They protest for equal rights, if only to be included in the category of 'human' when 'human rights'are being considered! Women in Iran may have finally achieved the distinct status of 'Reading Lolita in Tehran'! Iranian women are making news by speaking up against some tenets in the 'Shariyah'. By western standards these demands are but a pittance; to have equal rights to inherited property, to travel outside of the country by ones own volition and not having to seek permission from a husband or the male in charge! Their very asking for these seems prepostrous and archaic!
Yet, it is Iran we are talking about, and an Iran that's changed considerably, and is still changing since the time of the Ayatollah regime. The fact that these women could protest, and that the protest was covered by the world media, is proof of that change; a far cry from the Iran of the eighties. No wonder we have the very first female race car driver in Iran, Laleh Seddigh, who though blanked out by the national media, was allowed to participate in all the events; so far an exclusively male perogative. She is now a popular icon of female emancipation in Iran who believes, "I have to move whatever is movable in the world". Kudos to Laleh Seddigh!
2 comments:
this is definitely good news - especially as the uprising is coming from iranian women. however, i heard rumor recently that the new iranian empowerment is not all that it is made to be. i think it was time magazine that ran an article saying that most iranian youth just don't care as long as they are able to drive in their fast cars, dance in their loud discotheques, and drink in their freeway bars.
another question i have about this is whether it is externally motivated. ie, i hope this is not being promoted by some western ngo. while it is completely wrong in western culture to deny the rights of women, as per the shariah, there are several things that women are not allowed to do. however wrong it may seem to people of western beliefs, it is incorrect to force western morals into a system that has, for a long time now, lived in a different moral system. otherwise, we sink to the level of some infamous compassionate conservatives, pushing democracy into states that may perhaps not have wanted it.
all that aside, for the time being, i concur with the writer that this is absolutely a positive step. anything that comes from the population questioning the authority of a government is useful, no matter how little.
The iranians have given their verdict. Let us see what the new government
brings about.
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