Last week Nazanin Afshin-Jam spoke at Women’s Rights Conference in the German Parliament district put on by the Alliance of Iranian Women and REALITE-EU where German parliamentarians, diplomats and press were invited. The panel women’s rights activists included Mahin Arjomand, Nazila Bawandi, and famous German actress and singer Jasmin Tabatabai who has been leading a campaign for an Iranian lesbian who fled Iran to Germany and fears persecution if she is deported back. Chairing the event was Professor, Dr. Sussmuth who is the former President of the German Federal Parliament and former Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Women, Youth and Health. Here is a synopsis of Nazanin’s speech in Berlin:
“Since the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran in 1979, women have been living under gender apartheid. Literally within days, women went from being free and equal, to being discriminated against and ruled under new extreme forms of Sharia Law. Practicing as judges, pilots and engineers, women were told that their place was better suited at home with the kids.
Women were forced into wearing the hijab, were denied the right to practice the profession they chose, needed permission from their husbands or fathers to travel, were denied equal rights in matters of inheritance, divorce and custody. Literally under the law, women were considered half citizens and their value worth half a man’s.
Since that time, women in Iran have been struggling and putting up a fight to regain their rights. There is a strong civil rights movement that exists in Iran despite the fact that dissidents are regularly imprisoned, tortured and killed.
One of the biggest and most popular women’s rights campaigns that currently exists is the campaign: “One million signatures to demanding changes to discriminatory laws”. Women set out on foot, gathering signatures and traveling to villages, empowering other women, educating them on their rights and training them how to stand up for their rights. In one of their most recent rallies demanding equal rights, 50 women were imprisoned on grounds of breaching “national security” including well known human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr and Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh who were placed in solitary confinement and had their offices shut down.
Recently, Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari and others were arrested and accused of espionage. Based on such numerous stories, ex-pats returning to Iran fear a similar fate of being arrested on such groundless matters and subjected into “forced confessions” and torture. No one has forgotten the story of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi who was brutally raped, tortured and killed, simply for having taken pictures outside of Evin prison in Iran.
When there appears to be one step forward in the women’s rights front, there is one step back. In 2003, the Iranian Parliament passed the “UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women” only to be vetoed by the ultra-conservative group of Islamic clerics that make up the Council of Guardians.
Under current President Ahmadinejad in power, and continued brutality under Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the human rights situation seems to be getting worse. There have been huge crackdowns on women “mal-veiling”, mass public hangings of political prisoners, the continuation of stonings, and child executions.
When there appears to be one step forward in the women’s rights front, there is one step back. In 2003, the Iranian Parliament passed the “UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women” only to be vetoed by the ultra-conservative group of Islamic clerics that make up the Council of Guardians.
Under current President Ahmadinejad in power, and continued brutality under Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the human rights situation seems to be getting worse. There have been huge crackdowns on women “mal-veiling”, mass public hangings of political prisoners, the continuation of stonings, and child executions.
Even when the Islamic Republic of Iran signs International Treaties, they often do not comply. Despite the fact that Iran has signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Charter of the Rights of the Child (CRC), which forbids the execution of those who have committed an offence before the age of 18, they continue to execute minors. There are currently 79 minors on death row, two whom have been executed in the last couple of months. (www.stopchildexecutions.com)
It is time to stand up and take action. It is time for the United Nations to enforce action when International human rights laws are breached. It is time for citizens of the world to unite and say “no more”. If we chose to remain silent, then we should all be held accountable to human suffering. The good news is that our voices do count for something. Nazanin Fatehi, the young girl who was on death row for having fought off her rapists, is proof that when enough people gather, and have the courage to speak out, then change is inevitable.
Pressure the German government to stop appeasing the Iranian officials due to short-term financial gain, and start listening to the cries of the Iranian people. It is time to start supporting the true Iranians to gain what they desire most: a free, secular, democratic country based on the rule of law and human rights.
If we can…we must! “
