NOW Springs to the Defense of Iranian Feminists — NOT
I caught these two items relating to the same situation earlier this week from Iran Press News, and went to the sources:
(AFP) Iranian women rights activists arrested
Sun Mar 4, 1:37 PM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian security forces on Sunday arrested around 30 women’s rights activists rallying outside a Tehran court where a group of their fellow campaigners were on trial over a demonstration last year.
(BBC) Iran women arrested over protest
Sunday, 4 March 2007, 14:18 GMT
Iran’s authorities have arrested more than 32 women activists protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran.
The protesters were showing solidarity with five women on trial for organising a protest last June against laws they say discriminate against women.
The Washington Post managed to get the story to Page A15 on Tuesday.
So of course I went to the web site of the supposedly leading feminist organization in the US (that would be, as Dr. Laura like to refer to them, the “National Organization of I Don’t Know What Kind of Women”) to see what they were doing to give this situation visibility or to provide them tangible assistance — and found nothing on the home page or in its Global Feminism section, which has no entries since October of last year (I didn’t know that women around the world are being treated so well that there’s nothing to report on or to be concerned about).
NOW is too busy working on the “Surge for Peace” and other nonsense.
Hmm — I wonder if Iraqi women are objectively better or worse off now than under Saddam “Rape Rooms” Hussein?
And it seems especially pertinent on International Women’s Day — a day the Iranian government has apparently focused on keeping free of controversy — to ask why the brave Iranian feminists aren’t deserving of NOW’s attention.
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UPDATE: Apparently 33 women were involved. BBC, which noted earlier that the women had gone on a hunger strike, now reports that 30 were released on Wednesday, and were “warned not to take part in any protests to mark International Women’s Day on Thursday.” As to the others:
Two of the activists and their lawyer are still in jail but the rest of the women arrested on Sunday were freed in the middle of the night.
The families of two other activists were visited at night by the authorities and asked to sign pledges that the women would not demonstrate on International Women’s Day.
Apparently they didn’t. More from the BBC report:
The decision to arrest so many prominent women in one go for peacefully holding up placards outside a court has won the Iranian government much negative publicity internationally.
Women activists say they have been subject to increasing intimidation since they launched a campaign to collect 1m signatures on a petition to change discriminatory laws like polygamy and child custody, which normally goes to the father in Iran.
The Iranian situation is a perfect opportunity for NOW to show what they’re made of. Actually, by their silence, they have.
UPDATE 2: AP is reporting that “Most were freed on bails ranging from $11,000 to $55,000.”
