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Hang in there...it won't be long.
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Hang in there...it won't be long. -
According to Kate Connolly's report on Iranian female photographers, the reason women "now play too significant a part in Iranian society to be 'brought back to the stove'" has much to do with the Iran-Iraq war of 1980 to 1988 (The secret lives of us, January 2).
Katajun Amirpur, an Islamic expert at the University of Cologne, is quoted saying: "The war led to women taking over many of the roles previously held by men, including that of the photographer." But this is naive. Women have always played a significant role in Iran's social, political and artistic life. They gained the right to vote in 1963 - earlier than in several European countries.
The western media's portrayal of Iran is, unfortunately, often confined to photos of President Ahmadinejad in defiance of the US, or women in black Islamic chadors, apparently being treated as second-class citizens, or fundamentalist zealots beating their chests.
That is why when Connolly sees the photographs (on display in Berlin's Cicero Gallery for Political Photography) she is confused about their message. She tells us about a photo by Newsha Tavakolian from Tehran portraying "a woman in bright green scarf with swollen pink lips, bruised eyes and a thinly plastered nose". Connolly's first impression was that this is "a woman who has been beaten up, maybe by her husband". But Newsha tells her the woman has just had "a nose job, liposuction, even a boob job". Connolly accepts that this is a challenge to western preconceptions.
As early as 1937 Iranian women were attending university. From the early 1950s there have been female scientists, mayors, university deans and cabinet ministers. The highly acclaimed poet and film-maker Forough Farokhzad was openly expressing women's sexual desires in the 50s and 60s.
Bibikhatoon Astarabadi, born in 1858, became one of the most influential figures of the constitutional revolution of 1906. She founded the first school for girls and her book Failings of Men, published in 1895, was seen as the first declaration of women's rights in Iran. Women were also highly active during the shah's regime in the 1960s, and in the revolution that led to his downfall in 1979.
Since the Islamic revolution, with the onslaught of fundamentalism, Iranian women have fought back by proving themselves indispensable in government. They focused on high-level university education, and many organised themselves into political groups. Today the most persistently successful activists in Iran are female journalists, students, bloggers, lawyers and members of parliament. Women have organised demonstrations to stand up to unequal Islamic family laws, mistreatment of women, forced marriages and stonings. Brave female lawyers such as the Nobel laureate Shirin Ebady have confronted judicial authorities. Many have gone to prison for defending political and human rights.
None of these have any direct link with the Iran-Iraq war. Women have always played a significant political role in challenging religious or cultural norms which hold back their progress. Successful female photographers belong to that ongoing tradition.Comment
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man ye khabare kheili mohem daram: Khanoomaye irani akhareshan
~ Bahar ~
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شستشوي دستان زنان مسلمان، مشكل تازه مراكز درماني انگليس
روزنامه انگليسي ديلي تلگراف در گزارشي نوشت: "امتناع زنان مسلمان شاغل در مراكز درماني انگليس از رعايت قوانين بهداشتي به دليل تضاد اين قوانين با اصول مذهبي آنها به مشكل تازه اي در نظام پزشكي انگليس تبديل شده است."
اين روزنامه نوشت: "دانشجويان زن مسلمان كه در چندين بيمارستان انگليس در حال گذراندن دوره هاي آموزشي خود هستند بنابر قوانين بهداشتي بايد در زمان شست و شوي دستان خود از نوك انگشتان تا زير آرنج را برهنه و شست و شو دهند."
به نوشته ديلي تلگراف ظاهرا اين اقدام براي جلوگيري از شيوع ميكروب هاي كشنده اي چون MRSA و كلوستريديوم ديفيسيل توصيه شده است.
اين در حالي است كه زنان مسلمان اين اقدام را برخلاف تعاليم مذهبي خود مي دانند و حاضر نيستند به جز كف دست و صورت جاي ديگري از بدن خود را عيان سازند.
براساس اين گزارش طبق دستورات جديد وزارت بهداشت انگليس، همه پزشكان ملزم به شست و شوي كليه قسمت هاي دست تا زير بازو براي جلوگيري از انتقال ميكروب هستند.
با اين حال دانشجويان زن مسلمان در دانشگاه هاي ليورپول و لستر از رعايت اين قوانين در داخل مراكز درماني خودداري كرده اند.
از سوي ديگر كارشناسان بهداشتي معتقدند قوانين براي همه لازم الاجراست حتي اگر در تضاد با آموزه هاي مذهبي باشد.
دكتر مارك اينرايت استاد ميكروبيولوژي در امپريال كالج لندن در اين باره گفت: "براي شستن صحيح دستان و كاهش خطر انتقال ميكروب هاي MRSA و كلوستريديوم ديفيسيل، كاركنان بايد كل قسمت هاي اطراف مچ دست را شست و شو دهند."
اين در حالي است كه انجمن پزشكي اسلامي انگليس تاكيد كرده: پوشاندن كليه قسمت هاي بدن به جز صورت و دستان يك اصل بنيادي در اسلام است.
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هشتم مارس برابر با هفدهم اسفندماه، روز جهانی زن است. اغلب کشورهای جهان این روز را به عنوان روزی که تجلی مبارزات و تلاشهای زنان برای رسیدن به حقوق برابر با مردان است به رسمیت می شناسند.
در سالهای اخیر این روز بویژه در کشورهایی که زنان آنها هم چنان از برخی حقوق شهروندی، آزادیهای مدنی و امکانات مساوی با مردان محرومند و در جوامعی با فرهنگها و قوانین تبعیض آمیز علیه زنان رویدادی مهم تلقی می شود.
در این جوامع، معمولا نهادهای مستقل و مدافع حقوق زنان با برگزاری راه پیمایی ها، سخنرانی ها و گردهمآیی های مسالمت آمیز، مطالبات برآورده نشده زنان را یادآوری می کنند و از تلاشهای آنها برای دست یابی به حقوق سیاسی و اجتماعی و رهایی از سنتها و قوانین مردسالارانه تجلیل می کنند.
البته به این دلیل که در این گونه جوامع زنان با سطوحی متفاوت از محدودیتهای حقوقی، فرهنگی و اجتماعی روبرو هستند، نیازها و خواسته های آنها هم یکسان نیست. به عنوان مثال، در ایران زنان به رغم حضور گسترده شان در انقلاب سال ۱۳۵۷ و نقش تعیین کننده آنها در انتخابات سالهای اخیر، از راه یافتن به مراکز قدرت سیاسی کم و بیش بی بهره بوده اند و در سطح پارلمان و مراجع قانون گذاری هم مشارکتی اندک داشته اند. در حالی که در برخی کشورهای دیگر نظیر عربستان و افغانستان، محرومیتهای اجتماعی و حقوقی زنان شدت بیشتری دارد و موارد بروز خشونت علیه آنها در این کشورها زیادتر است.
نظر شما در مورد روز جهانی زن چیست؟ به عقیده شما آیا نامیده شدن یک روز به نام زنان ممکن است در تحقق خواسته ها و نیازهای انسانی آنها براستی تاثیرگذار باشد و یا همچون بعضی عقیده دارید که تعیین چنین روزی در سال صرفا اهمیتی نمادین و زودگذر دارد و با سپری شدن آن، مسائل زنان هم به دست فراموشی سپرده می شود؟ آیا نهضتهای زنان در کشورهای جهان سوم توانسته اند همگام با دیگر جنبشهای مدنی حرکت کنند؟ فکر می کنید ضروری ترین تحول در شرایط کنونی زنان در حال حاضر چیست؟
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A young Iranian activist and his lawyer said Monday that he had become the first man sentenced for participating in a campaign to change laws that discriminate against women.
Amir Yaghoub Ali, 21, said he was convicted of acting against national security and sentenced to a year in prison for his role in the "Change for Equality" campaign, launched by Iranian women activists in September 2006.
The campaign sought to collect a million signatures in support of changing laws that deny women in Iran equal rights in matters such as divorce and court testimonies.
Ali said he was detained last July while collecting signatures for the campaign in a park in northern Tehran and spent 29 days in the notorious Evin prison before being freed on $20,000 bail.
Ali's lawyer, Nasrin Sotudeh, said the country's Revolutionary Court found her client guilty and sentenced him on March 2 but didn't inform them of the verdict until May 25, because of customary legal formalities in Iran. She said under Iranian law, she has 20 days from May 25 to appeal and would "obviously do so." Ali will remain free throughout the appeals process.
"My client is innocent," she said.
Sotudeh said at least six women have been sentenced over the campaign, with punishments including jail terms and lashes. None of the sentences have been carried out, though it is unclear why, she said.
Court officials and prosecutors could not be reached for comment Monday.
Ali told The Associated Press the court sentenced him for "acting against national security by propagating against the system." But he said he believes in his actions.
"Changing discriminatory laws will benefit Iranians and will create a fairer social environment," Ali said. "Our call for change is considered by the ruling Islamic establishment as crossing the red lines. Authorities don't want to allow any changes in laws in support of women rights. That's why they seek to suppress such demands."
Iran has refused to ratify the United Nations convention on women's rights and the country's senior clerics in Qom, Iran's main center of Islamic learning, have rejected the convention as un-Islamic.
Under the strict form of Islamic law practiced in Iran, a woman needs her husband's permission to work or travel abroad. A man's court testimony is considered twice as important as a woman's. Men can keep four spouses at once — a right not granted to women.
And while Iranian men can divorce almost at will, a woman seeking a divorce must go through a long legal battle and often relinquish rights in return for divorce.
But despite being restricted from the nation's highest political posts, Iran's 35 million women enjoy greater freedoms and political rights than women in most neighboring Arab states, including the right to vote and hold public office.
Those freedoms got a boost with the 1997 election of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, who appointed a female vice president.
Since then, other women have held positions within the government but have not been Cabinet members. And while women in Iran can run for parliament positions, they're prohibited from running for president.
Parvin Ardalan, one of the signature campaign leaders, said that along with Ali, about 50 women activists have been detained or summoned to court over the campaign.
"This is a policy of intimidation by the authorities," she said. "But we won't give up."Comment
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A woman student was brave enough to go up against all the threats of the so-called disciplinary committee and university authorities. She refused to give in to their demands and instead helped gather evidence to prove the corruption and abusive action of university vice-chancellor Hassan Madadi. An audio recording of his demanding sex from her was circulated. Tens of thousands of people saw the mobile phone video posted on YouTube showing students seizing him, turning him over to the authorities and demanding that he be charged. (YouTube - معاون دانشگاه زنجان هنگام تجاوزبه دختردانشجو رسوا شد Zanjan) People informed each other by SMS and phone. Again not because people were surprised—many are aware of the dimension of this sort of corruption in this regime—but because they were glad to see that this time this criminal was caught red-handed and he and the government could not get away with it.
This news outraged students and 3,000 took part in protests. A flood of solidarity and support came from other university students. The university authorities, who were in a weak position, tried to end these demonstrations by giving false promises to meet the students’ demand. Finally, members of the student Islamic Association associated with “reformers” such as ex-president Muhammad Khatami were determined to use these events to their advantage in their factional fight within the state, compromised to keep the student movement from getting out of their hands and to advance their own factional programme within the government.
But what shocked the people even more came later after the demonstrations ended, as Science and Higher Educational Minister Ali Zahedi claimed that the video didn’t prove anything, and the Zanjan prosecutor announced that exposing a “sin” is worse than the sin itself. Hardly anyone could miss what they were up to. It did not take long before the woman student who dared expose this abusive official was herself arrested and accused of having an unlawful affair!
Islamic law requires two adult men witnesses to testify against such abuses—a requirement so impractical that such abuses can never be proved. Islamic logic is clear: women are guilty and they are the source of sin, so that whatever the sin, it is the woman who must be at fault. The fact that the sin occurred and she is a woman is enough evidence to arrest her. Thus the positions of criminal and victim are reversed.
This event shows that the Islamic regime is determined to go ahead with its anti-woman policies, even in the face of a scandal with such solid and undeniable evidence. It also shows that the most brutal oppression of women is a main pillar of the Islamic Republic of Iran. That is why we say that this incident, in a concentrated way, brings out the essence of the Islamic regime.
Women students, who constitute a majority in Iranian universities, are regularly subjected to harassment and threats by the disciplinary committees and the Harasat (Guardian) office of the universities. The Harasat is a unit in each university that acts as an intelligence and security apparatus, since supposedly the regular security forces aren’t allowed on campus. They regularly monitor the behavior and activities of students and even teachers on campus and in the classrooms. They have created a repressive and fascistic atmosphere in the universities and are very much hated by the students.
The irony is that while the authorities of the Science and Higher Education Ministry and the universities never tire of using all their creativity to issue all sorts of strange and highly detailed rules and regulations to control clothing and makeup and the relations between women and men students, and summon students before disciplinary committees and even expel them for violating the Islamic codes of cover or un-Islamic behavior, at the same time a wide range of university officials and authorities, and in particular Harasat officials, use their power to sexually abuse female students. These two aspects might look contradictory but the origin of both behaviors is the same: a desire to control and oppress women. The government does its best to protect these criminals not only to defend its own thugs, but most importantly because the oppression of women is a main pillar of the whole system. To take another example, this is how the armed Islamic groups in Afghanistan put pressure on women. They kidnap teenage girls and rape them for the “sin” of going to school or not implementing the Islamic code of cover.
In Iran many of these officials are newly appointed ex-members of the Pasdaran and Basij (the Islamic regime’s particular military, the Revolutionary Guards and militia). After the Iran-Iraq war they were awarded university degrees not because they went to classes but as a reward for their service in the war and to the Islamic “revolution,” or because they were members of one of the gangs that formed the Islamic Republic of Iran. All the progressive lecturers were purged during the so-called cultural revolution in the early 1980s. In the last few years, a whole new crop of academics not considered Islamic enough has been purged once again. As a result the universities have fallen into the hands of more fundamentalists and Islamic-committed officials and lecturers who have been abusing their power over students in many different ways, including demanding sex from them.
This Islamisation of the universities has put even more pressure on students and in particular increased the oppression of women students. In turn, women have increasingly taken part in various kinds of rebellious, defiant behavior and often political action against the state and state-designated officials. They have become an important component of all the student movements, despite the unfavorable conditions and restrictions and limitations on their participation.
What outraged people more than anything else about the Zanjan University incident is that such incidents are not uncommon. As the March 8 organization leaflet says [see excerpts on page 4], similar cases have come to light in other universities, such as Sahand University in Tabriz and Razi University in Kermanshah and elsewhere. What made this case different is that the students gathered undeniable proof and exposed it to the people before the regime could control the spread of the news.
But at the same time there have been numerous cases that have not been exposed. The fear of social stigma and most importantly the fear of being accused as the perpetrator of sin and charged with unlawful sexual relations have prevented victims from even talking about it to their closest friends or relatives. Shadi Sadr, an Iranian woman lawyer and activist in such cases, wrote in an article, “I have frequently come across case files describing women who have been victims of threats, sexual abuse and even rape. After making a complaint about rape, they are raped once again by a long and difficult legal process that brings them more suffering. Not only do they find themselves unable to prove the sexual abuse or the rape, but ultimately they themselves are charged and punished by the law because they are said to have confessed to sexual relations outside marriage, a fate that unfortunately might await the woman student in Zanjan.” (Amir Kabir Technical University Farsi Web newsletter, June 20)
What is unfortunate is that abuses, threats and harassment inflicted by the security forces and officials, especially in universities, have led many students to commit suicide. According to a report from the Farsi section of the Deutsche welle (Voice of Germany, June 23), the head office of the Harasat of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education said that out of 28 university student suicides since the Iranian new year began on March 21, 21 were women. The same source reports that “On April 16 this year a Ph.D. student studying Chemistry at Shahid Beheshti University committed suicide with cyanide, four days later a Hamadan student committed suicide; and the next month a female medicine student in Isfahan committed suicide two days after being detained and accused of violating the Islamic codes of cover. Another woman student earlier in the year at the university of Damghan in the northeast of country hanged herself in the dormitory. On June 11 this year a female student in Malayer, a city 200 miles west of Tehran, killed herself. The university disciplinary committee had suspended her for one term for unlawful sexual relations.” According to the same source, another woman student in the eastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan also committed suicide by taking tablets.
People’s outrage at the news from Zanjan University was still boiling when a photo began circulating showing the battered body of a student at Lahijan University in northwest Iran who threw herself from the fourth floor of the engineering faculty where the Harasat office is located. It broke the heart of millions of people who saw it posted on several Web sites, including autnews.eu/archives/1387,04,00010088. It was even more painful when a second female student in Sistan and Balouchestan University also committed suicide. And we know that they were neither the first nor the last.
But fortunately this is not what the harassed and threatened woman student at Zanjan University did. Her courageous actions were able to expose the anti-woman criminal officials and the system that backs them, and gave rise to a remarkable student movement.Comment
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Eight women and a man face stoning in Iran for adultery
Nine people in Iran - eight women and one man - have been sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery in verdicts lawyers blame on a resurgence of hardline Islamic fundamentalism.
The sentences have been imposed in courts across the country despite a supposed moratorium on the punishment, which Iran says is justified under sharia law.
Lawyers say most of the nine have been victims of violence and are mostly too ill-educated to understand the charges against them.
Many of the sentences were handed down after hearings held in private without the presence of witnesses and defence lawyers.
One woman, Kobra Najar, an ethnic Kurd, is said to have been condemned after being forced by her husband into prostitution. After she divorced him, he forced their daughter to sell her body.
Another defendant, Shamame Qorbani, claims she was raped but that the allegation was not investigated.
Details of the sentences were disclosed by Iranian lawyers yesterday in Tehran as they attempted to generate international support for a campaign to force Iran's government to abolish stoning.
"These women mostly come from the illiterate masses and did not have money or access to a lawyer. Many did not understand Farsi and, of course, all the interrogations were in Farsi," Shadi Sadr, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, told the Guardian. "In all of the cases, there has been violence against them, or they have been forced into marriages, or their divorce applications have been refused. In some cases, they couldn't apply for a divorce due to family pressures."
Two of the cases took place in Tehran while two others are in the largely Arab-speaking city of Ahvaz. Two others are from the mainly Azeri-speaking north of the country.
They came to light after a group of Iranian lawyers embarked on a campaign to halt stoning, which has been condemned by international human rights groups.
The lawyers are calling on Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, to issue pardons.
However, Shahroudi's influence in the current political climate is believed to be limited. Last year, he ordered a stay of execution for a man condemned to be stoned for adultery but local officials carried out the sentence in violation of his orders.
Sadr said the verdicts were a consequence of an atmosphere of political repression and religious fundamentalism, under which MPs feel free introduce ever more draconian legislation. These include proposed laws allowing execution for witchcraft and bodily punishments such as blinding and amputation under a new penal code before parliament.
"It is connected to the general hardline politics," she said. "The more there is fundamentalism in general in our politics, the greater the worry that these verdicts will be carried out. If you have a hardline prosecutor in a remote rural area, he is going to be much more able to put his beliefs into practice in the current atmosphere."Comment
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Originally posted by RedWine View Post
بهائيان اتهام فعاليت*هاى غيرقانونى در ايران را تكذيب می*كنند
نيويورک
٣ اوت ۲۰۰۸ برابر با ١۳ مرداد ۱۳۸٧
سرويس خبرى جامعۀ جهانى بهائى
جامعۀ جهانى بهائى سخنان يك قاضی ايرانى را كه گفته است هفت بهائى زندانى به فعاليت در يك سازمان "غيرقانونى" و مرتبط با اسرائيل و كشورهاى ديگر اعتراف كرده*اند مطلقاً تكذيب مى*كند.
بانى دوگال، نمايندۀ ارشد جامعۀ جهانى بهائى در سازمان ملل گفت: "ما به شدت اين اظهارات را كه بهائيان ايران در فعاليت*هاى براندازى دست داشته*اند رد مى كنيم. جامعۀ بهائى در امور سياسى دخالتى ندارد و تنها 'جرم' اين جمع اعتقادات دينى*شان است."
وى افزود: "سنگينى اين اتهام*ها ما را نگران جان اين هفت زندانى كرده است."
خانم دوگال اين سخنان را در واكنش به گزارش روزنامه*هاى ايران در بارۀ اظهارات حسن حداد، معاون امنيت دادسراى عمومى و انقلاب تهران، ابراز داشت.
خانم دوگال گفت هفت بهائى دستگير شده اعضاى هيأتى بودند كه به امور اوليۀ جامعۀ سيصدهزار نفرۀ بهائيان ايران رسيدگى مى*كرد.
وى گفت: "كار اين هيأت پنهانى نبود. حكومت ايران سالها پيش از دستگيرى اعضاى اين گروه از وجود آن آگاه بود، همچنان كه دولت به خوبى می*داند اين افراد در هيچ فعاليت مخفيانه*اى مشاركت نداشته اند."
خانم دوگال بازداشت اين افراد را بخشى از برنامۀ بلند مدت حكومت ايران براى از ميان بردن جامعۀ بهائى دانست و گفت اسناد موثق اين برنامه در دست است. وى اتهامات اخير را ادامۀ اتهامات بى پايۀ قبلى دانست.
وى گفت: "اتهام تبانى بهائيان با دولت اسرائيل مطلقا ًدروغ و انحرافى است. مبناى اين اتهامات از سوى مقامات ايرانى سوء استفاده از اين واقعيت است كه مركز جهانى بهائى در شمال اسرائيل قرار دارد."
"حكومت ايران تعمداً اين واقعيت تاريخى را كه آئين بهائى تا سال ١٨۵٣ در ايران متمرکز بود ناديده مى*گيرد. در آن زمان بود كه مؤسس اين آئين از ايران تبعيد شد و عاقبت در عكا در ساحل مديترانه كه در آن زمان بخشى از حكومت تركيۀ عثمانى بود زندانى گشت. اين محل امروز بخشى از خاك كشور اسرائيل است."
خانم دوگال گفت بسيارى از بهائيان ايران — از جمله اعضاى هيأت رسيدگى به امور اوليۀ جامعۀ پيش از زندانى شدن — به دفعات دستگير و مورد بازجوئى قرار گرفته*اند. وى افزود بهائيان چيزى براى پنهان كردن ندارند و همواره كوشيده*اند پاسخ*هاى روشنى به بازجويان بدهند.
Mary's back, back againComment
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This book of 20 unusual short stories by Iranian women edited and translated by the 48-year old journalist, Kaveh Basmenji and spanning several decades, is deeply melancholic with its spartan prose.
A profound sadness with no respect for the etiquette of pretense, hovers like a funeral wake in calling out for each story's theme, no matter the fictitious woman's joys or sorrows.
A poetic atmosphere, designed to haunt and trigger brooding reflections to its sharp introspection is what lends the reader, its lavish beauty.
No doubt, the English-Language collection has been translated as closely as possible from the Persian and so there is no boastful writerly approach or superficial sophisticated style one way or the other.
Drawn from such faithfulness, expect plainly-written lines like "I went there seldom" or "He smiled at me also." Yet, these are extraordinary and memorable. In Simin Daneshvar's To Whom Shall I Say Hello, one may be feted to unusual phrases like "3 ripe daughters" and a "giant of a wife". Or perhaps, "Someone is clawing at my entrails again."
Stories thoughtfully sketched by reowned writers like Shahrnoosh Parsipour, Zohreh Hatami and Fereshtei Sari among others only serve to search a woman's heart with a resignation of never-ending sincerity and pain. In the collected tales, the Iranian woman is not as worried over physical circumstances or as what the excruciating demands of religion may prove itself to be.
Rather, she is concerned with family ties, a parent's approval or a man's touch and this in a sadly idealistic way where no happy ending may be celebrated on the horizon.
The challenge is to wisely capture the valuable meaning of existence. As such, she may not question her chador but rather her carers in those frightening twilight years. Would her husband leave? Would the snow bury a village home? Would a nasty son in law ever let her see a daughter? Would she still find herself a bed to sleep in at 80 or would she be left to die somewhere unkind? And so forth.
The reader is able to seek out philosophical truths and painful everyday realities from a woman's simple heart. The message of the authors, having lived through different eras are all the same.
The gentle Iranian woman from days gone would have desired to love and live with equal eagerness and bountiful joy for the sole purpose of a full engagement with life; only many a time she would have had to end up in a fierce struggle simply from the way destiny ruthlessly wove its thick web around her.Comment
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