International Women’s Day 2011: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Ukraine, Peru

It was great to see so many women’s celebrations and protests on and around March 8, International Women’s Day (IWD), especially in places that rarely or never had them before. At this moment when all eyes are on the mass movements in North Africa and the Middle East, we present reports from countries previously invaded by the U.S. and one that just toppled a dictator, as well as information sent to MHI about Ukraine and Peru. – A.J.

Iran

We hear from Iranians that women there conducted small, short, scattered demonstrations on March 8, attempting to evade the government’s on-going repression of all protests. Fearful that the uprisings in the Middle East will spread to Iran, the government has intensified the crack-down it began against the mass protests following the stolen election of June 2009. The regime not only jails and tortures protesters, but also executes many prisoners. See the news on  radiozamaneh.com and iranma.org, which published an “Iranian Call for Global Action for IWD.” Following are excerpts from the Call’s appeal to the United Nations:

• “Stop gender-based apartheid
• Stop the incessant execution of political prisoners
• Stop the stoning of women
• Send a delegation to Iran to investigate the conditions of the prisoners”

“Fact sheet on the discriminatory laws in Iran:

1. Testimony of two women is equal to one man.
2. A man can marry a female child as young as nine years old.
3. A female is considered male property and subservient to him even in matters of sex
4. Forceful sex by a husband is not recognized as rape.
5. Divorce is the right of man.
6. The custody of children is the right of man.
7. Men have the right to have up to four wives and many female concubines.
8. Inheritance right of a male is twice that of the female.
9. Mandatory Hejab (covering of women) with no freedom of clothes for women.
10. Honor killings of the women have increased in Iran. Iran Human Rights reported <https://iranhr.net/en/articles/319/> on November 29, 2008: “A high ranking official in the Iranian police said in an interview with the daily newspaper Etemaad that there have been 50 honor killings in the last 7 months.”
11. Article 1117 of the IRI constitution empowers the husband to forbid his wife from accepting a job.
12. Article 1005 of the IRI Constitution dictates that the husband has the right to control his wife’s freedom of movement and behavior.”

Egypt

The participation of women in the revolution was unprecedented, and WSS will carry a report of a recent talk on it by Nawal El Saadawi, the feminist-socialist writer. We heard about the “Million Women March” held on IWD, just a few weeks after the Mubarak dictatorship fell, from both her and from Ahdaf Soueif, another world-famous Egyptian writers, both of whom had just participated in the revolution:

Soueif, speaking in New York on March 8, was asked about reports that the march had been attacked by Mubarak-associated government “thugs.” She replied that she heard the march had only 200 women, and “they should not have gone out with so few.” She also stated that all the Egyptian women’s NGOs had maintained throughout that the revolution was about economics, justice, and equal rights of citizenship, and not about gender issues.

El Saadawi, speaking a few days later, had a different report of IWD. She said that several thousand people had marched, the majority of them young men. The demonstration had been planned by young men who were protesting the military’s appointment of a committee to revise the constitution that contains no women and no young people. And only one woman was appointed to the new cabinet, to a minor post. There was no attack on the march, El Saadawi said, but after the women went home, the young men resumed camping out in Tahrir Square in order to give notice to the military that the people intend to move the revolution forward. It was those young men who were attacked that night by “thugs.”

She also said that “legal” NGOs had worked with Mubarak, while the Egyptian Women’s Union, with which she worked, was banned.

Ukraine

The first-ever IWD demonstration in Ukraine was held in Kiev on March 8. It was called Feminist Ofenzyva, “protest against exploitation of and discrimination against women.”  Short videos can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/BRYUKHOVETSKA

Peru

Peru has a long-established, vibrant feminist movement. For IWD, a coalition marched and proclaimed: “Women can change Peru! If we change the lives of women, we change the world.”

A Peruvian friend of MHI who is active with women’s groups sent us their proclamation:

We are feminists, grass roots and peasant groups, unemployed, housewives, women who work in homes, indigenous women and women of African descent, homeless women affected by political violence, lesbians, workers in unions, students, writers, artists, disabled, people living with HIV.  Being more than half the population and the electorate, we say to vote your conscience in the coming elections!

The proclamation includes a list of 10 demands, which are partially summarized below:

1. a political system, free of male bias, that guarantees women’s participation and interests
2. an economy that recognizes women’s domestic and voluntary work
3. decision-making power over our lives and our bodies
4. eradication of violence against women, lesbians, and transgendered people; an end to sex trafficking and exploitation, prostitution, and race and gender discrimination
5. sexual and reproductive rights, eradication of maternal mortality, decriminalization of abortion in cases of rape and other cases
6. truth, justice and reparations for women survivors of political or sexual violence
7. education without discrimination and that helps to eradicate machismo and includes the indigenous
8. an end to the corruption and impunity of the State, and for transparency and a public ethic
9. faced with climate change, we want policies of prevention, mitigation and adaption
10. we demand our right to engage in social struggles and an end to criminalization of protests. ­­­