Subject: [fem-women2000 770] [AIWUSA] Iranian Women's Brief #49, Please Read and Pass on
From: AIWUSA <aiwusa@AIWUSA.ORG>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 05:50:15 -0500
Seq: 770
AIWUSA-ASSOCIATION OF IRANIAN WOMEN-USA WEBSITE: http://www.aiwusa.org E-MAIL: AIWUSA@AIWUSA.ORG TEL: 703-941-8584 CONTACT PERSON: BEHJAT DEHGHAN IRANIAN WOMEN'S BRIEF NO.49 JANUARY 2002 - Iranian Resistance condemns misogynous mullahs' deceptive move on Convention for Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women The government-run ISNA news agency reported that the Khatami cabinet has presented to the mullahs' Majlis "a bill on Iran becoming a state party to Convention for Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)." The Foreign Ministry, which has drawn up the bill, has stated that the government's objective in acceding to CEDAW was "to confront and reduce the negative propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran," ISNA reported. The government has laid down two conditions for acceding to the convention: "the Islamic Republic of Iran will only regard as applicable those articles of the Convention that do not contradict Islam" and, secondly, "in case of disagreement on the implementation or alteration of the Convention, Iran will not be bound to follow the procedure for settling the dispute through arbitration or referring the matter to the International Court of Justice." Ms. Sarvnaz Chitsaz, Chair of the NCR's Women's Committee, described the Khatami cabinet's bill as "a new peak of demagoguery and deception by the misogynous mullahs ruling Iran" and said: "Since CEDAW came into force in 1981 as an official United Nations document, more than a hundred states have acceded to it, but the Khatami government is setting conditions for its accession that amount to a de facto rejection of the entire convention. This regime never had and does not have the capacity to recognize even the most rudimentary rights of women stipulated in CEDAW. The mullahs' bill only serves as a reminder of the misogynous and reactionary nature of this regime and is an affront to international covenants and conventions." Women's Committee chair added: "The mullahs claim that 'articles in the Convention contradict Islam' is nothing but a shameless bid to attribute their reactionary antipathy toward women's rights and freedom to Islam." She pointed out that the conditions set by Khatami and his associates mean that "even if it were ratified by the mullahs' Majlis and endorsed by the reactionary Council of Guardians, it would only serve as a propaganda ploy for the regime to evade mounting international pressures, particularly from organizations defending women's rights." Mrs. Chitsaz said: "In the past four years, Khatami, as the head of Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution, personally opposed accession to CEDAW, but now is resorting to a threadbare ploy. It is no secret, however, that the mullahs' criminal record against women only worsened during Khatami's tenure, to the extent that the last report by the Special Representative of the United Nations Human Rights Commission to the General Assembly likened Iran to 'a prison for women.' During this period, 11 out of 17 persons stoned to death were women. Brutal pressures, inhuman discrimination and cruel punishments such as flogging, arrest and torture of women for not observing the mandatory dress code, sexual segregation in medical facilities, etc., are only a part of this shameful record." "The extensive participation of women in popular uprisings, protest demonstrations and antigovernment strikes in recent months have clearly shown that the women of Iran detest this anti-human, misogynous regime in its entirety," Ms. Chitsaz said. "They only see the realization of their rights and freedom in the overthrow of the ruling religious dictatorship with all its criminal factions." - Women's Committee of National Council of Resistance of Iran. _________________________________________________________________________ fem-Women2000@jca.apc.org for Women 2000, UN Special Session on Beijing+5 Searcheable Archive http://www.jca.apc.org/fem/news/women2000/index.shtml visit fem-net HomePage for other mailing lists http://www.jca.apc.org/fem