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NEWS & LETTERS, APRIL 2003
International Women's Day 2003
Iran Editor's note: This is from an article posted on www.badjens.com,
an Iranian feminist website. The Women's Cultural Center, a women's non-government
organization (NGO) based in Tehran, had invited "those who believe in
equality" to join them in Laleh Park to declare their opposition to
America's impending attack on Iraq. Around 300 women and 100 men answered the
call. The Laleh Park gathering was not only the first public
protest against the war, but it was also the first non-state sponsored assembly
in years where citizens showed their opposition to U.S. policy. As it turned out, war was only one form of violence the
planners intended to address. The event was more an assertion against gender
violence and inequality on an international and national scale. Sanctions,
war, environmental damage, globalization, AIDS, and human trafficking were
condemned. Of course, the most passionate attacks were reserved for
Iran. Sharia-based personal status and family laws were an especially sore area.
Unequal inheritance, women's inability to file for divorce, and most
fundamental, as pointed by human rights attorney Shirin Ebadi, diyeh, or blood
money. A woman's diyeh, essentially the monetary value of her life, is one half
of a man's. The result is that men who murder women are often left unpunished
(the penalty is death) because the exchange of life isn't equal. A young woman's public airing of sexual harassment on
the streets during the open-mike was met with the most applause and cheers. The
infusion of her anger and frustration suddenly gave the event a Take Back the
Night quality. In front of tens of police officers, she accused law enforcement
of inaction and complicity and condemned them for furthering the violence by
blaming the victim and rendering them the accused. Sponsored by a secular organization, the nexus binding
the participants was a stand against war and for equality. After International
Women's Day in 1979, when women marched to protest the mandatory imposition of
the veil, women were deprived of a public space to collectively articulate their
concerns. The quest for a civil society in recent years has led to a flourishing
of non-governmental organizations, and women's NGO's have been increasing in
numbers and strengthening their presence in kind. * * * Chicago and D.C. In Washington D.C. about 25 women were arrested on March
8th when a determined few disobeyed orders from the police to stop short of the
White House. The D.C. demonstrators who have been holding vigil at the White
House since Nov. 17 called for an action to circle the White House in pink.
Code Pink, a grass roots organization founded a year ago, gets its name as an
answer to the Bush administration's color-coded homeland security advisory
system. Code Pink activists rallied in Chicago on March 10.
The rally and march in Chicago had speakers which focused on immigrant and
Native American struggles. There was a confrontation after the rally as the group
of over 100 men and women took to the street and the police escort told them to
go to the sidewalk. No arrests were made. Banners included "March 10–A
Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers" and "Money for Books Not
Bombs." Speakers spoke about women in prison, sweatshops,
reproductive rights and opposition to U.S. militarism. The rally ended
with a moving spiritual. --Sue S. * * * The first Gulf War in 1991 killed 113,000 civilians, almost
two-thirds of them children. Bush's war on Iraq promises more of the same. That
was the message of an International Women's Day rally of 200 at the University
of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana on March 7. * * * San Francisco The impending war colored everything about this year's
International Women's Day. The monthly Women in Black vigil was transformed into
a major demonstration in San Francisco. Women in Black were joined by several
other groups, including Mourning Mothers, who graphically represented the
effects of war on civilians by wearing eight-foot puppets of mothers in mourning
for their dead children, symbolized by rag dolls held in their arms. People's reactions to the vigil were very pronounced.
Most became very grim, very quiet. One young boy asked his father "What are
they?" and his father answered, "This is what war looks like." Other events included a fundraiser for the Revolutionary
Association of the Women of Afghanistan, announcing the speaking tour of
Tahmeena Faryal in April. --Urszula Wislanka |
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