[empower] women’s activism

Open letter to President of Afghanistan: H.E. President of Afghanistan, The last decade in the history of our country, despite all the shortcomings, was full of hope for the women of Afghanistan. In the first few years of the decade, we witnessed positive developments toward freedom of women from yokes of captivity, fanaticism and fundamentalism. These hopes opened a new page in history for women and we may dare say that the newly founded democratic government of Afghanistan became a bastion of ideals of gender equality and justice for women who were tired of the rule of fanaticism and misogynism. Those developments revived the lost dignity of Afghanistan at the international level. Alas, those hopes and achievements have been subjected to disruption and regression in recent years leading to human catastrophes such as assassinations, stoning and gender discrimination. 

In a demonstration on 9 August, women activists in Iraq bravely take a stand against the injustices, absence of basic human rights and broken promises suffered by the women of Iraq. In this empowering video clip, the women of Iraq – many of whom live without electricity or housing – take a stand and demand a government which caters, understands and feels the miseries of all its people – regardless of gender, race of religion.

Comme chaque année, nous célébrons avec fierté la promulgation du Code du statut personnel qui, en son temps, le 13 août 1956, a représenté une conquête de la raison moderne et constitué un des éléments clés de l’émancipation féminine. C’est pourquoi aujourd’hui, comme chaque année, nous le célébrerons à notre manière, contre les dénis de l’histoire et l’amnésie générale des mémoires en rendant d’abord hommage au peuple qui en a rendu possible l’esprit et la lettre. Cet hommage nous l’exprimons sans complaisance ni esprit d’exclusive, à tous ceux et celles qui, à titre collectif ou individuel, femmes et hommes, ont posé les jalons de l’émancipation et de la dignité des Tunisiennes. 

According to Javid Kian, the lawyer for 25 year old Maryam Ghorbanzadeh, in a letter to Judiciary intelligence and security, judicial officials (most notably Saeed Mortazavi) decided that the case of Maryam Ghorbanzadeh needs to be resolved so they could deal with Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s case. Javid Kian tells Rooz that “all the attention is focused on the Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani case, and in the midst of it all, the life of Ms. Ghorbanzadeh is at risk.  In the wake of protests against Ms. Ashtiani’s stoning sentence, [authorities] changed the stoning sentence for Ms. Ghorbanzadeh to death by hanging. The ruling was sent to the department that processes death sentences.  She can be executed any moment now.”