On the occasion of 8th March 2006

This year we are celebrating international women’s day with a difference. We are coming together from many countries all over the world and travelling from Germany to The Netherlands.  We have fought against anti-women Islamic Republic laws for more than a quarter of a century. Now, we, the Iranian women, are ready to take on the struggle for the liberation of the Iranian people. And we call on you to join us in this.

For over 27 years, the regime has turned life in Iran into hell-on-earth for women. Daily, thousands of women have been publicly lashed, for the crime of “inadequate veil”. Hundreds of women have been stoned to death for adultery. Any talk of women’s right to divorce weakens Sharia (Islamic Law). But women have always been resisting these laws and have now become a serious force of opposition.

Today with Bush and Co. beating louder than ever on the drums of war with Iran, and with the Iranian government hiding behind anti-American slogans, raising our independent voice of struggle is ever more important. The US and its European allies try to use Iran’s terrorist and nuclear threat as a pretext to turn Iran into another Iraq. But we have not forgotten that the terrorists ruling Iran were imposed on us by those very terrorist-breeders. We have not forgotten the consenting silence of the Western governments and their oh-so-democratic media, when Khomeini was executing the voices of revolution and freedom. We remember too, that when Iranian women were facing insult, blade, acid and lash to assert our right to chose what to wear, the western statesmen and media prevented our cries from reaching the world. They excused themselves by condoning it as part of lranian culture. Meanwhile, economic and military contracts were being signed behind closed doors.

Today the Bush regime and their European allies, on the one hand, and the Islamic Republic, on the other, try to convince everyone that we have to choose between neo-liberal slavery and Islamic fundamentalism. But we know that these two are not mutually exclusive and we have seen them cohabit. We boldly declare that we do not need “saviours” like the invaders of Afghanistan and Iraq. We know that another world is possible and that we cannot get there with the help of the oppressors.

The women of Iran are standing up and challenging one of the most oppressive and anti-women regimes of our times.

Join us, stand with us, so that the world can see that we are not alone in our struggle against the anti-women laws of a medieval regime.

Join us, because our victory for equality is a step forward in the women of the world’s struggle against oppression and for equality.

Join us, because only together can we walk towards a world without oppression or exploitation.

8 March Women’s Organization (Iranian – Afghanistani)