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| Suheyla Azizi |
Suheyla Azizi says that after the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the first protests were organized by women, and the government first silenced the voices of women, then suppressed other groups.
Speaking to Voice of America on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8, the women's rights activist discussed the struggle for equal rights by women in Iran and Iranian Azerbaijan.
Suheyla Azizi states that she does not see March 8, International Women's Day, as a celebration, but rather as the day a movement began:
“We do not see March 8, International Women's Day, as a celebration, but perhaps as an opportunity to bring attention to and debate the injustices faced by women. Feminists in Europe also view it this way. They don’t celebrate it as a holiday; they see it as a movement. Women acted on March 8 and demanded their rights. This path continues, and it is a long road.”
Evaluating last year’s protests, especially those in the capital, Tehran, against compulsory hijab, Azizi emphasizes that the Iranian opposition has not provided enough support for women.
She points out that women protesters in Iran have been left alone in the past as well.
“After the Islamic Revolution, in 1979, the first protest movement was the women’s movement... But unfortunately, no group supported the women’s movement, and Khomeini brutally suppressed it. The leftists also did not support women because they saw the Iranian government as anti-imperialist and anti-American,” the women’s rights activist notes.
She believes that if other political groups had supported the women’s movement when it was suppressed, the government would not have been able to silence them all consecutively.
Assessing the efforts of women for equal rights in Iranian Azerbaijan, Suheyla Azizi says that organizations belonging to the national movement should not view women’s issues as secondary but as primary.
“Our organizations must learn from what happened in the years following the Islamic Revolution. They should see women’s issues not as details, but as fundamental human rights... In our movement, the number of women activists is low. We need to examine the reasons for this. Very little attention is paid to women’s rights. If we want democracy in our society, 50 percent of it is women. If we can’t bring women to our side, we won’t be able to create a truly democratic society,” she adds.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Süheyla Əzizi: İslam Respublikası öncə qadınları susdurdu