Monday, February 2, 2009

Despite Odds, Women's Movement Persists In Iran


Warm Greetings

It is encouraging every time I hear progress happening for women in our country and around the world, very much so including our sisters in Iran. I am struck by their courage, and my heart and prayers go out to their struggle and to women everywhere who seek to create a more just, peaceful, and caring world. I am also reminded of my own grandmothers who grew up in a time when women could not vote in America. It is taking so much to shift our world from the 5,000 year old grasp of patriarchal and hierarchical structures, stories, and belief systems to ones which are rooted in equality, respect, and a depth of genuine caring for all. Among many others, Riane Eisler writes about shifting from Dominator to Partnership cultures and societies; David Korten talks about the Great Turning from Empire to Earth Community. In this article, I appreciate the mention of Azar Nafisi, a former Iranian professor. Today Azar Nafisi is an internationally renowned writer, the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, and one of Iran's best known women in exile. My kids help me to learn so much about the world, and it was my eldest son Brian who got me Reading Lolita in Tehran, which I would highly recommend to anyone. So many have such amazing stories. So many are making a difference. May we all continue to work toward equality and caring for all beings. Peace ~ Molly

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Listen Now [14 min 20 sec]

Women's voices in Iran have been agents of change through politics, literature, religion and poetry even though women continue to be targets of persecution. And 30 years after the Iranian revolution swept away many freedoms, the women's movement continues to grow. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100039579

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"The real issue here is how power is defined and used: whether it's as power to dominate and disempower or to nurture and empower... We have to build the foundations on which more democratic, peaceful, economically equitable, and environmentally sustainable world can rest. This requires a powerful national and international movement to change the foundational relations that have been ignored in mainstream economic theory: the primary relations between men and women and between parents and children. It requires that the thousands of organizations worldwide today working for economic and social justice movements promote an integrated agenda that no longer splits off the rights of the majority - women and children - from the purview of human rights."
Riane Eisler,
from The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics

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