INF letter to U.N.:Nomination of Women’s Liberation Movement of Iran for the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights

7/20/2008       Back To Previous Page

UnitedNations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland Subject: Nomination of Women’s Liberation Movement of Iran for the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights Your Excellency, Since the Islamic Republic took power in Iran nearly three decades ago, women of Iran have been treated as second-class citizens, and laws have been instituted in order to deprive Iranian women officially of their basic civil and human rights. The new laws not only stripped Iranian women of their traditional and historical equality with men, but prescribed the most inhumane punishments for any violations of these newly instituted restrictions. A woman is considered half a man in courts, civil disputes, and material comparatives, although in punishments women must take even part of what man must endure. They are forced to dress and behave according to official guidelines and continually harassed, insulted or arrested in the streets, at gatherings, and at places of employment. During the past three years, suppression of Iranian women has escalated to alarmingly violent levels. There isn’t a day when a number of protestors and women’s rights activists are not beaten, arrested, jailed without cause, sexually mistreated or suspiciously killed, all without any accountability. Woman is treated as a means of providing for man’s needs, rather than as an individual with individual rights. Women of Iran, from mothers of mature age to young college students, have been protesting their treatment by the regime. During the past three years the protests have gradually grown to a nationwide and international-scale liberation movement. The more the movement has become widespread and outspoken, echoing in the farthest reaches of world public opinion and conscience, the more violently the regime of the Islamic Republic has responded against its leaders and activists. These activists, however, have stood their ground and have not budged under the harassment, threats and violence. Women’s Liberation Movement of Iran, much like the African-American civil rights movement of the 1960s in the United States, is for liberation from modern day slavery. What makes the Iranian liberation movement of women different from similar movements in the history of all nations is that Iranian women come from a background and cultural heritage of equality with men, and used to have freedom of movement throughout the levels of civil society—without limitation. Whereas other women’s movements have been to achieve the civil and human rights they rightly deserved but never had, the Iranian women’s liberation movement is to gain back the rights recently had been taken away from them by the Islamic Republic, through official sanctions and brutality. While the yearning for equal rights is shared by every person, understandably the pain Iranian women have been enduring is higher and the loss of rights more devastating than those who had never experienced equality before in their lives. We must recognize the gravity and the implications of so drastic and so recent a backward slide in the world’s progress toward the realization of universal rights. Therefore, since we consider Women’s Liberation Movement of Iran within Iran and around the world a symbol of perseverance, a sustained defiance against official violence and brutality, all while keeping their movement civil and peaceful, they deserve to receive the United Nations Human Rights Prize for 2008. Let the legacy of these brave women live long in the history of human rights movements around the world. Respectfully submitted, Kourosh Zaim, on behalf of The leadership council of Iran National Front Tehran, July 17, 2008

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