Feminism Is For Everyone

Sep 3, 2008,1:39 PM

Keeping Global Feminism in Mind: Women's Rights Activisim in Iran

An article ran today in the LA Times entitled "In Iran, women's rights activists score victory on marriage legislation."

Basically, activists have been fighting in Iran to keep Parliament from passing the The Family Protection Bill, which is feared to continue to decrease the rights of Iranian women. Discussion of the bill in Parliament has been postponed temporarily, but is likely to reappear in the near future. Here's a snippet from the article:

The legislation set aside Monday, titled The Family Protection Bill, was proposed by conservative lawmakers in July. It included changes to the family law that critics said were anything but protective of families.

The bill would have allowed husbands to get religiously sanctioned "temporary" marriages or take additional wives without the consent of their first spouses. In addition, divorced women would have to pay taxes on alimony.

Another topic in the article is the arrest of five women who have been active members of an international campaign to fight for women's rights in Iran, four of which where also charged for their contribution to banned women's websites. I am so glad we have the right to discuss women's rights issues in a public forum without legal repercussions, and everyone should have the right to that.