Feminist prize winner barred from leaving Iran

by Bazooka Joe Fri Mar 07, 2008 20:39

Great to see you keeping an eye on all the 'atrocities' in Iran for us PatC. It is probably a good sign of things in Iran when this is the most 'exciting' story you could trawl up to paste here. I mean, a woman being refused an exit visa from Iran is hardly comparable to some of the Human Rights abuses taking place in say Communist countries against men, women, children and animals.

I am heartened to see the Iranian Government is so progressive that they allow such dissent. I know that other countries, for instance Communist China, would not allow such movements to exist.

I think we should all support the Iranian government so that we don't end up with nutters calling for 'Regime Change' like they did in Iraq. After all, since the US and it's gang went into Irans neighbour, Iraq, there is no womens movement and women are no longer free to walk the streets in safety.

It might be a worthy exercise to consider the existence of women in Iran as compared with the existence of women in the two countries on either side of Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. Iranian women are certainly freer and healthier than their neighbours in the countries already occupied by the US gang. Do you have any information on the womens movenments in Irans neighbours Pat? I remember a lot of stuff about RAWA before the invasion of Afghanistan. A lot of hysteria too about women in burkas. Are they still in burkas? Why no outrage anymore?

by Goon Show Fri Mar 07, 2008 21:43

Not to worry, her sister accepted the €50,000 prize at the ceremony in Sweden. Nice work if you can get it.

by pat c Mon Mar 10, 2008 16:00

I oppose the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. I have posted many articles on the issues here. Most of which have been attacked because I support the secular opposition against the US Occupation.

by pat c Mon Mar 10, 2008 16:14

Some people dont belive that women are entitled to equal rights. Its as simple as that. All that Parvin Ardalan is looking for is that women have equal rights. That doesnt challenge the existing Iranian State it is merely seeking internal reform. Not suprisingly though that is opposed by the reactionary clergy in Iran. What is sickening is the way some Irishmen are so misogynistic that they will misrepresent a struggle for equality.

The following is the English Text of the speech of Parvin Ardalan, delivered via video during the ceremony where she was presented with the Olaf Palme Award. Parvin Ardalan was due to travel to Stockholm on March 3.

I am very pleased and honored today to be selected as the 2007 recipient of the Olaf Palme Award. This award, granted each year in remembrance of a person who chose as his life’s path the pursuit of justice and peace, and in turn paid for this choice with his life, brings with it a profound sense of responsibility. I believe that bestowing this honor upon me, is not only an act of recognition for the individual struggles of women’s rights activists in Iran, but an honor acknowledging the collective actions of the women’s movement as well as other social movements in Iran. The granting of this award demonstrates that the efforts of those who work to defend equal rights and freedoms in Iran — despite the many ups and downs their struggles entail, and the patriarchal obstacles along their path — has indeed been effective. And yes, today our demand for justice has resonated with the international community. I too am aware that by receiving this award, I will be subject to greater pressures and accusations at home.

For nearly three decades now, we have been struggling to achieve the right to divorce and equal rights in marriage for women. We have repeatedly claimed that polygamy rights for men create an unbearable and disgraceful reality for women. But these patriarchal laws have sustained. For years, we have objected to unequal diyeh, or compensation for bodily injury, and have wondered why it is that being a man or a woman determines the amount of compensation to be paid to accident victims? We ask why our laws recognize men as full human beings, setting them as the standard, and value women at half the male standard, and sometimes even less.

At the heart of this movement are the mothers of activists who have become active in support of the Campaign and their children. These mothers support younger activists when they are arrested, they follow-up on their cases and push for their release. They too have taken on the struggle of their children by engaging in civil actions to pursue equal rights. The entrance of mothers, fathers, and other family members of activists, into the equal rights movements and peace movements, has expanded the reach of our effort and has strengthened the bond between different movements in Iran. Currently, many student and workers’ movement activists continue to be imprisoned, and their family members have become active members of those same movements.

Full text at:

by pat c Mon Mar 10, 2008 17:57

Front Line which was founded in Dublin in 2001 aims to protect human rights defenders at risk, campaigners who work, non-violently, for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Front Line now congratulates Parvin Ardalan on being awarded the Olof Palme Prize.

The Olof Palme Prize for 2007 goes to Parvin Ardalan, who has succeeded in making the demand for equal rights for men and women a central part of the struggle for democracy in Iran. As a result, the womens movement for civil rights and liberties has, to a great extent, spread geographically as well as socially. Despite persecution, threats and harassment, Parvin Ardaln has been persistent in her struggle and never compromised her ideals. Through constantly more ingenious methods, she and her fellow sisters have managed to increase the support for equal rights.

by pat c Mon Mar 10, 2008 18:07

Jane Gabriel introduces Elham Gheytanchi who writes about Parvin Ardalan on openDemocracy.

"Parvin Ardalan has won the Olof Palme prize." Such was the title of numerous emails I have been receiving over the past two days. Iranian women's rights activists in Iran and abroad are celebrating. At last, an untiring and brave young Iranian women's rights activist is being internationally recognized for her work, most recently in the One Million Signatures Campaign to eliminate laws that discriminate against women in Iran.

This news comes at a time when the One Million Signature Campaign has come under fierce pressure from the authorities in Iran. Our jubilation was deflated just yesterday when we heard that two young activists, Raheleh Asgarizadeh and Nasim Khosravi had been arrested by the police in Tehran while gathering signatures in a public place near Fajr film and theater festival, an event celebrating the 29th anniversary of the Iranian revolution. Most of the activists are the same age or younger than the revolution itself. Their "crime" is the same as that with which Parvin Ardalan and other activists have repeatedly been charged: "threatening national security" and "disrupting the public order."

by Nora Mon Mar 10, 2008 20:13 noorazao at hotmail dot com

Bazooka Joe and Goon Show,

Easy for you to talk when you're not being abused yourself! Try to live as Islamic women under those male-elite constructed dogmatic, extremely sexist and barbaric laws using religion; then you might get it! Imagine being stoned to death just for being adulterous, killed for the sake of offending or resisting the male-desired "honour & purity" ideology, or being institutionalised or imprisoned for converting, or forced to wear into marriage or to wear the veil even before puberty age! I don't think you like that happening to western women if you're westerners that is! And not to mention all the real enough barbarity committed to converts, gays and non-Islamic minorities; or even to fellow Muslims just because of different sects or ethnic groups! And it's time especially for the left in the west to actually feel the pain of such abused Muslim women and others; and admire the brave resistance spirit of such brave women/feminists/activists! Yeah, it's really easy to protest in the street in a mostly democratic west without it being a matter of life and death situation; and talk about abstract socialist theory, so stop being so patronizing! I wonder whether you would speak in similar attitude if western women are fighting on similar grounds! Anyway, looks like such injustice is fine to you both as long as they are done by Muslim men! That's not the way to prevent the war towards Iran but only through reforming all the barbarity committed within and using Islam; that the Muslim communities globally will be genuinely respected and can hope for more solidarity and support from non-Islamic communities against the capitalist imperialist enemies as led by the Bush-Blair regimes right now. For the long-term rather than short-term solutions; and that's wise! Besides preventing increasingly psychological self-destruction within the Muslim communities!

by pat c Mon Apr 07, 2008 16:57

Here is news of the latest state harrassment of Parvin Ardalan:

Following the summons of Parvin Ardalan, women’s rights activist and member of the One Million Signatures Campaign, she appeared on Saturday April 5 at the 1st Security Branch of the Revolutionary Courts. In an interview provided to the site of Change for Equality, Ardalan explained that: "the questions of the court investigator were related to my activities in the site of the Zanestan, and Change for Equality. At the close of the investigative session, I was charged with propaganda against the state—charges which I denied. I was released on my own recognizance."

by tomeile Mon Apr 07, 2008 18:43

“That's not the way to prevent the war towards Iran but only through reforming all the barbarity committed within and using Islam; that the Muslim communities globally will be genuinely respected and can hope for more solidarity and support from non-Islamic communities against the capitalist imperialist enemies as led by the Bush-Blair regimes right now.”

Nora’s view seems to be that war against Iran could be prevented if only Iran treated its women better . That is not the case. The war that is currently being prepared against Iran has nothing to do with the defence of women or gays or workers in that country . It has everything to do with the fact that Iran ,like Iraq, has vast reserves of oil which America intends to steal .In order to make the theft appear as something other than theft in the run up to the war , the thieves are raising the question of human rights in Iran .

But even if the ayatollahs all shaved off their beards tomorrow and promised to do their share of the housework , even if Iran introduced gender equity curricula in all its schools, even if Iran’s President Ahmadinejad dressed up as a pink bunny rabbit and led a gay pride march through Tehran , America will still go to war . They need the oil ,and they need to stop the Chinese from getting hold of it .

by Pundit Mon Apr 07, 2008 18:58

Nora is a Malaysian socialist, she has to live under the reality of the wonders of the mercy and compassion of Islam. She is also an anti-war activist who is well known to genuine activists in Ireland. tomeile is only making a fool of himself by attempting to misrepresent her.

by tomeile Tue Apr 08, 2008 09:05

Nora clearly stated that war could only be prevented by dealing with what she termed “ the barbarity committed within and using Islam “ . Which is consistent with the HOPI position as espoused by their spokesperson Peter Tatchell when he says on the HOPI website :

“If Iran was no longer a fanatical religious tyranny, the case for war would evaporate”
See: http://www.hopoi.org/tatchell.html

Tatchell and Hopi are actually making that case for war for Bush . Here’s Tatchell again in the same article :

“Iran is a dangerous, terroristic, fundamentalist, anti-Semitic dictatorship, which is striving to develop nuclear weapons and which poses a serious threat to international peace and security”

But the point I was making is that the American regime is going to war with Iran to steal its oil anyway .The American economy is teetering on the brink of collapse and desperately needs the Iranian’s oil . The U.S . regime intends to steal the Iranian oil using military might . That next phase in the war will provoke mass resistance across the world preparation for which should be being made now , but is being held up by the likes of Tatchell and Hopi and all those who say that, if only the Iranian regime was more democratic , war could be prevented.

by C. Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:48

I think that it's important to listen to what Nora is saying and not to hive her off into
a political box, she is an active woman who is islamic and living everyday in a country, Malaysia,
which is wrestling with the problems of Islamic culture and western hgemony in the Middle -east.

the balancing act in countries like Malaysia, which stand at the crossroads bewteen
Islam and wsetern Influence effect us all and its quite a balancing act. i understand that things
are becoming more difficult for women activists.

so just listen to her.
She is Muslim.
She is activist.

and any parallel with Tatchell was purely coincidental.

sometimes it's incredibly easy to dismiss the veracity of someone's opinion and experience
because they may espouse something that has been said in the West and it is disrespectful
to her as woman. allow her to speak and stop assuming that she has an agenda that is
somehow commensurate with what others happen to say. She deserves to be heard.

by pat c Tue Apr 08, 2008 15:32

In the interests of dispelling any confusion that might have occurred on this thread here is clarification of HOPIs aims:

Hands Off The People Of Iran fights against the threat of any imperialist intervention, war or sanctions against Iran. It looks to build active, practical solidarity with grass-roots radical secular forces in Iran, the militant women’s, workers and students movements. We want regime change, both in Iran and in the imperialist countries. But we know that change must come from below - from the struggles of the working class and social movements - if it is to lead to genuine liberation.

Our campaign demands are:

No to imperialist war! For the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US/UK troops from Iraq and all the Gulf region!
No to any imperialist intervention. The immediate and unconditional end to sanctions on Iran.
No to the theocratic regime!
Opposition to Israeli expansionism and aggression!
Support to all working class and progressive struggles in Iran against poverty and repression!
Support for socialism, democracy and workers' control in Iran!
For a nuclear-free Middle East as a step towards a nuclear-free world!

The full HOPI statement is available at: http://www.hopoi.org/main.html

Peter Tatchell has a record of decades as an Anti-Imperialist activist and an opponent of tyranny.. Here are some articles by Peter.

"QUEER THE VOTE, STOP THE BNP”
Neo-Nazis threaten gay, black, Jewish and Muslim people Queer the vote and stop the BNP”.
This is the message of gay human rights group OutRage! ahead of the 3 May elections for local councils and for the Scottish and Welsh assemblies.

“Lesbians and gay men can help block the election of candidates from the racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and homophobic British National Party (BNP). Make sure you and your straight friends vote on 3 May,” said Peter Tatchell of OutRage! “A high turnout will reduce the BNP's share of the vote and lessen its chances of winning seats,” he said. “We urge queer voters to quiz their local candidates on gay issues and to vote for those with the most homo-friendly policies. “With one-in-ten voters being lesbian, gay or bisexual, the pink vote can influence the election result in many marginal constituencies.
http://www.petertatchell.net/

Rendition, the movie - Watch and protest

The film Rendition dramatises the US President's secret policy of kidnapping and torture
By Peter Tatchell, The Guardian 23 October 2007

The film Rendition, which has opened at cinemas nationwide, is a thriller about an innocent Egyptian-American family who fall victim to the US government’s criminal policy of “extraordinary rendition” - the kidnapping of people suspected of terrorism, their detention without trial and their torture
in secret overseas prisons, so-called “black sites.”

Rendition is a fictional drama, not a documentary. But it reflects known facts about rendition – a policy, sanctioned by the US President, which involves the systematic, wilful violation of the US constitution and the Bill of Rights and the rule of law; as well as being illegal under the international laws against kidnapping and torture.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2007....html

Crushing Dissent – Ex-MP on terror charges

The arrest in London of exiled Baluch human rights activists looks like a bid by President Musharraf to frame his opponents and silence critics
By Peter Tatchell The Guardian, 1 February 2008

A former MP and government minister from Pakistan-occupied Baluchistan, Hyrbyair Marri, has been languishing in Belmarsh Prison for the last two months. He was arrested at his west London home in early December on charges of plotting terrorist acts abroad (it is assumed in Pakistan).
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2008....html

QUESTIONING MILITARY MACHISMO - AGAINST QUEER CONFORMISM

PETER TATCHELL says lesbian and gay support for the armed forces is evidence of queer collusion with straight culture.
http://www.petertatchell.net/

GAY MUSLIM APPEALS AGAINTS CONVICTION

Hate crime victim framed, jailed for eight years. “A grave miscarriage of justice,” says OutRage! Male partner and two cousins murdered in similar attack.

A 28 year old gay Muslim prisoner, Mohamed S, has launched an appeal against conviction. His case has been accepted for consideration by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the top body for examining allegations of wrongful convictions.

Mohamed, who trained as an Imam (a Muslim priest), was jailed for eight years in 2002, following a homophobic hate attack on him at his east London home in the middle of the night. He says he was framed by the men who attacked him.
http://www.petertatchell.net/

by tomeile Tue Apr 08, 2008 21:46

I agree with you ,C , that Nora should be listened to and deserves to be heard. I have read other statements from her and do not think she is the same as Tatchell and the HOPIeire anti -Islamic brigade . She also seems to be about the only Muslim left posting to Indymedia Ireland since the hideous Islamophobic cartoons were posted last month .

Nora has shown herself very well able to answer for herself when she disagrees with somebody .It would be disrespectful towards her to not point it out if I think that she has written something that is wrong . And I think she is wrong in thinking that the Bush administration is in anyway motivated by or can be swayed by concern for human rights in its foreign policy .

The US regime is responsible for the killing of a million people in Iraq . Despite this, the US administration and its compliant media -the same media that lectures Iran on human rights - was prepared until recently to call America's Iraq mission a qualified success .That was until Iraq’s quizling army ,backed by American airpower , was defeated by the Shia, Medhi mititia in Basra two weeks ago . Is America going to back down now ? I don’t think it will , and I think the anti war movement should get prepared .

The stage is set for a terrible war in the region ,one far worse than has taken place in Iraq to date .The US cannot afford economically ,politically or military to cut and run because of its dependency on oil and its need to deny its rapidly emerging rival , China , that oil. In the present circumstances retreat for America would be a strategic defeat far worse than the one it suffered in Vietnam . That’s why ,as the Guardian reported today , US forces in Iraq are making provision for an open-ended military presence in Iraq.

The U.S. military commander in Iraq , General Petraeus , speaking in Washington earlier today accused Iran of funding the Medhi army and called for a hold on troop withdrawals . There is every possibility of a military escalation in the near future - possibly using defence of Iraqi sovereignty from Iranian "special units" as a pretext. Nora’s comments about democratization of Iranian society preventing such an attack show the success of the illusions that the likes of Hopi have been able to sow in the antiwar movement.