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Iran-Women: Mrs. Rajavi urged New York conference to defend Iranian women's rights |
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Tuesday, 06 December 2005 |
 NCRI – In a message to women’s conference in New York today, Mrs.
Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of
Iran, said: “Women in Ashraf, who are carrying out the burden of a
complex, painful and difficult struggle against the most misogynist,
reactionary force of history, must be supported by their sisters across
the world.” Camp Ashraf in Iraq is where members of the People’s
Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the main Iranian opposition, reside.
While they are being recognized as protected persons under the Geneva
Fourth Convention, they are a target of the clerical regime’s terrorist
conspiracies in Iraq. The following is the full text of Mrs. Rajavi’s
message to the conference:
In offering my warmest greetings, I laud your fruitful gathering and your efforts in the cause of gender equality.
Your gathering today is dealing with a critical issue as it addresses
the clearest objective and the most urgent duty in the equality
movement, namely, defending the women in Ashraf City. For the most
active and pioneering women's movement and the most tortuous struggle
for liberation, peace, freedom and democracy are today reflected in
Ashraf City and in the resistance of women there.
In the distant past, there were few if any women ready and willing to
wage a selfless struggle and hoist the flag of a campaign for
liberation and equality. Today, however, there are thousands of
courageous, selfless women who are leading a progressive movement that
represents noble ideals and is the epicenter of the confrontation
against the theocracy ruling Iran and the fundamentalists it supports
around the globe.
In this daunting campaign, these women have
- created a new culture by breaking the myth of not
believing in themselves, as well as the myth of historical inability
and weakness of women;
- brought to fruition many mottos and ideals of the equality movement;
- taken charge of the most crucial leadership
positions in the resistance movement. Ashraf City, which stood resolute
in the face of major conspiracies was commanded by heroic women such as
Mojgan Parsai and Sedigheh Hosseini (past and present PMOI Secretary
Generals) and a generation of other responsible women;
- assumed this responsibility at the most crucial
times, for they have constantly been subjected to the mullahs'
conspiracies and pressures. The devastating bombing of Ashraf City by
the US and the United Kingdom at the behest of the mullahs, Tehran's
plots to have members of this movement expelled from Iraq or extradited
– unrelenting to the day -, the encirclement of Ashraf City and the
denial of food and medicine for those staying there, and an assortment
of security perils in the heart of a country engulfed in bombing and
the fire of war, are all part of these pressure that are being exerted
in the context of a massive psychological warfare and a campaign of
demonization by the clerical regime. Nevertheless, the proud women of
Ashraf have remained steadfast amidst such grave dangers.
These women are not merely engaged in a normal, albeit difficult and
intense, struggle. They are fighting on the front lines of the battle
against Islamic fundamentalism. They are struggling against a hydra
that has arisen from the Middle Ages and seeks to take the world back
to the Dark Ages.
The vanguard women of Ashraf have not attained this position easily.
They have forsaken their careers and family life, devoting their entire
abilities, energies and compassion to this cause. Tens of thousands of
patient, aware and brave women were tortured or sent to the gallows in
order for Iranian women to conquer the zenith of liberation and open
the path to freedom and democracy in Iran.
The heroic women of Ashraf are the pivotal force in a political
alternative in the face of the ruling religious dictatorship. In its
platform, this alternative seeks complete gender equality in all
political, social and economic arenas. It rejects any compulsion and
imposition in women's clothing, education, occupation, marriage and
divorce. It has also banned any exploitation of women under whatever
pretext.
The Mojahed women of Ashraf are the true face of the democratic and
tolerant Islam and have defeated the backwardness, violence and
misogyny that Islamic fundamentalists have put forth.
They are not only the most effective model and inspiration for the
liberation of women in Iran and the region, but by virtue of combating
misogyny, the bedrock of the fundamentalists' reactionary mindset, they
have found the proper way to defeat them.
Dear Friends,
Women in Ashraf, who are carrying out the burden of a complex, painful
and difficult struggle against the most misogynist, reactionary force
of history, must be supported by their sisters across the world.
In the name of the equality movement, I ask for your support to save
the women in my homeland, who are ruthlessly flogged, hanged and stoned
to death. I also ask for your support in the confrontation with the
ogre of Islamic fundamentalism whose evil shadow has thrown the life
and destiny of everyone in the region, especially women, into darkness.
I urge each and every one of you to rise and defend the heroic women of Ashraf.
I thank you all.
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