- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 1
-
Sparkle (0)
When people don't protest against the violence that many girls and women face - whether in the United States or abroad - our silence condones the behavior. If vigilance is the eternal price of liberty in general, then it is doubly so when we think about the many barriers women around the world face in their quest to live their lives. While I was on vacation at the end of last year/start of this year, I noticed a story in newspaper about the continued harassment of Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian (and the first Muslim woman) to win the Nobel Peace Prize, by the Iranian government. As Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi reported in The Los Angeles Times:
Ebadi, 61, said in an interview today that the two police officers finally dispatched after her frantic phone calls to the authorities “just watched” as the vandals ripped the sign bearing her name off the front of her house, screamed that she was a supporter of Israel’s Gaza offensive and spray-painted slogans on the front of her building.
She added, “I am scared to go back to my home.”
Thursday’s demonstration marks the third time in 11 days that authorities or forces close to the authorities have moved against Ebadi, whose small Center for the Defense of Human Rights compiled a report cited by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that led to a nonbinding Dec. 18 U.N. resolution calling on Iran improve its human rights record.
Amanda at Avast! Feminist Conspiracy! shared a petition from The Feminist Majority Foundation asking for help:
In August 2006, we and human rights organizations throughout the world asked you and other people of conscience to write the Iranian government, which at that time was threatening to arrest Ebadi and close the center. The Iranian authorities responded and the center remained open. We are asking you to help again... [Dr. Ebadi's] bravery, leadership, and determination is unforgettable. Time and time again she has risked her life for women and children. We cannot let her down. Write to urge Iran's swift reversal of these actions against Shirin Ebadi and permit the reopening of her human rights organization.
Shirin Ebadi's work is obviously crucial for so many reasons. Part of what makes it critical is that it is lead by Iranians and supported by outsiders, not imposed upon a nation by outsiders. Many times in our zeal to help people, Western feminists and other human rights workers might cross the line between doing good and acting like imerialists. Eman Mansour, a campaigner with the anti-fundamentalist human rights group the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), wrote a powerful report on the horrific conditions imposed upon women in her home nation of Afghanistan, but conlcuded:
RAWA believes that no other nation can liberate Afghan women, and it is their own responsibility to raise and fight for their rights. In this hard fight we need the support and solidarity of peace-loving and democratic-minded people of the world.
Another voice for women, Wajeha Al-Huwaider, is the founder of the Society of Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia. According to PEN, she:
Wajeha Al-Huwaider has been subjected to harassment since May 2003, when she was first banned from publishing. A prominent Saudi Arabian author and journalist, Al-Huwaider wrote for the Arabic language daily Al-Watan and the English language daily Arab News. Al-Huwaider writes on political, social and cultural issues in the Arab world, including women's rights, the treatment of the Shiite minority, and relations with the West. She also writers poetry and short stories. In 2004, she received the PEN/NOVIB Free Expression award.
On 20 September 2006, Al-Huwaider was arrested in her home by the Saudi secret police and questioned about a protest on women's rights she was organising, despite the fact that the protest had already been cancelled due to fear of reprisals. Before she was released, Al-Huwaider was forced to sign a statement agreeing to cease all human rights activism. She was also banned from travelling outside Saudi Arabia. The travel ban was lifted on 28 September and she was able to return to Bahrain where she currently resides.
Do we want to stop acid attacks on girls and women attending school in Afghanistan? Western feminists should find out what RAWA thinks would be useful actions for us to take. Do we want to help girls facing forced underage marriage in Saudi Arabia? Then work with Saudi feminist leaders like Wajeha
