Women for Peace and Justice in Iran

Iranian Women Celebrate International Women’s Day

Iranian women celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) 2005 in Tehran and various cities in Iran. Two of the celebrations reported were in Sanandaj and Saggez, two Kurdish cities in Iran. All of the celebrations were organized by NGO’s.

In Sanandaj 3000 men and women participated in this celebration organized by a women’s organization, The Society for Support of Women (web site in Persian).

There were speeches by various members of this organization and others including one by a youth organization. The speech from the youth organization was delivered by a young man.

The declaration for IWD in Sannandaj included demands for the rights of women such as (these are informal translations from the Persian text):

The speeches related the rights of women to the oppression of global capital.

The speeches and demands show a level of feminist consciousness that extends to issues of class and the oppression of the capitalist system.

I hope to have enough time to translate more news and documents of the activities of women, workers, peace and environmental activists in Iran.

This is news that Americans do not hear and should be spread among the people so that they do not carry on the orientalist and colonialist images of the people in the Third World.

Women for Peace and Justice in Iran

http://women4peace.org

We stand for Peace and Justice for all.

We hold that:

  • The survival of the people of the world depends on a lasting world peace.

  • Peace is only possible through justice for all --
    Social, Economic, and Environmental justice for all people --
    People of any age, ability, gender, nationality, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political ideology, religious belief or secular outlook.

SR/wjw 2005-03-25