Ref:      148/M/352

Date:    11 March 2008

Celebration of Iranian Women

International Women’s day - Saturday 8 March 2008

ACI’s forty fifth gathering was dedicated to celebrating the achievements of Iranian women living under oppression in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This was broadcast live into Iran through internet and satellite TV broadcast.

 The celebratory event began with a poetry reading by Shirin Razavian an exiled Iranian poet and campaigner for free press in Iran. This was followed by a short film chronicling the experiences of the women’s movement in Iran during the last two years and the innovative and creative way the women have worked against legal, social and cultural discrimination.

Roya Kashefi, the chair of ACI’s Human Rights Committee then went on to discuss the events shown in the film in more detail. Because of the ideological and religious governance structure all laws in Iran are based on Islamic Shari’a and as interpreted and applied in Iran, discriminatory to women and religious minorities. The population explosion that followed the 1979 Revolution means that Iran’s population is very young and it is this young generation that is standing up to institutional discrimination and unequal laws. They are courageously braving prison sentences and lashings as punishments for their demands. The women’s movement has become the link at the heart of social change uniting workers rights activist, student activists and other civil rights advocates in calling for change.  Roya went on to give examples of wide ranging laws that discriminate against an unborn female child to legalising honour killings. She pointed out that out of the violence directed at these women by the regime a campaign has been born that is attempting to work from bottom up, to raise rights awareness among women throughout Iran and change culture. She pressed on the importance of international awareness and support for grassroots movements such as the women’s movement in Iran and how this support could provide protection for the activist.

The first speaker was Sally Spear, representing UNIFEM – the United Nations Development Fund for Women. Sally brought messages of support and best wishes for the ongoing efforts of Iranian women for the promotion of equal rights and democracy in Iran. In explaining how UNIFEM works she hoped that there could be much that UNIFEM can offer the Iranian women.

Mitty Tohma the UK President of Women’s Federation for World Peace – an NGO with consultative status with UN stressed the importance of equality and empowering women towards their aim by quoting Kofi Anan who had said: …

Elizabeth Sidney OBE recognised for her years of working towards gender equality and the advancement of women in the UK and in the international community talked about the role governments such as that of United Kingdom can play in supporting grass roots organisations and that with the kind of human rights violations and oppression of half of Iran’s population the policy of appeasement seemed meaningless.

The final speaker, Tahirih Danesh, an independent human rights researcher and documenter sent an emotional and heartfelt best wishes for her sisters in Iran expressing the importance of education in advancement of women.

The panel went on to discuss the role international organisations such as the UN or EU Human Rights Commissions can play is supporting NGOs.

Questions and discussion points introduced by the audience summed up the second part of the celebrations.

After a short break, the audience joined in with the beautiful sound of Kiskadee and David Neita in singing ‘Women Awake!’

Shirin a successful seventeen year old British-Iranian artist closed the celebrations with a song specially commissioned for IWD 2008 and dedicated to the young Iranian women in Iran.

ACI would like to thank the two hundred and ten British women’s organisations who took the time to send their messages of support for the Iranian women on IWD 2008.  Very special thanks go to the brave young women from Iran who contacted us and congratulated women across the world on IWD through their messages of support for the event.

A special thanks to the Iranian media that covered the event so extensively and took our message into the homes of Iranians all over the world. Our gratitude as always to Omid at E2  and pamtv.us without whose dedicated efforts our internet and satellite broadcast would not have taken place.

For transcripts of the talks please visit www.aciiran.com/iwd_program.htm  Clips of the event are also available through links on our site www.aciiran.com/watch_it.htm at Google videos.

We sent out the event invitations with one request, ‘let them know they are not forgotten’. Judging by the warm support of the event we can safely conclude that not only are they not forgotten but with events such as this, raising awareness of the plight of Iranian women, they will have even more support in what they do.

We salute and honour their bravery and courage and wish them on going success.

ACI – London Office