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Hundreds of women protest sex discrimination in Iran
Hundreds of Women Protest Sex Discrindmtion in fran- New York Times http://wwwr 'times.conil2OO5/O6/12/iiternafiona1/nddd1eeast/13womenc...
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CONVICTION
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Hundreds of Women Protest Sex
Discrimination in Iran
By NAZILA FATIII
Published: June 12, 2005 Sign In to E-Mail This
TEHRAN, June 12 - Hundreds of _____
women staged an unauthorized _______
demonstration in Tehran today,
protesting sex discrimination under
Iran's Islamic leadership just days
before the June 17 presidential
elections.
The protest was the first public display of dissent by
women since the 1979 revolution, when the new regime
enforced obligatory veiling. “We are women, we are the
children of this land, but we have no rights,” they chanted.
More than 250 marched outside Tehran University, and
about 200 others demonstrated two blocks away after
hundreds of riot police swarmed in and barred them from
joining the main protest.
There were reports that the police clubbed several women,
though there were no hospital reports of injuries.
Demonstrators said they saw some women being detained
and dragged away by officers. But the situation appeared to
stabilize, and after about an hour of demonstrating, the
women disbanded without further incident.
“We will continue such protests because it shows that
women are aware of their rights,” said Roohi Afzal, 52, a
translator who was at the protest. “It seems that our
presence today really hurts the government, that it has
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09/08 2010 14:42
Hundreds of Women Protest Sex Discrindmtion in fran- New York Times http://wwwr 'times.coni'2OO5/O6/12/iiternafiona1/iidddleeast/13womenc...
deployed so many forces. Maybe it will react and respond ADVERTISEMENTS
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The demonstrations were part of a recent push by women's The New York Times Real Estate
rights advocates in Iran to draw attention to their cause
during a time of relative tolerance by the government as it Follow The New York limes on Twftter
seeks to draw more voters to the polis.
The new issue of T is here
Iranian women have turned out in great numbers in
elections over the past two decades, often strongly See the news in the making. Watch TimesCast, a daily news video.
supporting candidates who have promised more rights. But
many advocates now say that they have given up hopes
that any president could change their status under the
current constitution. And women are signaling that they are
tired of being courted with promises of improved status
that are quickly forgotten once the election is over.
Some 89 women who had registered to run for president
were rejected last month on the basis of their sex by the
hard-line Guardian Council, dominated by six unelected
clerics and six judges. The move was greeted with outrage,
leading to at least one call for a boycott, though it was
carefully worded.
“As long as half of the population is banned from being
elected as president, we declare that the regime must not
expect women's high turnout,” one group announced in a
statement last week.
Zahra Eshraghi, the granddaughter of the Islamic
revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, said in
an interview this week that working on women's issues has
been very difficult because women did not feel safe to
criticize the laws. “There are certain things that are
considered as crimes although the situation is gradually
changing,” she said. “For example it would have been very
dangerous to talk about changing the constitution, or
women's right to choose their dress. There can be no
progress if women don't feel they are safe to express their
demands.”
However, the more tolerant condition that has appeared
temporarily before the election has allowed women to
express their criticism like never before.
The mood was reflected in a meeting with a reformist
candidate, Mostafa Mom, last week and another meeting
this week.
At one of the meetings, Ms. Eshraghi said that candidates
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Hundreds of Wonen Protest Sex Discrintiation in Iran- New York Times http://www ,x 'times ,coni'2OO5/O6/ 12/intern fiona1/n dd1eeast/1 3wonenc,..
who promised to improve women's status must clarify how
they could bring any changes as long as the country was
mled by Islamic law, or Shariah. Iranian law stipulates that
the value of a woman's life and her testimony in court are
half those of men. Iranian men can marry up to four wives
and have the right to divorce any of them at will. A woman
inherits half of the share her brothers receive and needs her
husband's permission to work outside the home or to leave
the country. Women are rarely promoted to high positions,
and despite their relatively high levels of education, they
make up only 14 percent of the government employees.
Mahboobeh Abbasgholizadeh, a feminist who was jailed
last fall, said, “Women's rights will be fulfilled only when
the constitution changes.”
A group of women activists found the courage to force
their way into the stadium to watch a soccer game between
Iran and Bahrain on Wednesday for the first time since the
Islamic Revolution banned women from watching games
at the stadiums. For four hours, they carried signs that read,
“My right is also human rights,” and “Freedom,justice and
gender equality.”
“It wasn't that the security was not lefting us into the
stadium because of an order,” said Parastoo Dokoohaki,
one the women who was at the protest. “Every single one
of them believed it was inappropriate for women to watch
the game from up close.”
Authorities were forced to allow the women in for the
second half of the game after Ms. Abbasgholizadeh's leg
was crushed under the gate.
Yet, candidates are aware of the role women can play in
their election and have employed young, liberal women to
campaign for them in a gesture that suggests they favor
more freedom for women. Many of them work at the
headquarters of leading presidential candidates, like Ali
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Muhammad Baqir Qalibaf,
a former police chief
One woman who introduced herself as Tahereh, 22, wore a
narrow pink see-through material over her head and had a
piercing in her nose. She said she received 300,000 Rials,
$33, per day to drive in her car around Tehran with Mr.
Rafsanjani's poster on the rear window, though she is
cynical about the result. “I do it for the money,” she said.
“He is responsible for the situation. Why would he change
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it?”
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