Dear Ms. Calmy-Rey, Dear Ms. Leu Agosti,
We are a group of women who were forced to leave Iran because of the repression after the assumption of power of the Islamic Republic. Since that time we have carried on our fight for the rights of women and have founded to this end an international network for the support of the Iranian women’s movement.
With this letter we want to draw your attention to the current situation, because again the pressure on women to compulsory veil themselves has increased in recent times.
From the very start the gender-specific apartheid and discrimination against women was an essential part of the overall, political and legal system of repression. Compulsory veiling is not merely a symbol of that but also a necessary pillar of the islamic regime.
In their daily protest against it many women have shown creativity, courage, and even after three decades the regime has not succeeded in breaking that resistance.
But now the machinery of power with the help of the Hedjab Commission has increased its efforts to totally enforce the islamic Hedjab in society in conjunction with the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry for Islamic Propaganda, TV and radio stations, chambers of commerce, the Military and the guards of the islamic revolution. Not only in public, schools, shops, offices and firms but increasingly also at private celebrations and festivities the islamic Hedjab should be forced upon women.
According to propagandistic news of success within the last three months alone 1098 girls and women have been arrested on these grounds in Teheran. Stores as well are only allowed to sell clothes that meet the regulations and norms of the islamic government, otherwise they are in danger of having their commercial license withdrawn, as has already been the case for 32 shops.
All this clearly shows that wearing the Hedjab is not a cultural matter, but that it is being imposed by force in Iran. Thus the resistance against the state-controlled dress code is in fact a fight for universal human rights, freedom and equality.
Every single day the women and girls in Iran protest against the islamic dress code. They assert their right of self-determination and need our support and solidarity for their cause.
We ask for your cooperation:
– support the demands of the women for freedom and self-determination in your official letters
– assist us in our supporting the fight of the women in Iran against gender apartheid and compulsory veiling
– protest by means of official letters when travelling in Iran
– do not submit to the dress code in connection with interviews with government agencies and female politicians
– contradict the allegation that the Hedjab is merely a cultural matter.
Yours sincerely,
The International Network of Solidarity with the Iranian Women’s Movement
