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.




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