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Voices of Women Living With Fundamentalism
last updated: November 18, 2011
Web page contents
Articles, Information, Books, Links, Websites
Iran Freedom for Women in Iran
Articles of Interest
Books of Interest:
* Prisoner of Tehran
* Even After All This Time, A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran
* Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope
* My Name Is Iran
* Reading Lolita in Tehran
Valuable links
Afghanistan Freedom for Women in Afghanistan
* Zoya's Story, An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom
* With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
* Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance
* Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan, The Martyr Who Founded RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
* Women for Afghan Women
* The Storyteller's Daughter, One Woman's Return to Her Lost Homeland
* My Forbidden Face
* Our Woman in Kabul
* Unveiled: Voices of Women in Afghanistan
* Women of Afghanistan
* The Bookseller of Kabul
Saudi Arabia Freedom for Women in the Saudi Arabia
Articles of Interest
Book of Interest:
* Growing Up bin Laden
Iraq Freedom for Women in Iraq
Articles of Interest
Books of Interest:
* Barefoot in Baghdad
* Between Two Worlds, Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam
* Mayada, Daughter of Iraq
USA Freedom for Women in the USA
Books of Interest:
* Escape
* Under the Banner of Heaven
* Jesus Land
* Nomad
* Infidel
* The Caged Virgin, An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam
* Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World
* Prisoners of Ritual: An Odyssey into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa
* Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing
* War Is Not Over When It's Over, Women Speak Out From the Ruins of War
Additional Websites of Interest
Articles of Interest:
* Amid Middle East Unrest, Tehran's Regime Executes another Woman, Zahra Bahrami, a 45-year-old Dutch citizen, executed in Iran
February 1, 2011
http://www.wfafi.org/wfafistatement55.htm
* All out War Against Iranian Women
Human Rights Must be at the Center of Policy Towards Iran
January 14, 2011
http://www.wfafi.org/wfafistatement54.htm
* Widespread Arrests of Women’s Rights Activists, Female Journalists and Relatives
January 5, 2010
http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2010/01/arrests-womens-activists/
*Press Release from Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran
March 7, 2011
Protesting the misogynous regime in Tehran
BOSTON, MA- The centennial anniversary of International Women's Day in Iran will be celebrated by thousands of brave men and women protesting the misogynous regime in Tehran. Organized opposition movements, personalities and activists at home and abroad have called for street protests in major Iranian cities to demand regime change. Indigenous call for change is firmly rooted in the women's socio-political movement which has now coupled with broader movements for change.
Women have the most to gain from a democratic change in Iran. For more than three decades, Iranian women have systematically and systemically suffered from the brutal discrimination in social, political and economic fronts. Given the role of Iran's supreme leader (vali-e-faqih, Ali Khamenei), women's rights and lives are controlled by the state in both private and public spheres.
It is for this reason that protests and rallies in Iran are calling for "Death to Khamenei" and "Death to the foundation of Velayat-e faqih (absolute rule of clergy)."
Women from all walks of life, mourning mothers, daughters, wives and sisters are pressing for a fundamental change in Iran. Their bravery and relentless desire for freedom is seen in the streets and even in the darkest corners of regimes' secret torture chambers. Several recent comments by regime's leaders and official reports indicate how the women's resistance in Iran is different than others in the Middle East. The Iranian regime has declared any effort for advancing women's rights and push for legal reform as "threats against its national security." Conversely, the recent statement by the mourning mothers reaches beyond Iran and reads "To date, in this region called the Middle East, women's share has been nothing but oppression and inequality, and our pain has continuously been compounded. With the victory of every uprising anywhere in the region, fear of overlooking our wishes by the new rulers has consumed the vast population of women... we declare our determination and unwavering commitment to our demands." There is no doubt the misogynous regime in Tehran is frightful of the organized women's movement, particularly of those who have reached a notable leadership and recognition within the opposition movements such as Maryam Rajavi and the 1000 women in Camp Ashraf.
In tomorrow's rally protesters raise their voices to say:
· We demand equality of men and women in all aspects of economic, social and legal matters;
· We wish to abolish capital punishment, execution, stoning and torture;
· We demand the release of all political prisons and prisoners of conscience regardless of their gender;
· We request fair and open trials for the perpetrators of crimes and massacres committed during the last thirty two years.
UN's Shameful Act!!!
While regime's fears will come head to head with the brave protesters tomorrow, the United Nations took a shameful step to allow the Iranian regime membership to Commission on the Status of Women.
On Friday, March 4, 2011, the UN General Assembly allowed Tehran's regime to become one of the commission's 45 members as part of a group of 11 incoming countries.
Instead of siding with the Iranian people, the brave women who risk their lives daily to bring an end to brutality and gender-based crimes, the UN sided with the criminal leaders in Tehran. This is an outrage. This is a travesty and affront to women's global movement for change. Such an act will make the United Nations just as responsible in crimes against women in Iran as the regime in power.
WFAFI calls upon all members of the CSW to boycott the meetings until the Iranian regime's membership is revoked.
WFAFI calls upon all women's rights, human rights and social movement groups and NGO's to form a solidarity movement to push for revocation of Iran's membership to the CSW.
Media Inquiry: (617) 590-1665 OR press [at] wfafi.org
http://www.wfafi.org
Books of Interest:
* Prisoner of Tehran, by Marina Nemat (Free Press, NY 2007)
* Even After All This Time, A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran, by Afschineh Latifi (HarperCollins, NY, 2005)
* Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, by Shirin Ebadi (Random House, 2006)
* My Name Is Iran, by Davar Ardalan (Henry Holt and Co., 2007)
* Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi (Random House, 2003)
Valuable links:
* About Stop Stoning Forever Campaign: http://www.meydaan.com/English/aboutus.aspx
The objective of this campaign is to change the Islamic Penal Code of Iran such that stoning will neither be issued as a sentence nor be practiced as a punishment ever again.
* Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran: http://www.wfafi.org/
E-ZAN VOICE OF WOMEN AGAINST FUNDAMENTALISM IN IRAN
Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran is committed to promote a greater awareness of the challenges women face living under the fundamentalist regimes like Iran. Our tasks ranges from raising public awareness, conducting research projects, initiating outreach programs, to policy discussions and analysis. We firmly believe the political presence, participation and leadership of women are the essential elements in achieving social, political and economic equality. We are a group of individuals concerned with the growing threat of fundamentalism worldwide. We submit to the definition of fundamentalism explained in the comparative study of religions, as embodiment of backwardness in its host cultures or religion .Our primary area of focus is the Islamic Fundamentalism in Iran, established as a form of government in 1979. For more information, please visit http://www.wfafi.org
* National Committee of Women for a Democratic Iran: http://ncwdi.igc.org/index.html
The National Committee of Women for a Democratic Iran is a non-profit organization advocating since 1990 on behalf of women's rights in Iran. NCWDI was formed to fill the vacuum of a women's organization devoted specifically to monitoring and promoting women's rights in Iran. Our tasks range from accurate reporting, to public appearances, to engaging in discussion and exchange with relevant authoritative bodies.
AFGHANISTAN
Website of Interest:
* Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA): http://www.rawa.org/index.php
"RAWA was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan. The founders were a number of Afghan woman intellectuals under the sagacious leadership of Meena who in 1987 was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan, by Afghan agents of the then KGB in connivance with fundamentalist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. RAWA's objective was to involve an increasing number of Afghan women in social and political activities aimed at acquiring women's human rights and contributing to the struggle for the establishment of a government based on democratic and secular values in Afghanistan. Despite the suffocating political atmosphere, RAWA very soon became involved in widespread activities in different socio-political arenas including education, health and income generation as well as political.
Books of Interest:
Zoya's Story, An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom
By Zoya with John Follain and Rita Cristofari
(HarperCollins Publishers, NY: 2002)
Dedication: "To the women of Afghanistan, the victims of inhuman suffering inflicted by fundamentalism"
Excellent and inspiring -- a moving account.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
By Anne E. Brodsky
With a foreword from RAWA
With All Our Strength chronicles the history of RAWA and their battle for women's rights in Afghanistan. Through interviews with more than 100 members and supporters of RAWA, Brodsky reveals the principles behind their enormous success. With All Our Strength tells how RAWA's innovative structure and strong spirit of community have allowed this remarkable organization to survive. With All Our Strength is an ode to the resilience of Afghan women and a model for all human rights organizations. As RAWA says in their foreword, "This is the only book that uses firsthand experiences to accurately portray Afghan women not as silent victims under the burqas but warriors who have bravely resisted all oppressive regimes and have changed their lives and the lives of many others."
Arundhati Roy writes:
"Anne Brodsky's book gives us a ring side view of this extraordinary women's movement that is as doggedly committed to democracy as it is to dreaming of another, better world. Each of us needs a little RAWA."
Katha Pollit says:
"Anne Brodsky goes behind the headlines to look closely at a unique organization that according to popular stereotypes of Afghan women should not exist."
Ahmed Rashid calls it "A powerful story."
With All Our Strength is available in bookstores throughout the U.S., through a link on RAWA's website, from Amazon.com, and in English language bookstores throughout the world.
All author proceeds go directly to RAWA
==============================================
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
Mailing Address: RAWA, P.O.Box 374, Quetta, Pakistan
Mobile: 0092-300-8551638
Fax: 001-760-2819855
Email: rawa [at] rawa.org
Home Page: http://www.rawa.org
Mirror site: http://rawa.fancymarketing.net
Routledge, NY, 2003
Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance
By Cheryl Benard
The story of RAWA with interviews of these dedicated women and their supporters. We hear the voices of women who for decades have resisted oppression and worked for the liberation of the Afghan people.
Random House, NY, 2002
Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan, The Martyr Who Founded RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
By Melody Ermachild Chavis
With a foreword by Alice Walker
A moving and fascinating account of the founder of RAWA.
All of the author's proceeds from this book will be donated to programs sponsored by RAWA.
St. Martin's Griffin, New York, 2003
Women for Afghan Women
Edited by Sunita Mehta
Contributor chapters by Murwarid Abdiani, Mikele Aboitiz, Rina Amiri, Sara Amiryar, Freshta Amirzada, Fevziye Rahzogar Barlas, Zohra Yusuf Faoud, Atia Gaheez, Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, Riffat Hassan, Felicity Hill, Esther Hyneman, Angela E. V. King, Andrea Labis, Arline J. Lederman, Irena Lieberman, Homaira Mamoor, Weeda Mansoor, Sunita Mehta, Ruth Messinger, Sanaa Nadim, Fariba Nawa, Lina Pallotta, Zohra Rasekh, Eleanor Smeal, Gloria Steinem, Masuda Sultan, Fahima Vorgetts, Sima Wali, and Batya Swift Yasgur.
Palgrave Macmillan, NY, 2002
The Storyteller's Daughter, One Woman's Return to Her Lost Homeland
By Saira Shah
Saira Shah lives in London and is a freelance journalist. She was born in Britain of an Afghan family, the daughter of Idries Shah, a writer of Sufi fables. She first visited Afghanistan at age twenty-one and worked there for three years as a freelance journalist, covering the guerilla war against the Soviet occupiers. Later, working for Britain's Channel 4 News, she covered some of the world's most troubled spots, including Algeria, Kosovo, and Kinshasa, as well as Baghdad and other parts of the Middle East. Her documentary Beneath the Veil was broadcast on CNN.
Random House, Inc., NY, 2003
My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban - A Young Woman's Story
By Latifa, Shekeba Hachemi, Linda Coverdale (Translator)
"From 1997 to 2001, sixteen-year-old Latifa was a prisoner in her own home as the Taliban wreaked havoc on the lives of Afghan girls and women. This is her testimony - a young woman's reaction to the inhumanity taking place before her very eyes."
Miramax Books, 2003
Our Woman in Kabul
By Irris Makler
Bantam Australia, 2003
Unveiled: Voices of Women in Afghanistan
By Harriet Logan
"We have been forgotten, and we need the right to speak. If no one hears what we say, nothing will change."
In 1997, during the early Taliban's repressive rule, award-winning photographer Harriet Logan went to Afghanistan and encountered a group of extraordinary women whose strong characters and dreams for the future made an indelible impression on her.
Harper, 2002
Women of Afghanistan
By Isabelle Delloye, Marjolijn De Jager (Translator)
"Isabelle Delloye first made her way to Afghanistan as a teacher shortly before the Soviet invasion of 1980, and returned several times, including once as a journalist during the height of the Taliban's power. During each visit, she befriended and worked with hundreds of women from a variety of castes and tribes, gaining admittance to a world rarely glimpsed by Westerners. In Women of Afghanistan, Delloye lends a compassionate ear to their words, sharing two decades of political perspectives and intimate stories. Here she records the recollections of those like Nour Khanom, a rural child bride who lived a life of hard labor and was treated no better than a pack animal, and of Chekeba, who escaped amidst Soviet bombs and returned years later to build a school for girls in the Panshir Valley."
The Bookseller of Kabul
By Åsne Seierstad
In spring 2002, following the fall of the Taliban, Asne Seierstad spent four months living with a bookseller and his family in Kabul.
Back Bay Books, 2002, 2004
SAUDI ARABIA
The World Economic Forum 2009 Global Gender Gap Report ranked Saudi Arabia 130th out of 134 countries for gender parity.
Articles of Interest:
* Saudi Arabia: Women with "seditious eyes" must cover up -- December 17, 2010
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/12/saudi-arabia-women-with-seditious-eyes-must-cover-up.html
* SAUDI ARABIA: Women threaten to breastfeed drivers if they aren't allowed to drive -- June 22, 2010
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/06/saudi-women-use-fatwa-in-driving-bid.html
* Talk of Women’s Rights Divides Saudi Arabia -- May 31, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/world/middleeast/01iht-saudi.html
* Women’s Rights Gain Focus in Saudi Arabia – Alshayeb -- May 27, 2010
http://www.susris.com/2010/05/27/women’s-rights-gain-focus-in-saudi-arabia-alshayeb/
* SLOW CHANGES TO WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN SAUDI ARABIA -- February 28, 2010
http://www.globalshift.org/2010/02/28/slow-changes-to-womens-rights-in-saudi-arabia/
Book of Interest:
* Growing Up bin Laden, by Omar bin Laden, Jean P. Sasson (St. Martin's Press, 2010)
To write this book, Jean Sasson extensively interviewed both Osama Bin Laden’s first wife and one of the eleven children she bore during their marriage.
IRAQ
Articles of Interest:
Women's Rights in Iraq: Decreasing by the Day, by Sarah Menkedick -- April 14, 2010
http://news.change.org/stories/womens-rights-in-iraq-decreasing-by-the-day
Foreign Policy: Iraq's Forgotten Women, by Zainab Salbi -- March 15, 2010 (NPR)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124687123
Website of Interest:
Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq / Equality in Iraq: http://www.equalityiniraq.com/
Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) - a women's a women's political organisation working in Iraq, advocating Iraqi women's rights and setting up women's shelters etc. Publishes a regular newsletter.
Books of Interest:
* Barefoot in Baghdad, A Story of Identity--My Own and What It Means to Be a Woman in Chaos, by Manal M. Omar (Sourcebooks, Inc., 2010)
* Between Two Worlds, Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam, by Zainab Salbi, and Laurie Becklund (Penguin, USA, 2005)
* Mayada, Daughter of Iraq, by Jean Sasson (Penguin, NY, 2003)
Fundamentalism: Wikipedia
Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific set of theological doctrines typically in reaction against the theology of Modernism. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the Protestant community of the United States in the early part of the 20th century, and that had its roots in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy of that time. The term has since been generalized to mean strong adherence to any set of beliefs in the face of criticism or unpopularity (see Establishment), but has by and large retained religious connotations. Historically, for some constituencies fundamentalism connotes an attachment to a set of irreducible beliefs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalism
Books of Interest:
* Escape, by Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer
* Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer
* Jesus Land, by Julia Scheeres (Counterpoint, NY, 2005)
Additional Books of Interest
Books of Interest:
Nomad
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
(Free Press, NY, 2010)
The most recent book by Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- as difficult to put down as reading her earlier books. This is an important addition to your library and valuable book to share with others.
"There is more wisdom and compassion in this book than can be found in most university libraries ..." --Sam Harris, author
"This moving account by a remarkably brave woman of her personal journey from the pre-modern mind-set of nomadic Somali society to a modern Western one provides a searing indictment of the cult of 'multiculturalism' and 'diversity' that is disabling other Muslims in the West from making a similar transition and making their youth turn to radical Islam and becoming 'jihadis.'" --Deepak Lal, Professor
____________________________________________________
Infidel
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
(Free Press, NY, 2007)
"In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalis, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.
"One of today's most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following an Islamist's murder of her colleague, Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the movie Submission."
_____________________________________________________
The Caged Virgin, An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
(Free Press, NY, 2006)
"Muslims who explore sources of morality other than Islam are threatened with death, and Muslim women who escape the virgins' cage are branded whores. So asserts Ayaan Hirsi Ali's profound meditation on Islam and the role of women, the rights of the individual, the roots of fanaticism, and Western policies toward Islamic countries and immigrant communities. Hard-hitting, outspoken, and controversial, The Caged Virgin is a call to arms for the emancipation of women from a brutal religious and cultural oppression and from an outdated cult of virginity. It is a defiant call for clear thinking and for an Islamic Enlightenment. But it is also the courageous story of how Hirsi Ali herself fought back against everyone who tried to force her to submit to a traditional Muslim woman's life and how she became a voice of reform.
"Born in Somalia and raised Muslim, but outraged by her religion's hostility toward women, Hirsi Ali escaped an arranged marriage to a distant relative and fled to the Netherlands. There, she learned Dutch, worked as an interpreter in abortion clinics and shelters for battered women, earned a college degree, and started a career in politics as a Dutch parliamentarian. In November 2004, the violent murder on an Amsterdam street of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, with whom Hirsi Ali had written a film about women and Islam called Submission, changed her life. Threated by the same group that slew van Gogh, Hirsi Ali now has round-the-clock protection, but has not allowed these circumstances to compromise her fierce criticism of the treatment of Muslim women, of Islamic governments' attempts to silence any questioning of their traditions, and of Western governments' blind tolerance of practices such as genital mutilation and forced marriages of female minors occurring in their countries."
_____________________________________________________
Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World
By Jan Goodwin
(Plum, 2002, first published in 1994)
"Militant Islam is changing the way millions behave and how nations are governed; its impact on women is devastating. Award-winning journalist Jan Goodwin traveled through ten Islamic countries and interviewed hundreds of Muslim women, from professionals to peasants, from royalty to rebels. The result is an unforgettable, blistering journey into a world where women are confined, even killed, for the sake of a "code of honor" created and zealously enforced by men. This is a world where grandmothers can be whipped for showing a tiny lock of hair, rape victims are imprisoned for "fornication," doctors surgically restore hymens for brides because nonvirgins can be killed by male relatives, and American converts to Islam accept their husbands' polygamy. Price of Honor brings to life a world in which women have become pawns in a bitter power game. Here is a provocative look inside Muslim society -- and a ringing wake-up call to the world."
____________________________________________________
Prisoners of Ritual: An Odyssey into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa
By Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, Ellen Cole, Esther D. Rothblum
(Harrington Park Press, 1989)
"This unique volume focuses on the psychosexual and social effects of female genital mutilation, an ancient, deeply entrenched custom saturating the larger part of Africa. Over a period of six years, Author Hanny Lightfoot-Klein trekked through outlying areas of Sudan, Kenya, and Egypt, where she lived with a number of African families."
____________________________________________________
Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing
By Diana E.H. Russell
(Twayne Publishers, 1992)
Testimony to the many women who have been victims of femicide and an act of resistance.
____________________________________________________
War Is Not Over When It's Over, Women Speak Out From the Ruins of War
By Ann Jones
(Henry Holt & Co, NY, 2010)
"In 2007, the International Rescue Committee, which brings emergency relief to countries in the wake of war, sought to understand what women in post-conflict zones really needed, wanted, and feared. Answers came through the point and click of a digital camera. On behalf of the IRC, Ann Jones spent a year traveling through Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East, giving cameras to women who had no other means of telling the world what war had done to their lives.
"The photography project--which moved from Liberia to the Congo to Burmese refugee camps in Thailand and points in between--quickly became a lens on the true nature of modern warfare and its consequences for the most vulnerable. ... And along with peace often comes worsening violence against women, both domestic and sexual, inflicted by roving militias, brought home by men returning from the front, and taken up by civilians."
Additional Websites of Interest
Arab Women's Court: http://www.arabwomencourt.org/
The Permanent Arab Court To Resist Violence Against Women is a symbolic popular court that aims at fighting all forms of violence practiced against women in Arab societies.
National Council of Women - Egypt: http://www.ncw.gov.eg/new-ncw/english/index.jsp
NCW aims to enhance the status of all Egyptian women and to maximize their contribution to the growth and development of Egypt. The focus is on narrowing existing socio-economic gender gaps and addressing women's strategic needs including social, economic and political empowerment.
to Women's Rights and Feminist Activism page
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press
www.wifp.org