Taking a stand with Women in the Middle East

Women’s Day: Taking a stand with women in the Middle East
6 March, 2012 – Amnesty International

People around the world should show their solidarity with the courageous women who were pivotal in uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, Amnesty International said.

Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, the organization is calling on its supporters to mark the day by sending messages of support to women in the region.

Thousands of individual actions are expected to be taken, with a focus on four countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen – where women remain at the heart of calls for reform, but a broad spectrum of women’s rights are still threatened.

In North Africa, which saw momentous events in 2011, political change has yet to translate into real gains for women’s rights.

“Across the Middle East and North Africa, women have been an inspiring force for change, standing up against repressive regimes to defend basic human rights and promote reform and equality,” said Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International.

“This International Women’s Day, we stand in solidarity with these courageous women, to support them in their struggle for human rights and freedom, and to let them know the world is behind them at this historic moment.”

Imprisoned in Iran for defending women’s rights

Iran’s women played a key role in massive protests around the June 2009 elections, when they advocated for a wide range of human rights reform, including greater freedoms for women.

But the country’s women activists continue to pay a high price for their peaceful work.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prisoner of conscience and human rights lawyer, is serving a six-year jail sentence, reduced from 11 years on appeal, on charges of “propaganda” and belonging to an “illegal” organization – the Centre for Human Rights Defenders. She denies all charges. …more