Iranian women’s rights activists are initiating a
wide campaign demanding an end to legal discrimination against women in Iranian
law. The Campaign, “One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to Discriminatory
Laws,” which aims to collect one million signatures to demand changes to
discriminatory laws against women, is a follow-up effort to the peaceful protest
of the same aim, which took place on June 12, 2006 in Haft-e Tir Square in
Tehran. Preparation activities in support of this campaign commenced in June of
2006 and the campaign will be officially launched on August 27, during a seminar
entitled: “The Impact of Laws on Women’s Lives.”
The collection of a million signatures in support of
changes to the law is only one of several aims of this campaign. The Campaign
will also aim to achieve the following:
1. Promotion of Collaboration and Cooperation for
Social Change: This campaign intends to serve as catalyst in promoting
cooperation between a wide spectrum of social activists in creating and
advocating for positive social change.
2. Identification of Women’s Needs and Priorities:
This collaborative campaign aims to develop connections and linkages with a
broad base of women’s groups from different backgrounds. Direct contact between
equal rights defenders and other women’s and citizens’ groups will allow those
involved in the campaign to identify the everyday concerns of women, especially
their legal needs and problems. On the other hand, this direct contact will
increase awareness among the general population about the inequities that exist
within the law.
3. Amplifying Women’s Voices: Through this campaign,
the organizers hope to be able to connect with groups whose demands are left
unheard. The campaign, relying on the needs identified by women themselves, aims
to amplify the voices of women whose needs are often not addressed at the
national policy level.
4. Increasing Knowledge, Promoting Democratic Action:
This campaign is committed to increasing and improving knowledge through
dialogue, collaboration, and democratic action. The campaign steadfastly adheres
to the notion that real and sustainable change can be achieved only if it is
community and needs driven and reflective of the desires and demands of the
society at large. Changes to women’s status in society need to be based on the
belief that legal problems faced by women are not a private matter, but rather
symptomatic of larger social problems faced broadly by women. In other words,
this campaign is committed to carrying out bottom-up reform and to creating
change through grassroots and civil society initiatives, and seeks to strengthen
public action and empower women.
5. Paying our Dues: The initiators of this campaign
recognize that social change and the elimination of injustice are not easily
achieved. It is through commitment to collaboration and hard work that we will
be able to build the solidarity necessary to create change. Surely this
solidarity and collaboration in pushing forth the objectives of the campaign
will have a positive impact on the future of our country. The experiences of
women’s democratic movements around the globe, and particularly, in countries
within the region, have demonstrated that solidarity and commitment to the goals
of collective action are key components to the successful elimination of
discrimination. The struggle for equal rights in Iran will indeed be a lengthy,
difficult and arduous process. The true path to achievement of equality will not
be paved through existing power structures or a dialogue solely with men and
women in positions of power. Rather, achieving the goals of this campaign will
be based largely on a strategy which seeks to raise awareness among individual
women and citizens about their identity and their status within
society.
6. The Power of Numbers: The successful
implementation of this campaign will prove once and for all that the demand for
changes to discriminatory laws is not limited to a few thousand women, who have
supported these types of efforts in the past. In fact, the successful
implementation of this campaign will demonstrate that support for legal changes
are broad-based and that a large majority of men and women are suffering from
the inequities that are promoted by Iranian law. The Campaign will strive to
demonstrate that women are, and have consistently employed a variety of means
and venues to voice their objections to the laws, such as the writing of books,
articles, production of films and other forms of artistic expression, and
through social activism. Those women with fewer and more limited resources have
demonstrated their objection through more difficult channels, such as recourse
in the courts, running away from home, or more destructive means such as
suicide, or self-immolation. In an effort to demonstrate the widespread
dissatisfaction with the status quo, the Campaign will aim to highlight the many
strategies used by women to challenge discrimination in the law.
7. Power in Plurality: The successful implementation
of this campaign will also shed light on the fact that the demand for changes in
the law is not only voiced by a specific group of women. In an effort to silence
the voices of women calling for change, critics claim that demands for legal
change are expressed by a particular group of women, who are out of touch with
the realities of ordinary Iranian women. These critics wrongly claim that only
elite and socially and economically advantaged women seek changes to laws, in
direct opposition to the real needs and sensitivities of the masses of Iranian
women. These claims are indeed incorrect, as discriminatory and unjust laws
negatively impact the lives of all women, whether they are educated or not, live
in upper class neighborhoods or poor communities, are married or single, live in
rural areas or in cities, and so on. The Campaign will work to address some of
these issues.
Timeline: This campaign will be ongoing. The first
phase of the Campaign will focus on the collection of one million signatures
demanding changes to discriminatory laws. It is a fair assessment to claim that
the first phase of the Campaign will be carried out over one to two years, after
which the campaign will move into its next set of phases focused on proposing
new laws.
The Demands of Campaign are not in Contradiction to
Islamic Law: The demand to reform and change discriminatory laws is not in
contradiction to Islamic law and is in line with Iran’s international
commitments. Iran is a signatory to the UN Convention on Civil and Political
Rights and as such, is required to eliminate all forms of discrimination. Based
on these commitments, the government of Iran needs to take specific action in
reforming laws that promote discrimination.
On the other hand, these demands are in no way
contradictory to the foundations of Islam. In fact, the changes being demanded
by this campaign have been a point of contention and debate among Islamic
jurists and scholars for some time. Ayatollah Sanei’i and Ayatollah Bojnourdi,
to name a few, have for years called for a revision and reform of laws which are
discriminatory against women, and have explicitly stated that such reforms are
indeed not contradictory to the basic beliefs of Islam. A million signatures
supporting changes to discriminatory laws, will demonstrate to decision-makers
and the public at large that a large segment of the Iranian population is in
support of revising discriminatory laws against women and that these demands are
not limited to a small segment of society. This campaign will also demonstrate
to law makers that Iranian women are serious in their demands to change current
laws.
Implementation of the Campaign: This campaign will
rely largely on face-to-face education and contact to achieve its goals. It will
be implemented through the following strategies:
1. Collection of signatures through door-to-door
contact and dialogue with individual women.
2. Collection of signatures in places and events in
which women gather, and where dialogue and discussions with groups of women can
be carried out. Public locations, such as parks, universities, production
centers, factories, health centers, religious gatherings, sports centers, and
public transportation centers (metro, buses, etc), where groups of women can be
accessed, will be identified by members of the Campaign for the purpose of
initiating dialogue about the law and collecting signatures in support of
changes to discriminatory laws.
3. Implementation of seminars and conferences with
the intent of raising the profile of the campaign, promoting dialogue,
identifying supporters and collecting signatures.
4. Collection of signatures through the internet. The
internet will be utilized to share information about the campaign, including
legal educational materials, and those interested in supporting this effort can
sign petitions related to the Campaign.
Volunteer Education: In order to successfully
implement the Campaign a large number of volunteers will be recruited.
Volunteers will receive legal education as well as information on the campaign.
Several committees have been established within the campaign, including the
“Education Committee” which is charged with implementing educational workshops
for all volunteers. All those interested in cooperating with the campaign and
collecting signatures will be provided with training on legal issues and laws;
the aims and strategies of the campaign; face-to-face and door-to-door education
techniques; public education and outreach techniques, etc. All volunteers
interested in becoming involved in face-to-face education must participate in
the workshops.
It should be noted, that volunteers don’t necessarily
need to be experts in women’s legal issues. These workshops implemented by the
“Education Committee” will provide an overview for the lay person with respect
to legal rights of women.
Scope of Activities: The activities of this campaign
will not be limited to Tehran, and women’s rights activists in the provinces are
strongly encouraged to participate in this campaign. Groups and individuals
based in the provinces can participate in workshops in Tehran and begin campaign
activities in their provinces. Larger numbers of women and women’s rights groups
interested in receiving training and/or participating in this campaign can
request special workshops to be held in their respective provinces.
Additionally, Iranians based outside Iran can submit signatures in support of
the demands of the Campaign by mail or email.
Minimum Age for Signatures: Women and men signing on
in support of the demands of the Campaign must be at least 18 years of age.
Signatures will be collected in special forms developed for this purpose, and
will also be published on the web.
Support for the Campaign: Participation in this
campaign is purely voluntary. Volunteers are asked to support the Campaign
through a contribution of 5,000 tomans (roughly 6 USD). These funds will be the
major source of support for the activities of the campaign. In order to create
change, women have often had to rely on their own limited resources, financial
or other, such as time and energy. Women have always managed to rely on their
capacities and their beliefs to create change. The success of this campaign,
too, will benefit from women’s immense commitment.
Contact Information:
Those interested in supporting or joining this effort
should feel free to contact us, through the following means:
Web: www.we-change.org
Email: forequality@gmail.com
Address: P.O.
Box: 14335-851, Tehran, Iran
Supporters:
1. Shirin Ebadi (Nobelist) 2. Simin Behbahani (Poet)
3. Shahla Lahiji (Publisher) 4. Shahla Ezazi (Professor) 5. Babak Ahmadi (Writer
and Translator) 6. Farzaneh Taheri (Translator) 7. Tahmineh Milani (Director) 8.
Manijeh Hekmat (Director) 9. Maedeh Tahmasebi (Artist) 10. Farhad Aish (Artist)
11. Narges Mohamadi (Activist) 12. Naser Zarafshan (Atorney) 13. Ardeshir
Rostami (artist) 14. Moniro Ravanipour (Novelist) 15. Babak Takhti (Novelist)
16. Banafsheh Hejazi (Writer and Researcher) 17. Mahvash Sheikh-ol-eslami
(Director) 18. Shahla Sherkat (Journalist) 19. Farideh Ghairat (Atorney) 20.
Omran Salahi (Satirist) 21. Fariborz Raees-Dana (Economist) 22. Majid Tavalaee
(Journalist) 23. Nahid Tavassoli (Writer and Journalist) 24. Jafar Panahi
(Director)
Campaign Members (In Alfabeta
Order):
1. Tara Ahmadi 2. Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani 3.
Parvaneh Ale Bouyeh 4. Taraneh Amir Teymouri 5. Zara Amjadian 6. Elnaz Ansari 7.
Parvin Ardalan 8. Faranak Arta 9. Zohre Arzani 10. Maryam Bahraman 11. Jila
Baniyaghoob 12. Vida Biglari 13. Hana Darabi 14. Fariba Davoudi Mohajer 15.
Shahla Entesari 16. Mahdis Farah-bakhshi 17. Farideh Ghaeb 18. Sepideh Gilasian
19. Bahare Hedayat 20. Maryam Hosseinkhah 21. Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh 22. Nahid
Jafari 23. Jelve Javaheri 24. Mahsa Jazini 25. Parisa Kakai’e 26. Pooye Madadi
27. Homa Maddah 28. Golnaz Malek 29. Nahid Mirhaj 30. Maryam Mirza 31. Khadijeh Moghadam 32. Rezvan Moghadam 33.
Firouzeh Mohajer 34. Mona Mohammadzadeh 35. Iman Mozafari 36. Fakhri Nami 37.
Sedighe Nasiri 38. Elnaz Nateghi 39. Fatemeh Nejati 40. Negar Rahbar 41. Setareh
Sajadi 42. Farnaz Seyfi 43. Fakhri Shadfar 44. Mahsa Shekarloo 45. Mansoureh
Shoajee 46. Elahe Surush-nia 47. Tala’t Taghinia 48. Bita Tahbaz 49. Susan
Tahmasebi 50. Narges Tayebat 51. Parvin Zarrabi
