Hidden Nook
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Monday, June 13, 2005
Iranian Women Protest Gender Discrimination
[Media Source*] (Hat Tip: Instapundit, Publius Pundit)
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.
It seems that the women in Iran are becoming sick of being denied the rights that their Iranian brethren enjoy to the fullest degree. Although Iranian women can vote, they are barred from participating in the public arena as 89 female candidates were rejected by the Guardian Council based upon their gender alone.
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."
Iran's constitution is based upon Shariah law, which stipulates that women receive half of the rights that men enjoy, whether it be in court, inheritance or even worse, employment. In the last arena, women, despite many of them holding high levels of education, only make up 14% of the governmental employees. Some of them have been jailed as in the case of Mahboobeh Abbasgholizadeh (an Iranian Feminist) who declared that, "Women's rights will be fulfilled only when the constitution changes."
Although their have been some positive moves towards woman's suffrage in Iran, much of that may have to do with the elections coming up in Iran. The Persian nation has for the first time (in a long time) opened up it's "democratic process" for the world to examine and judge for itself whether or not the next administration is legitimate. Although many politicians are courting the female vote by having women campaign on their behalf, unless they carry out their promises of true reform many expect little improvement for women's suffrage in Iran.
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By Darnell Clayton ⢠10:48 PM ⢠Email Post ⢠â¢
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