movementwatch.com

Two prominent Iranian activists must celebrate their birthdays in prison. Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer and human rights activist, who has been the legal representative of many political activists, children under 18 with execution sentences, and several imprisoned street protesters after the disputed June 2009 election, was summoned to Evin prison in September 2010 and was kept in solitary confinement.

Abdollah Momeni, a student activist and longtime spokesperson of the Alumni Association of Iran (Advar-e Tahkim Vahdat) organization, was arrested in June 2009 as part of a massive arrest of social activists in Iran and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. Momeni was kept in solitary confinement and was under grieving pressure and torture to give false confessions.

Both Sotoudeh and Momeni went on hunger strike last year to object to their imprisonment and the terrible condition of prison. This week, instead of celebrating their birthdays, they are still behind the bars on vague charges, denied family visits, denied access to lawyer, and witness abuse and harrassment in Iran’s Notorious Evin prison.

"You might be in a cell in Iran right now, but the human spirit can never be chained"

March 12, 2011 - Supporters of the One Million Signatures Campaign in California organized a four hour long afternoon program in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day (March 8th).

The California branch of this Iran-based campaign for women's rights and gender equality is active mainly in southern California, where there is a large and diverse Iranian population. As a result, the afternoon's programming took place at one of the region's leading universities, the University of California, Irvine (Orange County, to the south of Los Angeles). The emphasis of the commemoration this year was on solidarity between women's movements in Iran and in neighboring countries, a theme inspired by the successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, and also by ongoing struggles for basic freedoms of rights in a number of countries across the Arab world, including Libya, Bahrain, and Yemen.

The day's events were divided into six sections. After a short speech of welcome from one of the Campaign's local activists, Ms. Sudabeh Farokhnia, four invited speakers reflected on women's movements in various parts of the region, points of similarity and difference, and the challenges facing women worldwide.

To see the speaker's vidoes of the event, please click here

Dr. Faiza Shereen, born in Egypt, director of the International Center at California State University, Pomona, distinguished scholar of comparative literature, playwright, poet, mother and grandmother, talked about Egypt with particular emphasis on the way in which women's struggles are misrepresented in the United States, with a continuing recourse to Orientalist tropes and clichés. She pointed out that many popular and media conceptions prevailing in the United States of women in majority Muslim countries were distorted by a severe anti-Islamic bias, or by feelings of superiority, whereas in fact various forms of discrimination and violence against women persist in the United States, and that from women's perspective, there is "no such thing as a developed country". At the end of her presentation she showed a short video clip made by a female Egyptian video jockey offering an innovative and passionate look at women's struggles in Egypt and elsewhere.

By Sussan Tahmassebi

I had tried to connect with Bahareh before her arrest. I had sent her several emails to set up a time when we could do an interview. I was doing interviews with members of the One Million Signatures Campaign, to try to document their involvement in the effort. Bahareh was an important figure in our Campaign, who had not only played a critical role in connecting students interested in becoming involved in promoting women’s rights with the Campaign, but was critical in organizing female students to address gender disparities in the university setting. She was instrumental in an effort to set up the Women’s Commission of the Office to Foster Unity (one of the major national student organizations) and had played an important role in bridging the student and women’s movements.

But activists were under pressure during those days and such meetings were difficult to arrange. In the aftermath of the disputed presidential elections, political and social activists had been arrested, often at random with no understandable logic. Some were arrested for doing interviews, others for speaking out or writing in objection to developments in the country, some for objecting to human rights violations generally or more specifically the arrest of their colleagues and some for participating in and organizing protests. But most were arrested based on a perceived threat, as a way to intimidate others, a means to quiet popular protest, or simply for having been identified by security forces as a political, social, human rights, women’s rights or student rights activist in the past.

By Elahe Amani

The 1932 work of French novelist Balzac, “A Woman of Thirty” (Une Femme de Trente Ans), is the story of a spirited woman during the 19^th century. In “A Woman of Thirty,” Eugenie is the finest Balzac female character, radiant in generosity of her love. The story clung to my memory after first reading it at the age of seventeen. Eugenie perseveres amidst her own 19th century European society of pain and of limits on her aspirations. One of the lines of the story that has remained vividly in my mind was when Eugenie told Monsieur le President, “ I know what pleases you in me. Swear to leave me free during my whole life, to claim none of the rights which marriage will you over me, and my hand is yours.”

Fast forward a couple centuries in history and the stories of the spirited women of thirty in the 21^st century also cling to my memory. From Iran to Egypt, from Pakistan to the United States, Eugenies abound, particularly in the global south –rewriting the stories of their lives, the stories of “Women of Thirty”, with resilience, bravery, and passion. Bahareh Hedayat, a younger Iranian woman’s rights and student activist is one of the spirited “Women of Thirty”. She will celebrate her 30^th birthday and wedding anniversary on April 5^th, in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. To commemorate Bahareh’s 30th Birthday, a group of Iranian women and student activists launched a global campaign to Free Bahareh Hedayat.