NCRI – In the run-up to the International Women’s Day a meeting on women in Iran and their leading role in the nationwide uprising was held at the European Parliament on February 23. The meeting entitled; “Iranian Women At The Forefront Of Change For Democracy And Equality” was chaired and co-chaired by Euro MPs Eva-Britt Svensson, President of the EP Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, and Edith Bauer, from the same committee.
The meeting was attended by dozens of MEPs from various parliamentary groups and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), was the special guest speaker. MEPs addressing the meeting included Roberta Angelilli, Italian Vice President of the European Parliament; Romana Jordan Cizeli, from Slovenia; Sari Essayah, from Finland; Norica Nicolai, Romanian Vice President of Subcommittee on Security and Defence; two Vice Presidents of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality Barbara Matera from Italy and Edite Estrela from Portugal and Mariya Nedelcheva, from Bulgaria. Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Spanish Vice President of the European Parliament and President of the International Committee in Search of Justice, and Struan Stevenson, Chair of Friends of a Free Iran intergroup also joined their female colleagues to laud women in Iran leading the movement for democratic change.
NCRI – In the run-up to the International Women’s Day a meeting on women in Iran and their leading role in the nationwide uprising was held at the European Parliament on February 23. The meeting entitled; “Iranian Women At The Forefront Of Change For Democracy And Equality” was chaired and co-chaired by Euro MPs Eva-Britt Svensson, President of the EP Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, and Edith Bauer, from the same committee.
The meeting was attended by dozens of MEPs from various parliamentary groups and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), was the special guest speaker. MEPs addressing the meeting included Roberta Angelilli, Italian Vice President of the European Parliament; Romana Jordan Cizeli, from Slovenia; Sari Essayah, from Finland; Norica Nicolai, Romanian Vice President of Subcommittee on Security and Defence; two Vice Presidents of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality Barbara Matera from Italy and Edite Estrela from Portugal and Mariya Nedelcheva, from Bulgaria. Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Spanish Vice President of the European Parliament and President of the International Committee in Search of Justice, and Struan Stevenson, Chair of Friends of a Free Iran intergroup also joined their female colleagues to laud women in Iran leading the movement for democratic change.
Speakers condemned the clerical regime’s crimes against demonstrators, particularly women, who are subjected to the cruelest tortures such as sexual harassment. They called on the European Union to support Iranian people’s uprising to establish democracy, human rights and women’s rights. They also called for pressures to be exerted on the Iranian regime to stop political executions and free all those detained during the uprising.
In her remarks, Mrs. Rajavi underlined the fact that women’s participation in the leadership has provided the dynamism for persistence and progress in the resistance. Women’s active presence – as a force rejecting any compromise with the clerical dictatorship – plays a formative role to bring down the regime, she stressed.
