NCRI – In an unprecedented conference in Paris on 10 March, 2012, women who had gathered from several continents called for support for women who have risen in the Arab world to struggle against tyranny and fundamentalism and also for women of Iranian Resistance in camps Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq who are facing serious threats. This conference was convened at a time that the second group of 400 Ashraf residents has moved to Camp Liberty in Iraq.
Sara Philips:
Before I start I would like to invite, I see there’s several youth over here, several French youths. Would you please come up on stage with me? [applause] [lots of cheering] Thank you. My name is Sara Phillips. I’m a scholar of women’s studies globalization. I fight for equality every single day of my life no matter whether it be a cup of coffee and conversation with friends or it be here standing in front of a wonderful audience like you. Madame Rajavi, honored guests, my friends, I’m humbled to be here today in front of this amazing assembly. I say amazing because who I see before me are some incredibly powerful women. Where would the world be without us? A much lonelier and darker place. It is on the shoulders of women that history is made but it’s rarely told. Today, there are a thousand brave women at Ashraf and Liberty that history is being created right now. [applause] Years from now, grandmothers will look at their granddaughters and tell them a story. They will say, “Once upon a time I had to do something that was contrary to what I was told to do and it was the right thing. And because of it the world today is a better place. Life will not be easy but know that the harder road leads to the greater reward.”
As we come together to celebrate the accomplishments of women worldwide, I would like to offer a few thoughts. A woman alone standing is like a small stick; she can break and just be discarded. But if you hold in your hands several sticks together suddenly they become unbreakable. That is like the force of the women at Ashraf. [applause] While we here today might not be behind the gates that are guarded by the golden lions, we too can band together and support the cause for equality and fair and equal treatment for women. We are standing together today and lifting our voices that our words might aid the women of Ashraf to stand a little bit stronger to face the oppression that the mullahs rain down upon them. It is the greatest fear of the mullahs to see that strength, that raw courage and conviction of what it means to be a woman. Women have borne out the brunt of inequality for long enough. It is our time to take our equal place in this world and demand respect even at the greatest cost.
I engage those of you that are here today and those that may be listening to my words around the world do not forget where you came from. We all have different color to our skin, different color to our eyes, and different color to our hair but we were all born of a woman for only a woman has the strength to give new life. It is my mantle as a woman to make my voice heard because for too long too many of my sisters of the past have let their voices go silent or forgotten. What can we do to aid the women of Ashraf aside from these words in these conferences? We’re all here at this conference today because we all already agree. It is those that don’t agree with us or know about the situation that we need to turn and focus our efforts on. We must appeal to the forces that can make a change.
As we speak, the women and the men of Ashraf are facing a greater challenge. They are in fact forcibly being relocated to a camp that is anything but humane. It is beyond me why Iraq chose to keep the name Liberty when even the most basic of needs are not being met. It is nothing about the place that suggests liberty. The fact that there is a four-meter tall concrete wall suggests that this is in fact a prison. When water, the very first thing a human needs to survive is denied, that is an active act of oppression. Not only are our friends being denied the sustenance to sustain their bodies and also their hygiene, they are mentally being tormented by the guards around the clock in the prison walls.
I implore each of you to get involved, get involved now. Write to your respective legislators [applause] your lawmakers, your parliament. Write to your newspapers, even the local ones. Call your radios and call your televisions. The only way for something to be heard is for it to be discovered. Much of the world is in the dark about what is truly happening at Ashraf and to the men and women who fight side by side for equality. The injustice is beyond contemplation. It can only be rectified through our unity and strength as we work as one solid voice.
The U.S. and the European Union must take action now. They must put pressure on the Iraqi government to provide for the very basic of needs for those that are being transferred to Liberty and also those that still reside at Ashraf. Let us work together to make sure that the sacrifice of those that are at Ashraf and Liberty are not in vain. I physically stand here in Paris today but really I stand with all of you women at Ashraf and I cry with one strong, solid voice, “Equality for all.”
