From: Ricardo Dominguez [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 08 March 2007 21:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Please join us in an ongoing electronic Iran vigil

08 March 2007

Happy International Women's Day!

Please join us in an ongoing electronic Iran vigil in solidarity with
women's rights activists in Iran at:

http://opinionware.net/iran_vigil

On Sunday, 4 March 2007, the police and security forces violently
attacked and arrested 33 women's rights activists as they stood in
peaceful protest outside the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The
activists had gathered in solidarity with the five women who were being
tried in connection with demonstrations held on 12 June 2007 to demand
equal rights for women.

As of this writing, (8:49 a.m. GMT, Thursday, 8 March 2007), three of
the activists who were arrested on Sunday remain in detention in section
209 of the infamous Evin Prison - one of the main sites of the execution
of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s.

The vigil pages link you to Iranian and international information
sources and a number of electronic solidarity actions that you can
participate in. Help send a strong message to the Iranian authorities to
demand the immediate and unconditional release of all detainees, and
support women's campaign for change in Iran.

Refuse to Choose:
Reject US Intervention!
AND
Support Local Action!

This vigil is organized by Sirens of Solidarity.
<[log in to unmask]>


=== BACKGROUND ===

IWD 1979

A day before International Women's Day, on March 7, 1979, less than a
month after the formation of the Islamic Republic, large numbers of
Iranian women took to the streets in many cities across Iran to protest
Khomeini's edict to the Transitional Government to bar unveiled women
from working for the government or entering government buildings. This
was the first post-Revolution attack by Islamists, one of many to come,
against women's rights. And women's spontaneous, decentralized and
self-organized protests during March 7th, 8th and 9th, as they were
about to celebrate International Women's Day for the first time in over
25 years since the US-backed coup d'etat that brought Shah back to power
in 1953, were the first popular acts of resistance against the Islamic
regime.

In 1979, women's movement was on the one side attacked by the Islamic
militia armed with knives, daggers, acid, brass knuckles, clubs, flails
and chains while they were deserted from the other side by
Islamo-liberal, nationalist and Marxist-populist parties whose
ideological sexism and political shortsightedness led them to the theory
that women's rights were of lesser significance to the nationalist,
anti-imperialist and/or class struggles. Both the Islamic fundamentalist
forces and their organized political opponents
- before the latter were violently eliminated in wave after wave from
the stage by the former - labeled women's protests and resistance as
"westoxicated" and "bourgeois" in their socio-cultural orientation.
Within a very short time, the Islamic regime enshrined in the
constitution and in the country's legal code a set of discriminatory
laws that reduced women's social and legal status to that of half-a-man.


IWD 2007

Over the past 28 years, these laws and their corollary ideological
social and cultural practices have had innumerable tragic effects on the
lives of more than half of the Iranian people across class, ethnic,
religious and generational lines. The view that women's issues are
secondary to larger and more urgent national concerns - such as current
threats of US intervention and war - is as wrong today as it was in
1979. Today, it is clear that in 1979 women were the vanguard, the first
line of popular resistance against the dehumanizing and repressive
Islamic state. Women are the vanguard again. Currently.
Today.

Over the past few years in particular, women's rights activists have
mounted a strong de-centered and multivocal force for changing the
Iranian constitution and laws. They have initiated a highly creative
grassroots campaign, "One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to
Discriminatory Laws," (http://en.we4change.com/) which demands changes
to discriminatory laws against women. This campaign is an outgrowth of
and a follow-up to a peaceful protest with the same aim that took place
on June 12, 2006 in Haft-e Tir Square in Tehran. The security forces
violently attacked the protesters and arrested over 70 of them.

On Sunday, March 4, 2007, 33 women's rights activists were arrested as
they gathered in a peaceful vigil in front of the Revolutionary Court in
Tehran. The police and security forces again violently attacked and
arrested these activists outside the court, where they had gathered in
solidarity with five women who had been charged and were being tried in
connection with the demonstration held on June 12, 2006.

As the global Bush block prepares for opening yet another war front,
this time in Iran, it is imperative for the progressive international
anti-war, feminist and social justice movements to keep informed of the
political dynamics inside Iran and support local initiatives for change
at the same time as we campaign against U.S. imperialist interventions.
The current moment/movement in the struggle for equal rights in Iran is
both radical and relevant: The women's campaign has clearly-articulated
demands that have wide appeal to diverse demographics, its organization
is de-centralized thus flexible and resilient, and its activities are
fully public thus forcing a bottom-up democratic change in Iranian
political discourse.

As the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq have clearly established by now,
US-led interventionist war does not bring 'democracy' to the invaded
land. That is the given. What is also established is that under a puppet
regime the social conditions and/or the legal status of women will not
significantly improve (as in Afghanistan) or will drastically
deteriorate (as in Iraq). While the US government covertly and overtly
supports, funds and arms an array of conservative and regressive
political players outside Iran - from the Shah's son to the Mojahedin -
in preparation for a regime change in Iran, it is crucial that we
support Iranian women's indigenous, self-organized resistance movement.
A campaign for equal rights is not a by-product of an independent
democratic movement but the very foundation of democracy and self-rule.

On IWD 1979, international progressive voices and forces failed to raise
and stand in solidarity with Iranian women. We cannot allow ourselves to
remain uninformed or silent again.

The Electronic Vigil in Solidarity with Women's Rights Activists in Iran
will be ongoing until further notice.

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************************************************************************************
Distributed through Cyber-Society-Live [CSL]: CSL is a moderated discussion
list made up of people who are interested in the interdisciplinary academic
study of Cyber Society in all its manifestations.To join the list please visit:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyber-society-live.html
*************************************************************************************