment, who is then phoned and threatened. “We wanted to arrest you because of the meeting you held in your home.”

* When we are denied space to conduct our activities, we have no other choice but to squeeze into our own apartments and homes to hold training workshops. Inevitably the police come to warn our neighbors about the “suspicious” comings and goings in our apartments. You try to sensitize our neighbors, so that perhaps they can carryout your duties in your stead. Then you claim again that the “demands of our Campaign are indeed just and that you have no problems with them.”

* You subject the members of the Campaign working in the provinces to all sorts of pressures. They are denied office space for their NGO activities, their NGOs shut down and their members threatened. You spread rumors that would frighten to death even the most seasoned of civil society activists. For example, in the city of Gorgan, you start rumors about how activists involved in the Campaign are working toward a “velvet revolution!” Activists in the Provinces have fewer resources and supports than those in Tehran. What can they do? So they assume that you do not have a problem with their demands, but that the closed culture within their province is the cause of their pressure.

* Twice and in less than a month’s time, the site of the Campaign is filtered and blocked, because as the whole world now knows, “you have no problems with the rightful demands of Iranian women.”

* Local police stations are brought on as your collaborators, and they work to coerce and threaten parents, so that they can confront their children. You call the homes of Campaign members, and inform their parents about the existence of lists -- lists of persons who should be “advised” and lists of persons scheduled to be “arrested.” Interestingly enough, the police emphasize that parents should not convey these “private” conversations to their daughters rather they should advise them and guide them so that they are not “deceived by others.”

* To our total disbelief, you arrest three members of the Campaign, Talat Taghinia, Mansoureh Shojaee and Farnaz Seify, and politely place them in jail. You rampage their homes. You confiscate their personal property -- their computers and their birth certificates. Under the interrogation forms, you repeatedly write notes to yourself reminding you of the fact that you should not ask any written questions about the Campaign, so that no one doubts the notion that you do not have a problem with the Campaign. So that instead we begin to doubt ourselves. But what we don’t understand is the fact that in oral interrogations you repeatedly question these women about how the Campaign was formed. You tell these three women that you don’t have a problem with their demands nor with the Woman’s Cultural Center -- their NGO -- which is one of the most active NGOs involved in the Campaign, rather you only have a problem with their trip to India and the workshop in which they intended to participate. But still, we don’t understand if you only have a problem with their trip, why is it that you have confiscated the official stamp of the “Women’s Cultural Center.” Perhaps your strategies serve as a good excuse for us to start attacking one another and looking for the “one” at fault.

* You ban Sussan Tahmasebi from travel, because we all know that you have no problems with the human rights demands of women, rather you have a problem with the relationship of Campaign members with the international women’s movements and human rights defenders in other countries.

* You start rumors about the ethical, financial and sexual misconduct of campaign members, about their uncontrollable desire for fame, their relations with foreigners, their preparations for carrying out velvet revolutions, and other strange and bizarre behavior, which seem somehow to surface of their own accord. Of course, there “does”-not exist any formal and organized venue through which these rumors are spread. But with the help of these rumors, the public can come to understand that the women engaged in activities designed to achieve their rights, are in fact, terribly dreadful women starved for attention and fame, in search of asylum in the West, who view themselves as central to the women’s movement, and other such childish accusations. Perhaps all these rumors have surfaced simply because you have “no problems with our demands” and you simply regret that these very “worthy” demands are expressed by “unworthy” women like us.

* We know that you have no problems with our demands, only with the platforms through which we express them. As such, you keep setting new limits and “red lines” for the media and the press, and reduce daily the number of “legal” news outlets and internet sites, through which we give expression to our cause. In this way, you instill fear into the hearts of all women’s rights activists, forcing them to doubt themselves and to think that if perhaps they did not use certain “unacceptable” platforms for the expression of their demands, their problems would miraculously disappear! Despite all our self censorship, we see that our problems persist. So, we are forced to look for the problem among ourselves, and we are forced to distrust one another and our activities, and start to hunt for those at fault within our own circles! This way, you can rest assured that we will voluntarily, in pursuit of those at fault, work to exclude one another. In fact it seems that your problem is that you don’t want us to express our rightful demands through interviews with the press or through our own writings for various online Farsi language websites, because you don’t want these pure demands to be given voice in sites belonging to foreigners. But there remains one small problem. You have left us no national platforms. You order the editors of the official newspapers in the country not to cover any news about the Campaign, and increase pressures on these publications with the aim of preventing us from publishing our articles. Possibly, these editors too know that you have no problem with our demands. Simply put, you only have problems with the expression of our demands through national and foreign media outlets.