(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Although pressure from the authorities is now increasing against the women's movement in Iran, they are aware that we are continuing our signature campaign to change the anti-discrimination laws in the country.
There are several examples of the increasing pressure on us. Since I was awarded the Olof Palme Prize in July 2008, I have not been allowed to leave the country. I and three other women activists – Maryam Hossein-Khah, Jelveh Javaheri and Nahid Keshaverz – were sentenced in September to six months in prison. The reason is that we have written for the websites of the women's movement in Iran, especially for our own website Change For Equality (change4equality.net).
We have appealed the verdict, but unfortunately activists have not recently had the verdict changed after appeal. Asha Moémeni – who studies at California State University in the USA and is part of our "One million signatures" campaign for women's equality – traveled to Iran this year to work on her master's thesis on the women's movement. She was arrested on October 15. She is now in the much-discussed Evin prison, in ward 209, which is controlled by the Ministry of Intelligence.
The house of another woman activist, Parastoo Allahyari, was searched by the police, and she has now been in several interrogations at the police station.
One of the most serious cases is the case of Amir Yaqub-Ali, who was sentenced to one year in prison for collecting signatures for our case in the streets of Iran. He was given a stricter sentence because he was a man who participated in a campaign for the women's movement. Amir appealed the sentence and received a suspended sentence of four years. He must report to the intelligence ministry every four months.
Shah's Law
It now appears that the Tehran parliament has also decided to stop the Iranian women's fight for equality laws. Iranian women's opposition to discriminatory laws goes all the way back to the revolution of 1979. When the former Family Law was declared invalid during the winter that year, women activists organized a large demonstration against this and the hijab injunction.
The former Family Law was passed in the 1960s. The first female representative in the upper house, Mehrangiz Manouchehrian, then drafted a radical bill for a new family law. The proposal was stopped by conservative religious leaders. Even under the secular Shah [Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who ruled from 1941 to 1979, red note], they dared not pass a feminist family law. The Family Act, which was finally passed, was nevertheless a major step forward compared to before.
Several improvements were made in 1975. One of them was the requirement for the first wife's approval before the husband could remarry. Yes, polygamy was allowed even under the Shah. After the revolution, the Family Law of 1975 was declared invalid and the old law of 1935 was revived. Even the intellectuals were then most concerned with the "big" issues of the revolution, and women's rights were not among them.
In the summer of 2008, almost 30 years after the revolution, the proposal for a new family law was submitted by the courts and the government to Parliament. The bill is a typical example of how the state will protect and strengthen the patriarchal family, a family where the husband is the head of the family and has all kinds of rights. Section 23 of this bill allows the husband to remarry without informing his first wife. The only requirement for polygamy will now be that the man is financially resourceful. It will be up to the family court to decide whether the husband has an economy that can support two, three or four wives. Ironically, some women turn to religious leaders for their support of the bill.
Back to start
The new bill was met with great opposition from the women's movement. There was a joint action in the women's movement against the bill. Our "One million signatures" campaign actively participated in the protest by arranging seminars, handing out brochures and writing articles discussing the bill and the consequences it could have for women if adopted.
Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi threatened with a demonstration in front of parliament. Women activists had meetings with politicians where they expressed their dissatisfaction with the bill. Finally, Parliament tentatively decided to set aside the controversial section on polygamy. This does not mean that polygamy has generally been removed from the bill, but that the first wife's approval is still required for the husband to be able to enter into a new marriage. So we are back at the starting line!
One may ask why the authorities had to remove the section of the law. Was this a result of the great alliance in the women's movement? Were there internal disagreements between different wings of the regime? Was it the lobbying of women activists? Or was it a combination of all these?
I believe that what characterizes the women's movement in today's Iran is that this movement has sufficient strength to make women's rights a public debate. The public debate then puts pressure on the authorities from below. This pressure also gives hope to the people, who have gained less confidence that they can bring about change in society.
Women's rights have now become a very important issue for all social movements in Iran. The signature campaign has managed to put discrimination against women on the agenda of many, from the labor movement and the student movement to human rights activists, journalists and cultural figures. The women's movement in general, and our signature campaign in particular, has firstly motivated more women to make themselves visible in the media. And secondly, it has strengthened the feminist approach of journalists, social activists and artists.
The fight continues
The women's movement in Iran, a country with a long tradition of dictatorship, has managed to continue its fight against discrimination despite great pressure and repression from the authorities. At times, we may have lost some of our members because of the harsh policies that are being pursued against us. We are constantly reorganizing and coming back with new strength. Our struggle continues.
Dictatorship regimes try to target the leadership and key figures in social movements to suppress the struggle for democracy and justice. However, movements with a broad agenda and a decentralized organization can survive the oppression. Our signature campaign has managed to put a wide range of women's demands on the agenda. In terms of organization, we have managed to spread power and leadership across the organization, and in this way we have survived arrests, imprisonment and other obstacles.
We are also not dependent on having a central financing for our activities. Accusations of receiving help from outside the country's borders, and other accusations from the authorities, can be effective only for a very short period of time.
People have discovered that our movement is primarily based on Iranian women's demands to have their rights fulfilled. It is about women's courage to continue the struggle to achieve these rights.
Translated from Persian by Nariman Rahimi
Parvin Ardalan is one of the leaders in the Iranian women's movement. This year she won the Olaf Palme Prize. She writes exclusively for Ny Tid.
