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"Women of Iraq and Iran, Visionaries for Peace
in the Twenty First Century"
April 14-17, 2005

• Overview
• Delegates and Bios and Transcripts
• Region Updates
• Resources & Links

Organized by: Dr. Elise G. Young and Dr. Shahla Haeri
Translation by Dr. Shahla Haeri

Conference Overview
Iraqi and Iranian women attended the fifth Global Women's History Project Conference, 'Women of Iraq and Iran: Visionaries for Peace in the Twenty-first Century.' The Conference took place at Westfield State College in Westfield, Ma., U.S., April 14-17, 2005. Delegates at the Conference included the following: Iraq: Yanar Mohammad, Yvette Rabi, Nazanin Ali Sharif, Zeinab Istrabada. Iran: Shahla Haeri, Manijeh Hekmat, Persheng Vazeri, Mina Safizadeh for Janet Afary Shahla Haeri for Shahla Sherkat. Nobel Perace Prize winner from Iran, Dr. Shirin Ebadi joined us on May 2nd.

In the twentieth century, women in the region that has become the modern nation state of Iraq and women of Iran have been confronted with social upheaval as a result of geo-political developments. When the war between Iraq and Iran ended, the lives of women of both regions had been severely disrupted. Internal politics, the Gulf War, Sanctions, the current war and occupation in Iraq, all contribute to instability in the region with devastating consequences for women.

In a pre-conference meeting in London, Houzan Mahmoud, founder of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq's London branch, noted that..."it is now almost a year after the war, which was suppose to bring "liberation" to Iraqis. Rather than an improvement in the quality of women's lives, what we have seen is widespread violence, and escalation of violence against women. From the start of the occupation, rape, abduction, "honor" killings and domestic violence have become daily occurrences. The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq has informally surveyed Baghdad, and now knows of 400 women who were raped in the city between April and August last year. The need for information; the need to organize in order to put an end to violence against women; and the need to ensure the institutionalization of women's rights, could not be more pressing."

Although women are at the forefront of peace-making efforts, opportunities to hear and learn from Iraqi and Iranian women are rare. This conference provided a venue to bring accurate information about women's struggles and women's organizing in Iraq and in Iran to our communities. Further, Muslim women have been actively involved in all historical developments in their regions. Islam is a multifaceted religion rooted in historical processes. Yet, the media and many academic sources perpetuate misconceptions about Muslim women and about Islam that sow seeds of mistrust, contribute to false notions of cultural superiority and cultural inferiority, and fuel war. Further, the American public began to associate war and conflict with oversimplified identity politics which are a-historical and which conceal the rich intermingling of indigenous peoples in their daily lives. The ways in which the terms Sunni and Shi'i and Kurd have been manipulated are one example. This conference helped to correct those misconceptions.

Presentations at this conference clarified the critical connection between war and violence against women in the specific context of Iraq and Iran today. In both countries women are doing groundbreaking organizing in service of world peace. The conference highlighted the ways in which U.S., Iraqi, and Iranian women come together to dispell myths, to form on-going links, and to end war.

At our 2005 GWHP conference, participants learned that women in Iraq and Iran are risking their lives daily in order to resist in numerous ways: by reformulating notions of religiosity and secularism; by refusing to participate in divisive constructions of race and ethnicity; by creating grassroots movements that can help to bring women out of poverty; by creating shelters and saving lives; by insisting on women's full participation in all realms; by creating organizations and publications that support women who are entering the arena of state politics and demanding to be heard; by listening to one another across a range of perspectives on how to accomplish these goals; and by linking with women in the United States who have similar goals and are engaged in similar activities.

Introduction

Since the early 1990s Yanar Mohammad has been in the forefront of publicizing the situation of Iraqi women as a result of war and military occupation.

Yanar gave a keynote speech at our conference and also gave a presentation, with slides, entitled, 'Radical Women's Experience in Post-War Iraq.' Her evidence on the ground shows how violence against women is endemic to war.

The agenda of the Iraq's Freedom Congress, formed by Yanar and her supporters, calls for an end to occupation and calls for an egalitarian secular constitution that equals all people to one another. The Congress advocates for an end to military rule, the rule of religion and/or tribal values, and all other expressions of patriarchal dominance.
Iraqis, Yanar noted, are too often dehumanized in the American Press that represents them as a bunch of 'ethnic,' 'religious' people. With a strongworking class agenda, Yanar travels and speaks throughout the world, connecting issues of class, race, patriarchy, and women's rights. Since the war began, more than one thousand women have been raped, kidnapped, assaulted, or sold into the network of women being traffiked throughout the world. Beginning with its first shelter in an old burnt out bank, Yanar's organizing efforts have resulted in street campaigns and demonstrations and a massive campaign beginning with Law Number 137 of the Iraqi Ruling Council that would have replaced Personal Status Law with Sharia Law. She adamantly calls for complete separation of religion and state as essential to women's full participation in state building and to her liberation.

In times such as these, Iranian feminist Shahla Haeri and other delegates study and discuss multiple ways that women attempt to influence state agendas. One of the legacies of colonialism as discussed above has been obsession with veiling as the ultimate symbol of 'oppressed Muslim women'. In the Middle East, head coverings have complex and varied political and geographic dimensions. Haeri made a case for a more subtle examination of the meanings of covering within historic and geographic context. It is impossible, she asserted, to judge a woman's politics by whether or not she covers.
As Shahla Haeri spoke on opening night, she spread out on the stage copies of the magazine Zanun, founded by Shahla Sherkat in 1991. Zanun emerged in the context of a tradition of magazine publications in the Arab world produced by women with a focus on women. Zanun is particularly known for its courageous and talented founder and editor, Shahla Sherkat, and for the wide range of controversial subjects it treats. A 1997 interview Sherkat conducted with the only candidate for President who would agree to be interviewed, Khatami, a reformist, is said to have played a major role in his subsequent election. Sherkat was unable to attend the conference because of fears that she would not be readmitted to her country.

How hard are the hardliners and how reformist are the reformers, asks Haeri? The question itself indicates that Iranian women feel that they have room to manuver. Haeri's subject was the changing relationship between women, state, and religion, particularly in the twenty-seven years since the 1979 Revolution when Iran became the Islamic Republic of Iran.

While Khoemini did not follow through on rhetoric that had been encouraging to women, the daughters of religious men became very active politically as did the wives and daughters of the political elite who did not share the patriarchal values of their fathers of husbands. Faezah Hashemi, for example, the daughter of former President Rafsanjani, ran for Parliament receiving the highest number of votes in Tehran. An athelete and sports enthusiast, Faezah is also in the field of international law and advocates for women's advancement in all areas, including national sports.

What kinds of strategies do Iranian women employ in attempting to influence the relationship between women, state, and religion? Islam is based on justice- where is that justice- is one admonishment Haeri cited. Some women insist that since not all clerics agree on interpretation of the law, there is room for negotiation. Through 'ijma' and 'ijtihad,' consensus and rational thinking, laws can and must be negotiated and changed with changing times. Here Yanar and Shahla represent two of a range of sometimes contrasting views that women of Iraq and Iran take regarding their limitations and possibilities within the context of Islamic law and/or an Islamic state.

DELEGATES BIOS AND TRANSCRIPTS

Shahla Haeri

Shahla Haeri is the director of Women’s Studies Program and an Associate Professor of cultural Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Boston University. She has conducted research in Iran, Pakistan, and India, and has written extensively on religion, law and gender dynamics in the Muslim world. She is the author of No Shame for the Sun: Lives of Professional Pakistani Women (Syracuse University Press in the US, and Oxford University Press in Pakistan, 2004), and Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage, Mut’a, in Iran (1989, 1993). She was involved in the University of Chicago’s multi-year program on global fundamentalism, Fundamentalism Project, which was funded by a John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur grant, and contributed an article to the second volume: “Obedience Versus Autonomy: Women and Fundamentalism in Iran and Pakistan” (1993).

She has been awarded several postdoctoral fellowships, including one at the Women’s Studies in Religion Program, Harvard Divinity School (2005-2006), Fulbright (1999-2000, 2002-2003), St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University (1996), Social Science Research Council (1987-88), Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, Brown University (1986-87), and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University (1985-86).

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Yanar Mohammed

Yanar Mohammed (born Baghdad 1960) is a prominent Iraqi feminist. She is a co-founder and the director of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, and serves as the editor of the newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality).

She has opened women’s shelters and safe houses to protect women threatened by domestic abuse and what are referred to as honor killings. Her activities against trafficking of young women are an effort to save them from a lifetime of sexual slavery. She teaches women activists how to confront intolerance and regularly advocates equality for women on Iraqi radio and television. Because of her efforts, she is a co-recipient of the 2008 Gruber Prize for Women’s Rights.