By Sara Farhang

Iran is home to one of the most vibrant women’s movements in the region. (Photo credit: faramarz/flickr/creative commons)

TEHRAN, Jun 25, 2009 (IPS) – When tens of thousands of protesters braved the ongoing government crackdown to gather in Tehran’s Baharestan Square in front of the Parliament building Wednesday in response to a call by supporters of Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, they were met with some of the harshest violence seen since Iran’s post-election turmoil erupted nearly two weeks ago.

“All of a sudden some 500 people with clubs… came out of [a nearby mosque], and they poured into the streets and they started beating everyone,” an unidentified woman told CNN, describing the scene as a “massacre”.

“They beat a woman so savagely that she was drenched in blood, and her husband who was watching the scene, he just fainted,” the witness said.

Indeed, despite the heavy use of force to disperse crowds and recent violence that has left hundreds injured and dead, women were present in high numbers at the square, as they have been throughout the crisis.

“I am so proud of Iranian women who show up for these protests,” a female protester told IPS, confirming that women at the scene were targeted by security forces and were beaten violently with batons.

In fact, the presence of women at these protests has garnered much attention by surprised international observers. A recent video released on the internet captured the death of 27-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot down by a Basij sniper as she exited a car on her way to a protest.

The murder of this young woman has incited anger and sympathy in Iran and internationally. Other women have reportedly been killed and injured in recent clashes with security officials and many have been arrested.

“I believe that women show up for these protests because they feel cheated and they want answers. They participated in the elections and were faced with fraud. They want their voices to be heard,” says one 25-year-old woman who has attended most of the protests in the past two weeks.

“Their presence at these protests is a testament to the increased awareness of Iranian women,” she adds.

In fact, at more than 60 percent, Iranian female university students outnumber their male counterparts. Iranian women are present in all aspects of social and professional life, as entrepreneurs, engineers, medical doctors, university professors and lawyers. Iran is home to one of the most vibrant women’s movements in the region, dating back at least a century.

In recent years, women’s rights activists have been working toward equal status under Iranian law, which is based on conservative interpretations of Sharia law, and as such accords a second-class status to women.

Nearly three years ago, Iranian women’s rights activists launched the One Million Signatures Campaign to demand changes in discriminatory laws in the civil and penal codes.

The campaign seeks equality for women in marriage, right to divorce, custody of children, an increase in the age of criminal responsibility, and an end to polygamy among other changes. It seeks to collect one million signatures in support of a petition addressed to the Iranian parliament.

Activists use a face-to-face approach to educate and raise awareness among Iranian citizens. According to the site of the campaign, however, over 50 of its staff members have been arrested, or charged with national security crimes.

Still, their demands were echoed in the presidential campaigns, when three of the contesting candidates addressed the need to change discriminatory laws against women as part of their platforms.

The first to address this issue was Mehdi Karroubi, who promised to submit bills to parliament intent on reforming laws which discriminate against women. He also committed to appointing women as ministers.

Many women’s rights activists along with human rights and student rights activists voted for Karroubi because of the progressive stance he took on human and civil rights.

Following Karroubi’s announcement, Moussavi issued a comprehensive programme on women as part of his election platform, in which he also committed to reforming discriminatory laws against women.

Mohsen Rezaie, the conservative presidential candidate, also took a position on women and committed to working for women’s equality in society, which is a bold commitment coming from a conservative candidate.

While President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made no campaign promises or even references to women’s rights, his advisor on women’s issues, Zohreh Tabibzadeh, who heads the Centre for Women and Families, appeared for two press conferences, a rare event indeed for a woman who has kept the press at arm’s length for the duration of her tenure as the head of the agency responsible for devising programmes addressing the needs of women.

Tabibzadeh used both opportunities to attack women’s rights activists in general and Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, who supports women’s equality, in particular. At her second press conference, Tabibzadeh responded angrily to a question posed by a reformist reporter from Etemad daily by saying “those who want to change the laws on women should vote for a reformist candidate.”

In fact, Tabibzadeh’s stance is reflective of policies adopted during the presidency of Ahmadinejad which have worked to relegate women to their homes and promote their roles as wives and mothers.

Ahmadinejad’s presidency ushered in a period of severe restrictions on women, including the re-establishment of morality police, who arrest women on the street for their lack of adherence to Islamic dress; the adoption of quotas limiting the entrance of female students to university and policies forcing women to attend universities in their hometowns; and a highly contested bill dubbed the “Family Support Act” which eased restrictions on polygamy.

Women’s rights activists opposed this bill. Their march on the Parliament was successful in pushing MPs to reconsider and overturn provisions easing restrictions on polygamy.

According to one women’s rights activist, “women were highly active and present in the campaigns of the two reformist candidates as well as in campaign events and rallies. This signifies that women are willing to work toward the election of candidates who take their demands for equality and freedom seriously.”

Their presence at the protests following the elections, according to this activist, “is a further sign that women know what is at risk – the right to self-determination – and women are willing to pay the price for a better future for themselves and their children.”

While many young women turn out for protests, the presence of older women at these events is also easily observable. One woman in her fifties explained that the main reason she attends protests is to “lend support to the younger generation and to try to prevent any violence targeted at them.”

She went on to describe how she was beaten at one protest when she physically intervened and tried to stop the assault of a young man by security agents.

Along these lines, a group of women calling themselves “The Mourning Mothers” issued a call for peaceful protests at Laleh Park at 7:00 on Saturdays, near the area where Neda was killed on Saturday, Jun. 20.

The statement reads: “Based on what sin have you murdered our children? Why have you forced all mothers into mourning?”

The mothers have demanded an end to violence, the prosecution of those who have committed violence, and the release of over 800 persons arrested over the past two weeks.

It seems that with this new call to action, women will continue to have an active presence in the protests, which have taken on new dimensions objecting not only to election fraud but to violent suppression of peaceful dissent.

Ramin Jahanbegloo – published in Dissent Magazine on June 20, 2009

WITH THE refusal of Iran’s political establishment to re-run the elections, more repression and violence seems inevitable. However, what we are witnessing since the first demonstrations against the results of the presidential elections might very well be considered as a major nonviolent movement in a Gandhian style. There is already an evident similarity between the civil disobedience movement in today’s Iran and successful nonviolent movements led by Gandhi in India in the 1920-1940s and Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States in the 1950-1960s.

Gandhi adopted his methodology of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time in South Africa, calling on his fellow Indians to defy the new law and suffer the punishments for doing so, rather than resist it through violent means. As for Martin Luther King Jr., he started his nonviolent movement by calling on all black citizens to stop riding the buses in Montgomery until the laws were changed. The protest marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States.

What is most important in Iran is that the massive outpouring of anti-Ahmadinejad sentiments in Iran is so far doubtlessly nonviolent and peaceful. Chief among the slogans of the demonstrators have been the re-run of the elections and the condemnation of violence. Iranian society is in the midst of an epoch-making renaissance in its political culture and discourse. This transformation in political values, norms, symbols, and everyday codes of behavior is most evident in the peaceful and nonviolent action of all those who have been protesting to pursue allegations of election fraud within the limits of the Iranian constitutional framework.

Many in the past week have walked silently and lit black candles. Others have worn green wristbands or ribbons and carried flowers. Gandhi chose a spinning wheel as a symbol of his idea of non-violence. A spinning wheel represented two different messages: It was the main instrument to protest against India’s growing industrialism and it was also a symbol of resistance to the British-made clothes that had replaced the Indian hand-made clothes. As for Martin Luther King, he turned to the symbol of the “American Dream” as a hope of equity and social justice for every member of the American society. Today, Mousavi has become the symbol of nonviolent protest in Iran, but the true hero of the Iranian civic movement is the emerging republican model of nonviolent resistance and non-ideological politics that provide the clearest guideline and vision for Iran’s gradual transition to an open society.

Post-revolutionary Iran has experienced the failure of two major political paradigms in the last thirty years: revolutionary leftism and ideological Islam. They each failed in practice as well as in theory, and the Iranian people no longer trust the groups associated with them. It is evident that nonviolent action is the new paradigm that is attempting to define itself distinctly and overcome the intellectual and political weaknesses of its predecessors. There is common agreement among the demonstrators and civil activists that the main contradiction in contemporary Iran is the one between authoritarian violence and democratic nonviolence.

Though this nonviolent paradigm is still in the making, it can nonetheless be characterized as both “post-ideological.” This is due to the fact that the protest movement in Iran is nonviolent and civil in its methods of creating social change while also seeking an ethical dimension to Iranian politics. This judgment implies that Iranian civil society is ready to make a distinction between two kinds of approach: searching for truth and solidarity versus lying and using violence. In the days and weeks ahead, we will have to wait and see how this dialectic between the powerless nonviolent truth-seekers and powerful lie-makers and users of violence will work itself out. As such, the fact that the elections have or have not been rigged is now a secondary issue. What is now at stake is to challenge the illegitimacy of violence in Iran. Gandhi once said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” The change we are witnessing in Iran is the change in the younger generation of Iranians. Iranian youth have shown the world that they have enough maturity and tolerance to spark nonviolent change in Iran.

Ramin Jahanbegloo is a well-known Iranian-Canadian philosopher. Presently a Professor of Political Science and a Research Fellow in the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto, he is the author of twenty books in English, French, and Persian, including Conversations with Isaiah Berlin (Peter Halban, 1992), Gandhi: Aux Sources de la Nonviolence ( Felin, 1999), Iran: Between Tradition and Modernity (Lexington Books, 2004), and most recently The Spirit of India (Penguin 2008).

June 24, 2009

To the Iranian Leadership: End the Violence Immediately

To:  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, U.N. Ambassador & Permanent Representative Mohammad Khazaee

We are leaders of organizations representing tens of thousands of U.S. citizens who love Iran: its people, culture, poetry, and land. Some of our members have traveled in recent years to the Islamic Republic of Iran to build relationships between our cultures, and have returned home with images and stories of wonderful new friends and your land’s admirable humanitarian and religious cultures. We passionately urge peace between our countries, and deeply regret the unfortunate history of U.S. intervention in Iran and its sovereignty. We believe all nations and peoples have the right to live free of the threat of unjust foreign interference in their internal affairs.

Our organizations represent national and regional U.S. peace, anti-war, and religious communities, and some of our members have held meetings with President Ahmadinejad, former President Khatami, and Iranian religious leaders to discuss common concerns about peace and humanitarian issues. We have pressed the U.S. Congress and White House on numerous issues related to Iran, including: ending sanctions levied on Iran; engaging in constructive dialogue with Iranian leaders; and formally apologizing for past actions against Iran – such as the July 3, 1988 attack by the USS Vincennes on Iran Air #655, which killed 290 innocent civilians. And while the results of the recent Iranian election are contested, we commend the election as an exercise in the building of stronger democracy in Iran, and we hope that the open expression of different ideas and visions for the future of the nation will continue.

The Holy Qur’an teaches us, “If anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.” And today we are compelled to communicate our pain and outrage about the violence being inflicted on peaceful Iranians. The killings of innocent civilians, beatings of elderly women and young students alike, and imprisonment without charge of hundreds of civilians – done in the name of Islam – serve to slander this holy religion whose name itself means the “making of peace.”

We are inspired by the ways that the nonviolent legacy of Mahatma Gandhi has been lifted up by many ordinary Iranians in this critical moment. For indeed, Gandhi reminded us, “Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.” Our faiths and commitments to peace compel us to demand an end to this senseless brutality against the people of Iran who are walking in silence, offering nonviolent witness, and engaging in other peaceful acts of conscience.

For more than a week, violence has wracked the nation of Iran. This past weekend, official reports have stated that between 10-19 Iranians died, while other reports give higher figures. These deaths are in addition to many others who have died in previous days. Moreover, we have received reports that in Tehran on Saturday, June 20, liquid chemicals were sprayed on civilians, causing burns. Many were unable to obtain adequate medical care, as they were followed by militia forces and trapped in hospitals; the consequences of their seeking aid and refuge were either additional beatings or arrest.

We have seen no sign that this oppression of ordinary Iranians will cease. In the name of the Islamic Republic and of the constitutional rights of its people, Iran’s political and religious leaders must bring an end to the ruthlessness that is being perpetrated, immediately.

We bring no moral weight to this request as Americans. In fact we stand in the same relationship of resistance and opposition to the use of violence by the government of the United States, in its continued violent occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, its use of violence to quell nonviolent dissent around political conventions and elections, its use of torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions, and its use of imprisonment of people without charges or fabricated and unsubstantiated charges against U.S. citizens and non-nationals alike.

The Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) said, “Break your bows, sever your strings, beat stones on your swords.” Therefore we appeal to the Islamic Republic of Iran, under the guidance of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to work to immediately stop the violence.

With deepest concern,

National Organizational Leaders
•    Salam Al-Marayati, Executive Director, Muslim Public Affairs Council
•    Rev. Paul Alexander, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice
•    Ryan Amundson, Chair of the Steering Committee, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
•    The Rev. Michael J. Baxter, National Secretary, Catholic Peace Fellowship
•    Medea Benjamin, Founding Director, Global Exchange
•    Rev. Dr. Leonard B. Bjorkman, Moderator Emeritus, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
•    Rev. Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph.D., Founding Director, Faith Voices for the Common Good
•    Ken Butigan, Executive Director, Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service
•    Matthew W. Daloisio, Coordinator, Witness Against Torture
•    Rev. Richard Deats, Past Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
•    Rev. Patricia de Jong & Sam Keen, Ph.D., Co-Founders, Axis of Friendship
•    Paul Dekar, Chair of the National Council, Fellowship of Reconciliation
•    Marie Dennis, Director, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
•    Goudarz Eghtedari, Ph.D., American Iranian Friendship Council
•    Jodie Evans, Co-Founder, CODEPINK: Women for Peace
•    Priscilla Fairbank, Co-Founder, Women Against War
•    David Hartsough, Executive Director, Peaceworkers
•    Karen Jacob, National Chair, Women’s Action for New Directions
•    Rev. Kathryn J. Johnson, Executive Director, Methodist Federation for Social Action
•    Mark C. Johnson, Ph.D., Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
•    Stephen D. Jones, President, Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America
•    Kathy Kelly, Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
•    Scott Kennedy, Coordinator of Middle East Program, Resource Center for Nonviolence
•    Peter Klotz-Chamberlin, Steering Committee Chair, Resource Center for Nonviolence
•    Judith Le Blanc, National Organizing Coordinator, United for Peace and Justice
•    Rabbi Michael Lerner, Executive Editor, Tikkun Magazine; National Chair, The Network of Spiritual Progressives
•    Marie Lucey, OSF, Associate Director, Leadership Conference of Women Religious
•    The Rev. Jackie Lynn, Executive Director, Episcopal Peace Fellowship
•    Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action
•    Paul Kawika Martin, Organizing, Political & PAC Director, Peace Action
•    Stefen Merken, Chair, Jewish Peace Fellowship
•    Gael Murphy, Co-Founder, CODEPINK: Women for Peace
•    Michael N. Nagler, Founder, Metta Center for Nonviolence Education
•    Arash Norouzi & Ebrahim Norouzi, The Mossadegh Project
•    Gerald Paoli, Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
•    Alexander Patico, Secretary, North America Orthodox Peace Fellowship
•    Jill Parillo, Deputy Director for Security Programs, Physicians for Social Responsibility
•    Dan Pearson, Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
•    Rev. Allie Perry, Vice-President of the Board, National Religious Campaign Against Torture
•    The Rev. Ellen Francis Poisson, OSH, Convenor, Iran Action Group, Episcopal Peace Fellowship
•    Franz Rad, Ph.D., Chair, American Iranian Friendship Council
•    Ibrahim Abdil-Mu’id Ramey, Director of Civil & Human Rights, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation
•    David Robinson, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA
•    Terry Kay Rockefeller, Project Director, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
•    Bill Scheurer, Editor, PeaceMajority Report; Coordinator, Peace Garden Project
•    Susan Shaer, Executive Director, Women’s Action for New Directions
•    Amy Stapleton, National Organizer, Methodist Federation for Social Action
•    Samina Faheem Sundas, Founding Executive, American Muslim Voice
•    Rabbi Karen Sussan, Steering Committee Member, Jewish Peace Fellowship
•    Rev. Rick Ufford-Chase, Executive Director, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
•    Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Executive Director, The Shalom Center
•    Peter Wilk, Executive Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility
•    James E. Winkler, General Secretary, United Methodist Church General Board of Church & Society
•    Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Colonel and former U.S. diplomat

Regional and Local Leaders
•    Rev. John F. Backe, Past National Coordinator, Lutheran Peace Fellowship
•    Andrea Briggs, National Council member, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Altadena CA
•    Hank Brusselback & Gaia Mika, Dixon NM
•    The Rev. Stephen J. & Caroline C. Chinlund, Ph.D., New York NY
•    Tom Cornell, The Catholic Worker, Marlboro NY
•    Rev. Cheryl K. Cornish, Pastor, First Congregational United Church of Christ, Memphis TN
•    The Rev. Dr. Barbara Dua, Executive Director, New Mexico Council of Churches
•    Rev. Ellen M. Frith
•    Jane C. Gilman, member, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Brookline MA
•    Talat Hamdani, mother of Mohammad Salman Hamdani and member, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
•    Jane Harte, member, Buddhist Peace Fellowship
•    Lynda Howland, Pittsford NY
•    Bill Jenkins, Washington Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Washington DC
•    Dr. Terry Johns, Patten University, Oakland CA
•    Valerie Lucznikowska, aunt of Adam Arias and member, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
•    The Rev. Paul Mayer, NYC Forum of Concerned Religious Leaders; Co-Founder, Climate Crisis Coalition
•    Sean McConnell, Communications Officer, Episcopal Diocese of California
•    Shirley McRae, member, Religious Society of Friends, Port Townsend WA
•    Rosemarie Pace, Director, Pax Christi New York
•    Danny Postel, Member, Chicago Committee in Solidarity with the People of Iran
•    The Rev. Cecil Charles Prescod, Ainsworth United Church of Christ, Portland OR
•    Bill Quigley, Loyola University, New Orleans LA
•    Rev. Dianne Rodriguez, Pastor, First Parish Church, United Church of Christ, Northville NY
•    Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Senior Minister, Lemuel Haynes Congregational Church, Jamaica NY
•    Daniel R. Smith, Seattle WA
•    Trish Thompson, United Buddhist Church of America
•    Nichola Torbett, Director, Seminary in the Street, Berkeley CA
•    Bruce Wallace, Director, 121Contact; uncle of Mitchell Wallace and member, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows; and Noor, staff member, 121Contact, Brooklyn NY
•    Jeff Warner, La Habra Heights, CA
•    Adele Welty, mother of firefighter Timothy Welty and member, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
•    Dr. Stephen Zunes, Chair, Middle Eastern Studies, University of San Francisco

(Organizational affiliations listed for identification purposes)

FOR press contact: Ethan Vesely-Flad, Communications Director, 510-701-5267

Active nonviolence is key in resolving the conflict over Iran’s election outcome

Posted by FOR on June 17, 2009 at 4:16PM

During the past few days, the world has witnessed massive demonstrations by Iranians in response to the June 12 national election in Iran. Hundreds of thousands of people have poured into the streets of Tehran and other major cities to express their feelings about the election results.

While, for the most part, these demonstrations have been peaceful, there are reports of shootings and beatings that have resulted in dozens of injuries and deaths. According to official reports, at least 10 people are dead and more than 100 have been injured.

As international allies committed to the principles and practice of active nonviolence, we speak from a place of love of Iran and of the Iranian people. We strongly advocate for nonviolent means of resolving the tense situation in Iran. We urge those who are protesting the election results to continue to remain calm and to refrain from damaging public property. At the same time, we strongly condemn the government’s use of force against unarmed civilians. Violence is not a solution, and begets more violence.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Six Principles of Nonviolence” is a helpful guide at this challenging moment. Dr. King reminds us not only that nonviolence is active and a way of life, but that nonviolence chooses love instead of hate; that it seeks to defeat injustice not people; and that we can be educated and transformed by nonviolent suffering. We call on all parties — within Iran and outside of its borders — to commit to: open and transparent dialogue, not demonizing political opponents, and nonviolent resolution of all aspects of this conflict.

About the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Iran Program:

In the past four years, the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) has sent ten delegations of U.S. citizens to Iran, seeking to build people-to-people relationships between our peoples. FOR has called on the U.S. government to engage directly with the Iranian government, as we, in turn, have been bringing together people from the peace, religious, educational, arts, and health communities. FOR hosted a historic meeting in September 2008 in New York City between 150 leaders of the U.S. peace and grassroots anti-war communities and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. FOR is now organizing a nationwide candlelight vigil on July 3, 2009 in multiple U.S. communities to observe the 21st anniversary of the downing of Iran Air #655 by the USS Vincennes on July 3, 1988 — and asking the U.S. government to finally apologize for that tragedy that killed 290 civilians.

Resources for current news from and about Iran, including alternative sources:

• Iran Daily Newsclips provides a collection of articles from various English-language media.
• niacINsight is the blog of the National Iranian American Council.
• The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict provides daily news digests.
• openDemocracy.net offers in-depth news analysis and commentary from a pro-democracy and pro-human rights perspective while ensuring  marginalised views and voices are heard.
• Juan Cole, president of the Global Americana Institute, writes the blog Informed Consent.