Report: Negar Aslani - Feminist School - June 9, 2009
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| Faranak Farid |
Faranak Farid: Joining the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Was One of the Resolutions of the Azerbaijan Women's Congress in 2004
On Sunday, June 7th, a speech by Faranak Farid, an Azerbaijani women’s rights activist and member of the Women’s Movement Convergence, was held in Tabriz at the invitation of the student committee of Mr. Karroubi.
This lecture, which was attended by students, women from various social classes, and political activists, aimed to present women's demands and to bring unity within the women's movement to voice their requests to the future president of Iran.
After reading a Turkish poem, Frank Fried began his speech by introducing and discussing the "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women." He mentioned key aspects of the convention, such as “ensuring equality between women and men in the constitution or other relevant laws of any country, where such has not been included until now...” and considered it as part of the broader demands of the women’s movement, including the call for the reform of discriminatory laws against women.
In the first part of his speech, he added: The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women was adopted in 1979, and only four countries, including Iran, have not yet signed it. This is an example of how the potential of our social activists is being used to achieve basic rights that were proposed and obtained at the global level a long time ago. For example, not long ago, women were able to suspend the "Family Support Bill," which was seen as a setback for women's rights!
This member of the One Million Signatures Campaign and the Women’s Movement Convergence described the unity as a temporary coalition in the lead-up to elections and emphasized that this effort was to present women's demands, not to support a specific candidate. He referred to the history of presenting women's demands on June 12, 2005—at the University of Tehran—and read out the demands of Azerbaijani women, including:
• Implementation of the Constitution regarding women and ethnic minorities and preventing the reduction of women to third-class citizens and ethnic minority women to fifth-class citizens.
• Elimination of gender discrimination in all social, political, economic, and legal spheres, as per the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
He read these in support of the peaceful women’s gathering on that date.
The Secretary of the First Scientific-Cultural Congress of Women in Tabriz pointed out that joining this convention was not only part of the above-mentioned issues, but Azerbaijani women had also raised joining the convention in the resolution of the Congress held on March 8, 2004.
He then referred to part of the statement from the Women’s Movement Convergence, which says: "Legal equality and the elimination of gender, ethnic, and class discrimination are the essence and common foundation of the demands of various sectors of women." He added: The majority of women in our country face all three of these discriminations.
The session, which lasted from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM, concluded with a question-and-answer session with the participants.
The link to the original text in Persian on the Feminist School website.