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Women’s key role against fundamentalism

“I ask you and all my
sisters in Europe and the United States who endeavor for the expansion of the
peace movement to rise up and not allow the mullahs to take advantage of your
efforts to preserve their regime in Iran. With every slogan for peace, we must
chant "no nuclear arms in the mullahs’ hands," said Maryam Rajavi,
president-elect of the Iranian Resistance, to one thousand women gathered in a
conference in Paris, on March 3, 2007.
They came to Paris to
celebrate the Women’s International Day, and listen to Mrs. Rajavi and many
eminent speakers coming from United States, Canada, Norway, Italy,
Great-Britain, France, Algeria, Spain as well as representative from the
Iranian Resistance. Sponsored by dozens of NGO and women associations, the
conference was organized by the International Federation of Women against
Fundamentalism and for Equality.
Here is the speech of
Mrs. Rajavi:
Dear sisters,
Distinguished ladies
and gentlemen,
I congratulate you and
the activists of the equality movement on International Women’s Day.
On this day, which
rekindles the great hope for equality, we hail all women who are fighting for
the realization
of this ideal and
think of all women who have fallen victim to oppression, discrimination and
violence.
On this day, we also
commend such great women as Clara Zetkin and Olympe de Gouges, each of whom
took giant stride to advance the ideal of equality.
We also pay homage to
Fatemeh Amini, Marzeih Ahmadi Oskoui, Mehrnoush Ebrahimi and other brave women
who fell in the path of the struggle against the Shah’s regime.
We laud Ashraf Rajavi,
who was slain 25 years ago by the Revolutionary Guards and who today is the
source of inspiration of a great resistance where the Iranian Resistance is
headquartered.
We salute thousands of
heroic women who have been either hanged or murdered under torture in the
struggle against the fundamentalists ruling Iran in the past 25 years.
We laud the courageous
women in Tehran, who on two occasions last year, on March 8 and June 12,
ignored the mullahs’ savage repression and staged a daring demonstration in the
heart of the capital, chanting "the cry is freedom and the voice is a
revolt for awareness."
We salute especially
the brave women who this very day staged a demonstration in Tehran to protest
against the oppression and crackdown by the Ahmadinejad regime. Some 15,000
dignified teachers, including many of our sisters, displayed their anger and
disdain for the religious theocracy by staging a protest outside the mullahs’
Majlis. They warned the regime’s leaders that they will get nowhere with murder
and clamping down on voices of opposition.
 
We also commend our
suffering and bereaved sisters in Iraq, and especially the brave Iraqi women
who played a special role in organizing the campaign to publicize the
declaration by 5.2 million Iraqis against the Iranian regime’s meddling in
Iraq.
And we salute 1,000
pioneering women in Ashraf City, who lead the resistance against religious
dictatorship and for freedom and equality.
Dear Friends,
In honoring the
International Women’s Day, we have gathered here to say that equality is
women’s right. And I have come to say that across the world we have many
responsibilities, far beyond women’s rights, which we must carry out. Otherwise
peace, security and democracy in our world would be endangered.
March 8, puts the spot
light on women, their achievements and future responsibilities. I think that
women’s movement has come a long way.
By the end of the
1920s, the equality movement won the right to suffrage for women. By the end of
1960s, this movement had major advances toward attainting legal equality for
women.
And in the final
decades of the past century, the equality movement has struggled against
obstacles in the path of women’s freedom and equality in various ways.
The question, however,
is that what objective should the equality movement pursue today. And why there
is the need to ask this question in the present era.
 
Today, major global
developments have brought many opportunities and threats for the equality
movement: the opportunity to play a role in the future course of the world and
the threat of denigration of the equality movement to a lower position.
Now, the fundamental
question is that what status the equality movement is searching for.
Do we want to share
power as isolated individuals and submit to the continuation of the status quo?
Or do we want to suffice by engaging in some reform in women’s rights?
A profound observation
of the current circumstances faces us with another strategy. We must overcome
this crossroads and assume our role to change the world.
This strategy means an
active participation in the political struggle in order to cast aside the
obstacles to equality and freedom.
The equality movement
must not limit itself to the present objectives. Only through advancing toward
higher horizons can freedom be achieved.
In her book, "the
Second Sex," Simone de Beauvoir considered this reality so important that
she stressed that any time advancement is confined to the status quo, there has
been a downward spiral.
Therefore, although
owing to women’s struggle in the past decade, much has been achieved, but
nothing is permanent. No social progress, even when drafted in law, could be
definitive because discrimination and oppression continues to affect women as
the dominant culture of our world today.
Indeed, history has
taught us that nowhere the oppressors voluntarily give up their privileges.
Neither do they voluntarily respect women’s privileges and true position.
Dear friends,
So far, all of us
agree on the fact that women’s entry into the realm of an active political
struggle is inevitable.
But the main question
which this premise immediately confronts us with is that in which direction
women’s struggle in this era should be pointed.
Should the present
campaigns for the right to employment, against violence and aggression and
against victimizing children and women in sex-slave trade be expanded?
Should the campaign
for abortion and defending the rights of oppressed women be promoted to the
next level?
Or is there another
objective in the works?
These campaigns are,
of course, quite valuable and must continue. On International Women’s Day, all
such activists must be commended.
In reality, however,
in the current circumstances, a cyclone of blood, bombing, terror, rape and
poverty which is destroying the lives of the people in the Middle East, should
compel the equality movement to engage in an all-embracing and multi-faceted
struggle.
Today, the Middle East
is burning in the inferno of fundamentalism. The dangers of this ominous
calamity have gone beyond the Middle East and from time to time victimize
innocent people in Western countries.
This enormous calamity
does not leave us with many choices.
Should we surrender to
it and allow the achievements of mankind, especially the accomplishments of the
equality movement, to be sacrificed under its feet? Or should we rise to resist
it with all our might?
Here, the question in
everybody’s minds is that while the fundamentalists target women’s freedoms and
rights in countries with Islamic orientation, how could women elsewhere in the
world, including in Europe and the United States, be affected by them?
In response, I offer
three reasoning:
First, the
fundamentalists’ devastation in Islamic countries, especially regarding the
rights of women, benefits the global patriarchal culture. Three decades ago,
Susan Brown Miller, the distinguished American feminist, explained an important
fact about violence and rape [against women]. She said that because of any
violence and rape against a woman, the domination of men who have not
themselves taken part in that violence, is strengthened. Similarly, even women
who have not been the target of that violence will be intimidated.
In my view, this is an
important rule from which one can understand the retrogressive impact of
fundamentalism on the equality movement the world over.
Second, fundamentalism
in Muslim communities of Western countries has emerged as a challenge whose
dimensions are spreading by the day.
Third is the spread of
the fire of terrorism and the danger of a nuclear war around the globe?
The criminal
explosions in different countries which have victimized many innocent people
represent the first flames of a huge fire raging in the Middle East at present.
When the mullahs,
equipped with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons complete their domination
of the Middle East, the fire of this ominous calamity will have engulfed
European countries as well.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me draw two major
conclusions from these arguments.
First, women’s
involvement in a serious political struggle to remove the obstacles to equality
is an imperative that could no longer be ignored.
Second, in the present
circumstances, the substance of this struggle is confronting the fundamentalist
wave that has been roaming the Middle East today.
With these preliminary
remarks, today we want to reply to a fundamental question. Has the equality
movement done what is necessary in the struggle against fundamentalism? Has it
assumed its pioneering role? We will get the answer in due course.
Here, I would like to
elaborate on different aspects of the fundamentalist onslaught which at the
same time forms different dimensions of today’s struggle.
1. Suppression of the
Iranian people, especially women;
2. Efforts to acquire nuclear weapons;
3. Dominating Iraq and Lebanon and warmongering in other Islamic countries;
4. The West’s policy of appeasement acting as the de facto ally of
fundamentalism.
Let us see what
atrocities the fundamentalists have committed against women in Iran.
In truth, the people
around the world have been informed of a very small portion of the tragedy that
has affected women in my country. As you might know, misogyny is distinctive to
the fundamentalist ruling Iran.
No one but Iranian
women have experienced body and soul this misogyny.
The mullahs’ rule came
down on women’s rights, liberties, culture, family and private lives like a
huge avalanche.
– Executing thousands
of female opponents, which is unprecedented anywhere in the world;
– Torturing tens of thousands of women political prisoners;
– Executing pregnant women, the torture of mothers in front of their children;
– Degrading women’s social and economic standing to second class citizens;
– Imposing gender apartheid;
– Controlling women’s presence in the streets;
– Imposing compulsory veiling, controlling the color and forms of women’s
attire;
– Lacerating and splashing acid on women’s faces because of their clothing and
make up.
– Systematic assault on women in prisons;
– Denial of the right to divorce and the right to custody of children;
– Promoting polygamy and temporary marriage, justified by the mullahs’
disgraceful Sharia;
– Applying medieval and painful punishments such as stoning, whose victims are
primarily women;
– Injustice and discrimination in economic participation, employment and
education;
– The sale of small children by impoverished families and their trafficking to
other countries by the mullahs’ criminal gangs in a country as rich as Iran;
– Selling innocent girls’ body parts due to impoverishment, hunger and many
other calamities;
Indeed, these are only
parts of the tragedy women have been experiencing under the rule of the
fundamentalists. I must emphasize that these come at a time when the Iranian
Resistance movement has been waging a relentless struggle against this regime
for 27 years. Imagine what the fundamentalist mullahs would have done to women
if this resistance did not exist.
Dear friends,
The struggle to end
these appalling conditions that have prevailed for 28 years relates to the
equality movement across the globe and presents us with the question that I
mentioned earlier: Has the equality movement done what is necessary in the
struggle against fundamentalism? And has it assumed its leading role?
Here, let me tell my
sisters across Iran that although the pain of inequality, humiliation and
insult is crushing your very existence, and although the mullahs have trampled
upon your individual, familial, social and political rights and freedoms, and
are hell-bent on denying your human identity, you, nevertheless, possess such
power that has turned Iranian women into the force that will overthrow the
mullahs.
When you rise up in
the heart of Tehran, when in any gathering you target the mullahs’ nuclear
deception and shout that nuclear program serves the rule of the Velayat-e faqih
(absolute clerical supremacy), when you say that liberty and minimum means of
subsistence are the undeniable rights of the Iranian people, you shake the
mullahs’ regime to its foundations.
Your resolve will
realize the demands of the Iranian people and you are Iran’s future.
The mullahs’ enmity
and crimes against you is because they are afraid of you. Iranian society is
thirsty for a new way of life and for change.
The force of change in
Iran is compressed in you as the pioneers of this struggle. You can
definitively defeat fundamentalism. You are Iran’s future.
Indeed, the one
thousand Mojahed women in Ashraf City, Iraq, have arisen from your ranks. They
are the embodiment of your resolve for equality and freedom. They have proven
that you will shape the future of Iran.
I salute you and all
free-thinking men who are standing with you shoulder to shoulder in this
struggle.
Dear friends,
Let us address another
important issue: the urgent danger of the regime obtaining nuclear weapons.
You already know that
the clerical regime is working rapidly to obtain the atomic bomb.
The mullahs’
fundamentalist regime can only preserve its survival through warmongering and
export of terrorism. The moment the mullahs acquire the bomb is the moment when
an uncontrollable war will begin.
We are living at a
critical juncture. A sense of urgency surrounds us.
Let us close our eyes
and go back to 1938, on eve of the Second World War. Assuming that we knew of
the tragedy that was in the offing, would we have spared any sacrifice and
effort to prevent such a war then? Our reply to all of this is definitely no.
It is common knowledge
that the mullahs’ regime, its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and its Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei are the source of warmongering. Yet, simultaneous with
building nuclear weapons as well as meddling and perpetrating atrocities in
Iraq, the mullahs regime projects itself a an advocate of peace. This is where
the importance of women’s movement becomes apparent. Women are the main force
of the peace movement. You have the power to engage in campaigns throughout the
world to block the path of the mullahs to nuclear weapons and demand that your
governments not stand with the fundamentalists ruling Iran.
The mullahs’ biggest
deception is that they portray defending peace as defending their own regime.
The mullahs and their
allies are saying that you must support the Iranian regime or war would be
inevitable.
In the face of this,
the Iranian Resistance has put forth the Third Option. Meaning, neither
appeasement, nor foreign military intervention is the answer. Change by the
Iranian people and Resistance is the viable option. This is the very solution
that is intrinsically compatible with the equality movement, for which reason
women have a decisive role to play in realizing that option.
I call on movements
which advocate peace and human rights, especially the equality movement’s
activists to support this solution.
I ask you and all my
sisters in Europe and the United States who endeavor for the expansion of the
peace movement to rise up and not allow the mullahs’ to take advantage of your
efforts to preserve their regime. With every slogan for peace, we must chant
"no nuclear arms in the mullahs’ hands."
I ask my dear sisters
here with us today to use the peace movement to rise against the mullahs’ crazy
insistence to acquire nuclear weapons.
Together, we can stop
the outbreak of an ominous war and stop the bloodshed in the Middle East and
the barbaric theocracy ruling Iran.
Dear friends,
Allow me here to
address the situation of a wounded Iraq, where millions of human beings around
the world are distressed when witnessing the occurrences in that country.
Today’s world has the
painful experience of Iraq before it. As part of the appeasement policy, the
Coalition forces bombed the centers of the Iranian opposition at the behest of
the mullahs. They paved the way for the mullahs’ rapid penetration into Iraq.
The horrific consequence of this policy is now seen in the bombings which are
tearing apart Iraq.
The vast portion of
the 650,000 Iraqis murdered in the past four years have been murdered by the
mullahs’ death squads. Iraqi democratic parties and even the insurgents who
vehemently oppose the US presence in Iraq are saying loud and clear that the
mullahs’ regime is the main occupier.
I want, in particular,
to draw your attention to the painful plight of Iraqi women. Thousands of
female Iraqi students have quit their studies because of the attacks and
threats by the Iranian regime’s operatives. Girl schools are completely shut
down. Many women have become impoverished and homeless. The gang rape of Iraqi
women by the militias on the mullahs’ payroll, one example of which was
revealed on February 19, dismayed everyone.
As far as the plight
of Iraqi women is concerned, we are again faced with the basic question: Has
the equality movement done what is necessary in the struggle against
fundamentalism? Has it assumed its pioneering role?
Regrettably not!
Ladies and gentlemen,
Here, I would like to
draw the attention of the equality movement the world over, and especially you
free thinking women, to another issue, namely a major obstacle in the path of
change in Iran: the policy of appeasement.
First, let us see how
this policy has blocked the path of the movement for freedom and women’s
equality movement in Iran. The issue is simply this: shackling a movement that
is seeking freedom and democracy by including it in terrorist lists.
At the behest of the
mullahs, Western governments included the Iranian opposition movement in their
terrorist lists. For many years we challenged the decision of Council of
Ministers of the European Union.
The terrorism
allegation was completely unwarranted and targeted the main opposition
movement.
We organized a major
social, political and legal campaign in the course of this challenge.
Our several-years-long
struggle finally achieved a historic victory when in its ruling last December,
the European Court of Justice annulled the terrorist label against the People’s
Mojahedin. Surprisingly, in line with appeasing the mullahs’ regime, the EU
Council defied the court’s ruling.
Therefore, we have
before us an obstacle: the policy of appeasement. I want to elaborate on this
issue as it has been the practical policy of the West in recent years. The
policy of appeasement has four components:
1. Taking part in the
crackdown on the opposition and preventing change in Iran;
2. Paving the way for the spread of fundamentalism and terrorism;
3. Providing political opening for the mullahs to go nuclear; and
4. Violating law, democracy and trampling upon justice in Western countries.
Having referred to
these components, I want to explain why the struggle for appeasement should be
placed on the agenda of the equality movement urgently.
The policy of
appeasement, which supports religious fascism, impedes the struggle of Iranian
women for freedom and equality. If in the distant past pioneering women, who
held aloft the flag of resistance for emancipation and equality, were few in
numbers, today, 1,000 brave and selfless women are advancing a progressive movement
which espouses noble demands and objectives and is the focal point of the
face-off with religious dictatorship ruling Iran.
The policy of
appeasement has blocked the path of these women. By paving the way for the
mullahs, their headquarters in Ashraf City is encircled and under an assortment
of conspiracies. Today, they face the threat of expulsion, quid pro quo and
various restrictions and shortages.
We need a movement
that would rise up across the world and support the bastion, where the flames
of resistance for freedom and equality are burning, and herald something new to
the world.
We expect that when
Iranian women confront religious fascism, you, free-thinking women in Western
countries, challenge the policy of appeasement and policy makers who support
the mullahs’ religious fascism. This is a humanitarian and conscientious
responsibility.
Institutions such as
the Council of Ministers of the European Union that pursue the policy of
appeasement are directly at fault in solidifying religious dictatorship in Iran
and in the spread of terrorism and fundamentalism.
They say officially
that the Iranian opposition was placed on the terrorist lists at the request of
the clerical regime. When they ignore European justice and allow this
designation to continue unlawfully, when they deny the opposition movement the
right to the freedom of expression in European capitals, they are allowing the
values and demands of the fundamentalists have primacy.
In the face of such
blatant injustice that has made a mockery of European values, has the equality
movement done what has been necessary in the fight against fundamentalism? Has
it assumed its pioneering responsibility?
I ask you, my dear
sisters here, and all equality movement activists across the world not to allow
Europe’s fundamental values, which your societies cherished and upheld, to
become the victim of deals which strengthen fundamentalism.
Let us join hands in
the face of European government’s totalitarianism and institutions which crush
the achievements of humanity, especially those of women.
Naturally, when we
compel the dictatorship in Iran to give way to the rule of freedom and
democracy and when Iranian women achieve freedom and equality, we will see a
giant leap for the equality movement worldwide, especially as a challenge to
the fundamentalists.
Today, we and you and
our sisters in Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Somalia, Afghanistan and other countries
are facing a single danger. We must form a united front in the face of
fundamentalists and appeasers.
The issue is not
merely an expression of sisterhood with oppressed women in Iran, Iraq and other
countries in the region. The matter goes far beyond that: it has to do with
world peace and security.
Activism on the part
of women’s movement is not complementary to the fight against fundamentalism
only. The fact is that without the pioneering role of women, we cannot overcome
this monster.
Allow me, here, to
thank courageous women who have in all these years have been the leading force
in the anti-fundamentalist front. I mean Madam Elizabeth Sidney and my dear
sisters in the Women’s International Federation Against Fundamentalism and for
Equality. I also thank the efforts of women parliamentarians and organizations
in different countries around the world.
The reality of women’s
leading role in the struggle against fundamentalism has been proven manifestly
in the history of the Iranian Resistance in the past quarter century. Without
women’s determining role, our movement lacked the capacity to survive against
religious fascism.
In truth, the more the
fight against religious dictatorship grew more serious and more profound, the
role of women became more imperative. The need for greater perseverance and a
more hardnosed and serious struggle made women’s assumption of responsibility
more indispensable.
This is what our era
dictates. This is an era that the solutions and thinking which solidify the
male-dominated regime have come to an end. This era requires a new solution
based on the values of equality.
With this mindset,
1,000 courageous and selfless women in Ashraf City, the headquarters for the
Iranian Resistance, 50 kilometers from the Iranian frontier, have persevered
against the mullahs’ regime.
Ashraf City, which has
withstood enormous conspiracies in the past four years has been led by brave
women such as Mojgan Parsaii, Sedigheh Hosseini and hundreds of other women in
positions of responsibility.
This thinking in the
Iranian Resistance is the source of many achievements and advances each of
which require lengthy discourse.
Women in the Iranian
Resistance have put into practice many ideals of the equality movement. These
experiences could only be defined as a "new birth", "creating a
new culture" and "human epics."
They have overcome
women’s historical lack of disbelief and fragility. In theory and in social and
political praxis, they have come to believe in women’s enormous capabilities.
They have shed the
fear of failure and weakness in the face of difficulties. Instead of breaking
apart, they learned to develop the power to overcome failure. Instead of
hopelessness, they opened their eyes and discovered the opportunities and
solutions for victory.
When they recognized
the extent to which their independent and responsible role offers a
breakthrough in the struggle against dictatorship, they stepped into the world
of responsible women who assume the leadership of a struggle with all its
implications from the world of irresponsibility, passivity; the world of women
who have to lean on the other (gender).
When they took charge
and had to employ all their ability to attain their goals, they realized that
they had to change, learn and teach constantly; that they must discover new
solutions and new methods.
They had entered into
a world with new set of rules and laws that was not static. Any stoppage was
tantamount to returning to the previous world.
They had stepped into
a world where if they did not grapple with all its contradictions and
difficulties everyday, they would have gone backwards. Thus, from fragility,
they attained steadfastness. They turned the struggle against difficulties into
their constant spirit.
These women have
pledged that under no circumstance and in no way, would they give up the ideal
of freedom, democracy and equality and that they would challenge to the very
end any form of dictatorship and pay whatever price it requires, be it their
flesh and blood, their emotions, family, father, mother, husband, children or
even changing the culture and even the archaic system of patriarchy.
This is that new
phenomenon, the new creation and a generation that has a wealth of experience;
a generation that has overcome many difficulties in traversing this long and
historic path with astounding speed; a generation that has turned into a
treasure trove of experience for the people of Iran and especially for all
free-thinking women in the world.
Allow me, as unusual
at it may be, to laud a generation of men in the Iranian Resistance movement,
who believed firmly in the ideal of equality and distanced themselves from the
patriarchal culture and created unmatched values. Those, who by looking at
women as equal human beings, attained their true human identity.
Dear friends,
Women possess a
tremendous, yet untapped, capacity to change the world toward freedom and
equality; an evolutionary capacity that steers mankind toward genuine freedom.
When women rise up in
this struggle, they discover their forgotten powers.
We can only recognize
our real power to the extent that we engage in a serious struggle.
This is the path to
attaining new status and new births.
In this path, women
will overcome the devastating disbelief in themselves and realize that they are
not only worthy in this struggle, but that it is they who could be the leaders
and the guiding light for freedom.
With this vision, we
can now respond to the main question: Does the world need the equality movement
to enter the vast spheres of the struggle with fundamentalism?
Yes, indeed, because
women are the leading force in the fight against fundamentalism. Without
women’s participation, the world cannot overcome the danger which threatens
humanity. The crux of the matter is that the defeat of fundamentalism could
only be achieved with the leadership of women.
– Indeed, the equality
movement is the source of our power and the basis of our unity in an active
struggle.
– It is a movement which enflames the resistance and restores the dignity of
human living.
– And it is a movement that constitutes the force of progress, today’s victory
and tomorrow’s hope.
So, let us all rise up
together and assume our idealistic and historic responsibility. This is our
duty, it is within our capacity. Today’s generations and those of the future
expect us to realize those ideals.
Thank you all very much
 
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