While Hillary Clinton others Iran, talking tough about how Iran might trigger a nuclear arms race (never mind that companies like Halliburton have been more than happy to supply them with the means to do so) and become a dictatorship (which we only denounce when it is in our so-called political best interest to do so), women in Iran are offering substantive ideas for changing the Iranian paradigm as if women mattered.

Jailed Women Activists In Iran

Via the Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran (WFAFI):

A group of Iranian women activists issued a statement listing their own solutions to the current crisis in the country. They maintain that the proposals put forth by opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi “neglect” the demands of women. Some of the jailed women activists: Iran Arrest of 19 Activists from the Women’s Movement, Women Journalists and Civil Activists Iranian women have been a very key part of the opposition movement.

The statement lists: “annulment of all discriminatory and anti-women laws, recognition of women’s right to their body and mind, ending violence against women and prosecution of all perpetrators of the crimes committed in the past thirty years” as solutions for exiting the current crisis.

They add that women’s issues are a major part of the current crisis and “no solution will be effective” without recognizing and trying to resolve these issues.

The statement also supports general demands such as “freedom of thought, speech and assembly.” While calling for an end to torture and the death penalty, they also express their support for “the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.” Some of these demands are similar to those included in the proposals by Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

The statement emphasizes that the demand of the women community “is not changing the president or limiting the power of the leadership; but rather the realization of fundamental and structural changes.” Shadi Amin, Golrokh Jahanguiri, Fariba Davoudi, Shadi Sadr, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh and Shahla Abghari are amongst the signatories of this statement. Women have played a major role in the recent protests in Iran and scores of women’s activists have been detained and imprisoned for their participation in the protests.

In November, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi condemned the violent treatment of women by government forces during the protests.

Demands included in the statement:

1. Abolishment of all discriminatory laws against women including divorce rights, marriage age, polygamy, inheritance laws, testimony, etc.
2. Recognition of women over her choice of clothing and body. This include freedom of wearing or not wearing the veil, and, abortion rights.
3. Abolishment of all forms of violence against women both at home and in publish, this includes abolishment of honor-killing.
4. Separation of church and state.
5. Prosecution of all the officials engaged in crimes against humanity and women in the past three decades.

See also here and here.

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Feb 152010
 

Press release cross-posted from the Aldermaston (UK) Block and Awe website:

An estimated eight hundred campaigners from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and a number of other countries have joined a blockade of every gate of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston, Berkshire, England. The blockade started at 7am. 

Individuals present at the blockade, which is aimed at halting construction of multi-billion pound facilities for research and development of a new generation of nuclear warheads, include Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jody Williams, from Vermont, USA and Máiread Corrigan-Maguire, from Belfast, Northern Ireland (both Jody and Máiread were locked on using tubes).  Also present are the Catholic bishop of Brentwood, Thomas McMahon; the Anglican bishops Stephen Cottrell (Reading), Mike Hill (Bristol) and Peter Price (Bath and Wells); Jill Evans MEP, Vice President of Plaid Cymru and chair of CND Cymru (Wales); and Kate Hudson, chair of CND.

All gates have been blockaded, with a large number of people locked-on using tubes. In particular, several women are locked-on at the main gate exit, one of whom is in a wheel chair. Police are currently cutting people out of their lock-ons. Five arrests have been made to this point, with more expected over the course of the day.

Brian Larkin, a Trident Ploughshares (TP) activist who travelled from Helensburgh, Scotland, said: “This is the biggest blockade of Aldermaston in years and comes at a time when even major political parties are questioning the logic of spending up to £97 billion  on useless weapons. It demonstrates the depth and breadth of determined civil society opposition to Trident and its planned replacement.  Although the government now seems to have delayed the next phase of Trident replacement until after the general election, the ongoing construction of facilities at the AWE for the design, development and manufacture of new nuclear warheads is illegal and immoral and will only lead to further proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Angie Zelter, co-founder of TP, who travelled from Knighton, Wales, added: “In May, world governments will meet to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT);  but this program of modernisation of UK nuclear weapons violates the treaty and could lead to a disastrous failure of the Review Conference. Over forty years ago, when it signed up to the treaty, the UK made a deal to negotiate multilateral nuclear disarmament in exchange for states without nuclear weapons agreeing not to obtain them. Not only have we failed to keep that promise but now we are preparing to build a new generation of nuclear weapons. If the government wants to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons it should get rid of its own nuclear weapons first. We are calling on the UK to abide by its agreement to achieve nuclear disarmament – that means taking Trident off patrol, halting all work and preparations for any new generation of nuclear weapons and using the AWE only for disarmament and verification.”

Sarah Lasenby, a TP activist who travelled from Oxford, added: “The time has come for the UK to disarm its nuclear weapons. Instead of building a new generation, the government should go to the upcoming NPT Review Conference in New York and commit to negotiations for a Nuclear Weapons Convention to abolish nuclear weapons worldwide.” 

Each of the gates to the nuclear weapons site is themed: Scotland, Wales, England, internationals, cyclists and environmentalists, faith groups, women and students. Choirs, medical professionals, academics and politicians are also present.

Media contacts: Daniel Viesnik 07506 234 091; Brian Larkin 07768 312 676; Angie Zelter 07835 354 652

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The following report by Maria Suarez Toro from the Feminist International Solidarity Camp, “Myriam Merlet, Anne Maria Coriolan and Magalie Marcelin,” (named after the three Haitian feminist activists killed in the quake) that has been set up in Haiti is re-posted with the kind permission of the author. To learn more about the camp and the work that they are doing click here and here.

GUARDIANS OF HISTORY
By María Suárez Toro, and RIF-Fire Communications
Center Feminist International Camp
Translation by Amandla Gigler, Executive
Director at CALALA Fondo de Mujeres / Women’s FundLise

Marie Jean, a feminist leader from SOFA in Haiti, warned us about the situation of buried historical records, during a gathering of over three dozen Latin American and Caribbean feminists, in the Dominican Republic on January 26-27. She told us that Haitian women grieve over the irreparable loss of many lives, “but also because buried under the rubble of what was EnfoFam¹s office, is the historical record of the origins of feminism in our country, as this was the first [feminist] organization.”

She told us about the damage to Kay Fam, another feminist organization, the national library buried in the center of the city and the documentation centers on culture, human rights and other issues.We went to Port au Prince to honor the thousands of people, including feminist leaders, who had died, to show solidarity with the people who had survived, to bring humanitarian aid and to alleviate other needs, and to see what more could be done.

And while we covered the news from our feminist gaze, we knew we had to say farewell to our historical memory in Haiti, also.Feminists in the region had already agreed at the meeting that all of the communication networks will excavate Haitian interviews and documents that they have in their own records of the past 30 years.

The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Journalists, the Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE) and the Center for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) are launching a call to others. Upon reaching the city, we ask Lise Marie to take us to the ruins of EnfoFanm¹s locale, to document the reality. It was a two-story house in a suburb near the city.

Our gazes cloud over at the site of the old sign with the name of the organization that sways in the Caribbean breeze, hitting the shattered cement.We find ourselves against the grain of the first guardian of history.

Madame Lisie comes over from the house across the street to tell us that we cannot enter. But she knows Lise Marie, who is accompanied by Flavia Cherry with RIF’s camera. I arrived later. They filmed to tell the world. When I arrive, I’m reluctant to make my farewell. “They are there, intact, look at them! “We must make an appeal to UNESCO and UNIFEM to come recue them. The building, although it is destroyed, still has its frame standing, although it is extremely vulnerable. Some things inside are visible. There are the
files.

We return the next day with Silvie from the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights. The guardian comes out like a friend, but we explain ourselves and she speaks with us. We thank her for her vigilance and go on to our next encounter with the present and the past. We see that the Executive Secretary of the organization arrived this morning. This makes us glad. Whatever can be saved should be placed in her hands; this is the legacy of the protagonist-guardians.

We go to the second locale, Kay Fanm¹s office. Again we are intercepted immediately. This time is a young Canadian man – Etienne Cote-Paluck – who is protecting the locale, this one not completely destroyed, but not habitable. All of the activists were unharmed, except the organization¹s director, Magali Marcelin, who, when the earthquake struck, had just stepped out of a building where she was in a meeting.

He asks us for identification and explanations. He lets us in and tell us what has happened. He breaks down in the middle of the story. “Magali was a second mother to me. I am the son of a Canadian feminist and the truth is that they raised me! “He tells us that he already knows about the International Feminist Camp and is working to provide coverage to MSNBC in Canada, and he wants to interview us. He carries out his journalism from his position as guardian of memory. Magali lives among us and the new generation of young people who were marked by her. I am encouraged.

The third visit is the office of the “Ministry for the Status of Women and the Rights of Women”. All that remained standing was the sign that faces the street.

The view is horrible. Not one stone is left to support another.The silence embraces us, the rubble shakes us, legs falter, instincts are incite, although if the ground were to tremble there’s nothing that could fall. Two floors of concrete lying on the floor like paper watered by the wind.

At the entrance there is no guardian. Myriam Merlet, one of the feminists who passed, who with others founded Enfo Fanm, had put so much political strength to that Ministry. The Minister and many staff had also died.

I pick up a page, out of all the scattered material between pieces of concrete. It is an invitation dated 10 May 2007, addressed to the Minister, for a “National Forum on Education for All”.

The Minister of that time was Marie Laurence Lassegue, the current Minister of Culture, one of the survivors.

My hand shakes. It seems incredible that a piece of paper can suddenly be charged with so much meaning. I don¹t know if it is the first piece of history that is recovered, but I’m taking a Haitian women’s organization for their museum, or perhaps I¹ll look for the Minister of Culture when the time is right, to request assistance from UNESCO and UNIFEM to recover the memory.

A deep sadness mixes in me with the wind on a road toward the recovery of memory. I pay tribute to those missing from history, so that we do not lose them.

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If President Obama truly wanted to clean up the disaster known as the economy, he would immediately fire Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and replace him with Elizabeth Warren, the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to investigate the U.S. banking bailout (the Wall Street giveaway formally known as TARP), She has proven time and again that she understands the issue and is not afraid to call it like it is as she so eloquently demonstrates on this appearance on The Daily Show.

Unfortunately, in the same clip, Jon Stewart also demonstrates a bad case of dick in brain disease.  Wait for the last line.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Elizabeth Warren
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Really??  He couldn’t express respect without devolving into a testosterone crazed teenage wet dream? About as classy as when George Bush gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel a shoulder massage.- And just a hunch, but I’m betting that he wouldn’t say that to Geithner or Bernanke (who should also be shown the door.  Ditto Larry Summers).

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Like many of you, I have  discouragement  fatigue.  No matter what we do, it seems that the corporate and and government leaders are determined to take the fast road to hell in a handbasket.  We  keep waging war, we continue to destroy the environment, people are hungry and sick, too many have lost jobs and homes, our schools and roads are in disrepair.  Getting out of bed in the morning sounds like a really bad idea.  What difference will it make if we sign one more petition, call our elected officials one more time, let alone head out into frigid temperatures to a protest gathering?

One very good reason is that it is not so much about the impact our actions have on others but rather how our actions empower ourselves.  I have written multiple times about the power of protest and standing up for what you believe in (here, here and here)  but what is so difficult to capture in words is the spiritual empowerment of standing your ground. I’m not sure how many protests I attended before I came to understand this–quite a few–until one day, standing with a few friends protesting outside of a lecture given by Condoleezza Rice, I found myself feeling literally rooted to the cold sidewalk where we stood. That is something you have to feel to understand, not something that can be adequately said in words.  But since that time, whenever I am out on the street,  I stop to pay attention to the strength and connectedness that comes from standing your ground.

Wile at a vigil in 2005, two days after being arrested and jailed when trying to enlist at the Times Square Recruiting Center (left to right: Miriam Poser, Joan Wile, Cindy Sheehan, Carole Abrahams, Joan Kaye and Maggie Vall)

Joan Wile, founder of Grandmothers Against the War and one of my sheroes has a wonderful piece on her blog, where she talks about why the sense of empowerment that comes from standing up for what you believe in is so important in these discouraging times (and while both she and I are talking about standing in the literal sense, as I try to do in my writing every day, you can do a whole lot of standing up from a sitting down position :-).  Describing the weekly gathering of Grandmothers Against War on the day after George Bush was re-elected she writes,

The other people standing on Fifth Avenue with me were equally depressed and ready to give up the struggle. You’ve never seen so many long faces.

Then, an amazing thing happened. As we stood there with our peace signs and banners, the black clouds in our minds began to waft away. Slowly, we began to smile and chatter in our usual good spirits. By the end of the vigil, we were practically jubilant. Nothing had changed — the grim reality was still the fact that the worst President in history was going to head the government for another four years and reap hideous injustices and catastrophes. But, WE had changed. We had decided to press on and continue battling for our issues.

It was clear that in the act of fighting back, we were able to banish our hopeless feelings.

Eve Tetaz at an anti-war protest in March 2007. By Lori Perdue.

Eve Tetaz at an anti-war protest in March 2007. By Lori Perdue.

Or put another way, in the words of Eve Tetaz, an almost 79 year old who has racked up her 21rst arrest for protesting puts it,

“In everything I do,” she said, flashing her large smile, “I want to be a reflection of my faith.”

Indeed. Imagine the power of what might happen if every person who feels that corporations should not be more powerful than people and every person who is unemployed and every person who cannot afford healthcare and every person who believes in the right to breathable air and drinkable water and every person who has lost a home or lost a child or spouse to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were to gather with their neighbors in the town squares of this country. Not in anger although goodness knows we have every right to be, but simply to empower ourselves with the act of standing up for our lives. That would be a force to be reckoned with.

Crossposted from Reclaiming Medusa.

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