Sisters
It is a century since we celebrate 8th March, the International Women’s Day.
Commemorating 8th March has provided an excellent opportunity for women to heighten their struggle against oppression. The women have been fighting more intensely and more organised during the last hundred years. With the birth of the women’s movement during this period the women have achieved a lot.
However women are still suffering from gender discrimination and inequality sometime in its worst form.
Violence and discrimination against women is global and no woman with the existence of imperialism and capitalism that imposes its patriarchal system can be spared from that.
We know how there are tens of thousands of women even in the developed capitalist’s countries who are murdered by their husband or partners every year or are the victim of rape and assault.
We know how thousands of the innocent young women and teenagers are hunted from all over the world and are sexually exploited by so called sex industry.
At the same time there are also women in other parts of the world, such as Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and so on… who their most basic rights are trampled. The news of convicting an Iranian woman Sakineh Mohamadi Ashtiani because of adultery is a telling story, that how women in these countries are condemned to death and are punished because of being with the man who they love.
Since there is a religious regime ruling Iran, Hejab or covering the head and the body is compulsory for women. In fact Islamic regime is enforcing its so called ideological values through oppressing the women.
We Iranian, made a revolution 32 years ago, women took part actively with the hope to achieve their liberation or at least take some steps forward in that direction.
But the empowerment of a religious regime was a retreat in women’s situation.
The Hejab’s law that first was imposed on women was only the first step in imposing others anti-women law’s. Women are degraded and considered as half a man
Women are officially deprived from many rights such as divorce, custody and even travel unless with the permission of their husband.
Sisters: We are celebrating 100 anniversary of 8th March at the time when the people and women in Middle-East are fighting for their rights. We strongly support these struggles and especially the struggle of women for their liberation.
However we believe what went wrong in the Iranian revolution and what happened to Iranian women should be a lesson not only for ourselves but also for the women all over the world and especially for our sisters in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries in the Middle-East who are fighting their oppressors.
The truth is that we the Iranian women did not raise our demands and in fact we all put our weights behind the general demands of the revolution in order to get rid of one dictator. But we never thought that a new dictator would replace the old one, a dictator or dictators who will use the weapon of religion to impose anti-women’s law and oppress the women even harder.
We did not think enough that what a religious regime would mean for the women.
The lessons that are achieved are at the cost of the life of millions of women who have been deprived of their most basic rights. At the cost of young women’s who have been raped and executed, at the cost of the life of women who have been stoned to death, or killed because of honour of the family and so on…
We women should never again repeat the serious mistake we made in Iran and we should not let the dictatorship of a religious regime replaces another dictator. The big powers are talking about democracy but they do not mind a religious regime as long as it serves their interest such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan and...
Demanding our rights and make sure we raise it from the first day. Fighting for separation of any religion from the state power is a basic necessity in our fight and an important condition for the unity of the whole people in their struggle for liberation.
Victory to the struggles of Women against violence, discrimination and oppression.
Victory to the struggle of our sisters and the people in the Middle-East against the reactionary regimes.
Long Live 8 March international women’s day.
8 March Women’s organisation (Iran-Afghanistan)-UK
5 March 2011