Leaflet Number 1
On 8th of March 2007, International Women’s Day united and in harmony let us call for ‘another world’!
Do you hear the screams of Iraqi women, crying out against honour killings by Islamic groups or against being raped by American/British troops?
Do you hear the protests of Afghan women whose body and soul is the battleground in the rivalry between Taleban, other Islamic forces and Western occupiers and their protégés?
Do you hear the screams of that Iranian woman who has suffered from whip lashes, was forced to wear a veil and is now facing death by stoning?
Do you hear the protests of American women who face the rape of one of their sisters every 6 seconds?
Are you a witness to the rise in patriarchal violence against women in European countries?
The perpetrators of repression against women are on the one hand patriarchal imperialist powers who try and justify their aggressive wars by claiming to defend ‘women’s rights’ and ‘human rights’ in the region as well as reactionary Islamic fundamentalists who have enslaved women.
The murder of thousands of women and children under napalm, phosphor and cluster bombs, the rape of Iraqi women by US soldiers, the imposition of misogynist Islamic constitutions by fundamentalist forces, helped by US and Western advisors in Iraq and Afghanistan are only part of the ‘women’s liberation’ heralded by imperialist forces. Reactionary Islamic forces, on the other hand, increase repression and destitution on women using their political programme. Legislation confirming inequality as well as Islamic punishments against women and the forced veil are all manifestations of the masculine Islamic power structure. Rape and execution of women and young girls in Afghanistan is a sign of the militarist, reactionary Islamic power in that country.
All these events teach us, women of the Middle East, that any solution for emancipation and liberation within the framework of the current international structure is as false as trying to seek women’s liberation within the framework of Islamic ideology.
We, Iranian women, will continue on the path we started last year, seeking to establish ‘another world’ based on the participation and authority of all human beings, those who have no interest in maintaining the power structures based on exploitation and injustice. We seek a world where maiming women is considered a crime not a tradition. We seek a world where no female child will go to the ‘matrimonial’ rape scene, where no woman will face ‘honour killings’ , where no woman is forced to commit suicide or to set fire to herself to escape patriarchal violence, a world where no woman is punished or faces stoning by death for loving someone or for sexual relations. We seek a world that does not consider homosexuality a crime, a world where a woman’s identity is not determined by her marriage or motherhood. We are fighting for a world where no one can force women to stay in the kitchen or indoors, where no one can deprive women of the right to participate in social production and in politics. In such a world women will control their own bodies and will make their own decision on whether they want children, a world in which men and women are truly equal in all aspects of life.
These are some aspects of the horizon for our liberation, a horizon that must be within the reach of millions of oppressed women, A horizon that gives us hope, a hope that gives us courage and strength to continue our struggles for emancipation from all forms of sexual and class oppression.
On the 8th of March 2007 we will raise the slogan “No to reaction, No to Imperialism, we are in the process of creating another world!” to unite and widen our ranks. In the current world situation, women’s emancipation sets a clear demarcation line between the world’s oppressed and an assortment of imperialist and Islamic fundamentalist reactionaries.
Our march will take place
On 8th March 2007, 10 am in the Hague, Netherlands
The Campaign for Abolition of all Misogynist Gender Based legislation & Islamic Punitive Laws in Iran
9th Jan 2007
Karzar2005@yahoo.com www.karzar-zanan.com