Unite to fight violence against women!
We, women have all experienced the wounds of violence. At home, in school and in society, from the moment that we have come to know ourselves as the second gender, as a woman, violence has entered our lives – daily violence that appears to be natural, always with some kind of cultural, traditional, psychological, biological, legal or religious justification. Even we ourselves who have been the target of violence have become used to it. The violence is not only an act damaging our bodies and endangering our lives. Violence against women is not limited to rape, beatings, or the sale of children as “brides” or to female genital mutilation, it cannot be reduced to batons and bullets, to fist or whips, to acid attacks or burning, it also means being ignored, discounted, insulted, despised or harassed, going on the nerves is violence too. Even undergoing plastic surgery to modify ourselves to conform to the standards of beauty set by patriarchal society is form of violence.
Violence against women is not new, but its escalation on an unprecedented scale in the political, economic and social spheres of the dominant patriarchal world is a terrifying phenomenon. As a result of the globalisation of capital and super exploitation for profit, poverty has been feminised. The chain of global violence has put more than 3 billion women from all corners of the world on the same side.
In the so-called ‘modern’ world of capitalism, forms of violence against women such as prostitution, rape, the murder of women by their partners or ex-partners, insults and contempt, beating and domestic violence, pornography, the so-called ‘sex industry’ and sexual abuse at work places and in the streets… all this has increased unimaginably. For the patriarchal imperialist-capitalist system, the continuation of violence against women on a world scale and the institutionalisation of an anti-women culture is of crucial importance for the production of profit.
Today, as a result of the invasions and occupation by the patriarchal imperialists from one side and with the rise of fundamentalism and different kinds of religious fundamentalists and anti-women states from the other side, Afghanistan, Iraq and the whole Middle-East have turned into women’s prisons and the men’s arena.
Though violence against women in Iran has a long history, the fundamentalist Islamic regime of Iran, using the stick of religion, the chains of tradition, the prison of the Hijab (veil), so-called ‘guidance Patrols’ and executions and stonings, has imposed more extensive, more rigorous and more brutal violence against women in order to control them and their bodies. The compulsory hijab is an indication of women’s subjugation and subordination and a public and formal declaration of gender inequality under the Islamic regime. The laws that give rise to violence and medieval Islamic punishments are a declaration and formalisation of the oppression, discrimination and violence against women, the ideological banner of Islamic regime that hangs over the body of women.
While the Islamic regime and its repressive forces control women in the schools, universities, streets and work places and so on, the husband, partner, father, brother and son take care of controlling women at home. If women outside home are arrested and taken to prison for defying the laws and codes of the ‘Islamic hijab’, at home there are some men who will take the place of the religious rulers. If the regime stones women to death for the crime of loving someone or being loved by someone, at home there are some men who sentence them to death, in order to protect the family’s ‘honour’. Women in Iran have to escape the restrictions and checks of the Islamic security forces, while in public places they have to fear daily sexual abuses by so many men. Splashing Acid on women whose hijabs are deemed unsatisfactory casts the sign of this brutal violence on their faces or bodies for the rest of their lives, while some men’s intolerable domestic violence drives women to self-immolation.
This coordination between the state power of the anti-woman Islamic Republic of Iran and men who are soaked in anti-women ideas and values forms the three interlinked chains of state, social and domestic violence against Iran’s women. The main link in this chain is state violence, which by spreading patriarchal culture, backward traditions, and anti-woman ideology in the society and through a series of anti-woman laws and policies, has paved the way for the intensification of various kinds of social and domestic violence against women.
Women in turn have been resisting and struggling in different forms against the widespread violence of the anti-woman Islamic regime since it was founded. They have been fighting individually or in groups, in prisons in the face of brutal torture, against the compulsory hijab, against gender discrimination in schools and universities, and in the courts for the right of divorce and custody of their children.
The violence against the body and soul of every woman has provoked a loud cry and a call for a broad struggle declaring that such violence is no longer bearable. Scattered and separate struggle and resistance is no longer sufficient; a united and broad struggle is posing itself more than ever as a necessity.
The development and intensification of violence in all spheres of women’s lives in Iran has given rise to the necessity of a united and broad campaign. Let this campaign to oppose violence against women help to unite the many channels of struggles into a stormy river for the revolutionary overthrow of the anti-woman Islamic regime of Iran. Launching and continuing such a campaign can strengthen the entrenchment of struggles of our sisters all over the world against violence on a world scale. A campaign that can serve as a continuous and targeted struggle for the elimination of the subjugation of women around the world and bring about a world in which all women and the whole humanity is free from oppression and exploitation.
This Campaign belongs to:
P All women who are suffering from violence!
P All women who fight the compulsory hijab!
P All women who fight against ‘stoning to death’!
P All women who fight for the separation of religion from the state!
P All women who fight to put an end to abusing, insulting, despising and beating women!
P All women who fight against backward traditions, customs and laws such as forced marriage and the marriage of young girls!
P All women who fight against the Islamic form of prostitution known as ‘Sigheh’ (what they call ‘temporary marriage’)!
P All women who fight against ‘honour killings’!
P All women who fight against the exploitation of women in the work place or home!
P All women who fight against the abuse and targeting of homosexuals!
P All women who fight for a free choice to abortion!
P All women who fight all the unfair laws and Islamic punishment against women!
P All women who fight for a world in which no woman is forced to sell her body!
P All women who …
Campaign to fight state, social and domestic violence against women in Iran
November 2016
To join the campaign and other inquiries please contact our e-mail:
karzar.zanan.2016@gmail.com
Supports:
§ Atash Paydar: Women's movement activist
§ Akhtar Kamangar: Political activist & Women's movement activist
§ Akhgar Farzaneh: Women's movement activist
§ Aram Bayat: Lead of “Khorshid Khanoom” dance group & Women’s rights activist
§ Ariz Mohammadi: Women’s rights activist
§ Arghavan Rostami: Women's movement activist
§ Azadeh Partovi: Women's movement activist
§ Azadeh Abbasi: Women’s rights activist
§ Asti Pirooti: Labour's rights activist & Political activist
§ Ashraf Ghiasi: Women's movement activist, Political activist & Former political prisoners
§ Emilia Espartak: Women’s movement activist – Afghanistan
§ Ana Mahmodi: Women’s rights activist
§ Anahita Rahmani: Women's movement activist, Political activist & Former political prisoners
§ Avat Sadeghi: Women's rights activist & Political activist
§ Baghrein Hojjati: Women's rights activist
§ Bahar Golabadi
§ Bahar Maleki: Women's rights activist
§ Bayan Zandi: Women's rights activist
§ Bayan Naseh: Social Consultant & Women's rights activist
§ Parvin Ahmadi: Women's rights supporter
§ Parvin Saiedbakhti: Women's rights supporter
§ Parvin Shafei: Women's rights activist
§ Parisa Kolahghochi: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Pari Rastegar: Women's movement activist
§ Taraneh Hosseini
§ Soraya Fattahi: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Samin Bahar: Women's movement activist
§ Jamileh Rahimi: Women's rights activist & Political activist
§ Jamileh Nedai: Women's movement activist
§ Roya Sadeghi: Political activist
§ Rizan Moarefi: Women's rights supporter
§ Zara Parastar: Political activist & Child and teenage rights activist
§ Zara Mohammadi: Women's movment activist
§ Zari Zahedani: Former political activist
§ Zaman Masoodi: Political activist & Women's movment activist
§ Ziba Karbasi: Poet
§ Zinat Ilkhanizadeh: Child rights activist & Women's rights activist
§ Zinat Abbasi: Women's rights supporter
§ Setareh Ashoorbeig: Women's rights advocate – Afghanistan
§ Sahar Tiam: Political activist
§ Sahar Naji: Women's rights advocate & Refugees rights activist
§ Sarveh Naghshi: Women's rights supporter
§ Samira Bastani: Women's movement activist
§ Suzeh Amin: Women's rights activist
§ Susan Golmohammadi: Women's movement activist, Political activist & Former political prisoner
§ Soofia: Women's rights supporter
§ Sooma Nabavi: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Soheila Ghaderi: Women's movement activist
§ Seiran Ebrahimi: Women's right activist
§ Seili Ghaffar: Women's rights activist & Political activist - Afghanistan
§ Simin: Women's rights supporter
§ Shahla Payam: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Shahin Nawai
§ Shirin Hosseini: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Shirin Sharifi: Women's rights supporter
§ Shiva Sobhani: Poet & Political activist
§ Sabri Bahani: Political activist
§ Sedighe Mohammadi: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Ozra Mohammadian: Women's right activist - Afghanistan
§ Fatemeh Eghdami: Women's right activist
§ Fatemeh Karimi: Women's right activist
§ Farasat Salehi: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Farah Nabavi: Women's movement activist
§ Farzaneh Rahnama: Women's rights supporter - Afghanistan
§ Fereshteh Sadeghpour: Women's movement activist & Former political prisoner
§ Fariba Amirkhizi: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Frida Faraz: Women's movement activist
§ Farideh Rezaee: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Farideh Karimi: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Farimah Roshan: Women's movement activist
§ Ghodsi Bakhtiari: Social activist
§ Kajal Adami: Poet & Artist
§ Questan Davoudi: Political activist
§ Kimiya Moradi: Women's movement activist
§ Kimiya Noori: Author
§ Goshin Ghahramani: Women's rights supporter
§ Galavij Hosseini: Women's rights activist & Political activist
§ Galavij Mahmoodzadeh: Women's rights supporter
§ Golzar Ali: Political activist
§ Goli Pishyari: Women's rights supporter
§ Goli Mohammadi: Musician
§ Gohar Memarzadeh: Political activist
§ Giti Zamani: Political activist
§ Laleh Azad: Women's rights supporter - Afghanistan
§ Lavjeh Javad:Women’s equality movement activist
§ Leila Azad: Social activist
§ Leila Parnian: Women's movement activist, Political activist & Editor of March 8 Magazine
§ Maria Rashidi: Spokeswoman of Stockholm women's rights association
§ Maryam Afrasiabpour: International campaign for women's rights
§ Maryam Ghaderpana: Political activist
§ Maryam Naji: Women's rights supporter
§ Mojdeh Bamian: Women's movement activist
§ Massi Tehrani: Women's movement activist
§ Malihe Karimizadeh: Women's movement activist
§ Mona Roshan: Political activist & Former political prisoner
§ Mehri Shahmoradi: Political activist
§ Mahsa Rojan: Women's movement activist
§ Mahnaz Haghighat: Human rights activist
§ Mahin Shokrollahi: Political activist
§ Mahin Shokrai: Political activist
§ Mina Ahmadi: Women's rights supporter- Afghanistan
§ Mina Azadi: Political activist
§ Minoo Irani: Political activist
§ Mitra Golmohammadi: Families of political victims
§ Nazi Abdollahi: Women's rights supporter
§ Nahid Karimi: Women's movement activist
§ Nahid Mokri: Women's rights activist & Human rights activist
§ Nahid Novin: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Nahid Vafaee: Poet & Women's rights activist
§ Nasim Azad: Social activist
§ Nasim Saadat: Political activist
§ Niloofar Paziresh: Women's movement activist
§ Vajihe Taraneh: Women's movement activist
§ Venous Derakhshan: Women's movement activist
§ Hetav Abdollahi: Journalist
§ Homa Bamian: Women's movement activist
§ Homa Farid: Women's movement activist & Political activist
§ Hoozan Mahmood: Kurdish women's rights activist
§ Hiroo Mahmoodzadeh: Women's right activist
International supports:
§ Sabrina Qureshi: The Founder and co-ordinator of Million women Rise - UK
§ Vivienne Hayes: Chief Executive, Women’s Rosource Center – UK
§ Anne Tonglet: Women and LGBT’s movement activist - Belgium
§ Binevsa Berivan: Institut Kurde de Bruxelles
§ Margot Cassiers: Institut Kurde de Bruxelles
§ Kristel Cuvelier: Institut Kurde de Bruxelles
§ Annelies Kuypers: Institut Kurde de Bruxelles
§ Mélissa Petit: Institut Kurde de Bruxelles
§ Agnes Lalau: Institut Kurde de Bruxelles
§ Soade Dana: Institut Kurde de Bruxelles
§ Zeynep Gorgu: Union des femmes socialistes en Belgique
§ Sakine Altindemir: Union des femmes socialistes en Belgique
§ Nalan Oral: Union des femmes socialistes en Belgique
§ Meryem Sasmaz: Union des femmes socialistes en Belgique
§ Eylem Dalgiç: Union des femmes socialistes en Belgique
§ Bilen Ceyran: Union des femmes socialistes en Belgique
§ Hatice çakmak: Union des femmes socialistes en Belgique
§ Arife Soysuren: Le mouvement des femmes kurdes en Belgique
§ Toprak Nisa: Le mouvement des femmes kurdes en Belgique
§ Raife Koç: Le mouvement des femmes kurdes en Belgique
§ Leyla Aslan: Le mouvement des femmes kurdes en Belgique
§ Martha Glow: Women’s movement activist –UK
§ Jasmin Kitel: German feminist
§ Sara Mohammad: Founder and Chairman for the Swedish national organisation Never Forget Pela and Fadime
§ Amineh Kakabaveh: Chairman for the Swedish association "Neither Whores or Doormats" - congresswoman
§ Leyla Cimin: Courage Bremen - Germany