Women in Tunisia, Egypt and Lybia are facing a dangerous moment, says Mahnaz Afkhami. Those who have networks, resources, and a clear, concise and appealing public message are the conservative and conservative-religious forces.
It is a moment of urgency for women to be able to catch up in time while the fundamental structures underlying these countries’ democratic development are being put in place.
Unfortunately, women are not present in these consults: they have not been included in these consults in most places.
The Current – CBC Radio/ By Anna Maria Tremonti
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Women have often played leading roles in pushing for change in the Arab and Muslim worlds. But when the dust settles, the gains they think they have made are often elusive. For their thoughts on why that is and whether things may be different this time … we were joined by three women who have spent decades trying to improve the position of women in their societies.
Before the Iranian revolution, Mahnaz Afkhami was Iran’s Minister for Women’s Affairs….
Over the past two months protest movements have transformed the face of governments across the Middle East and North Africa. As the upheaval continues, we examine the role of women in these demonstrations, and how new regimes will affect women’s rights throughout the region. Will they bring greater freedoms, or impose further constraints?
NPR KQED Radio / By Michael Krasny / Listen
Tell Me More – NPR/ By Michel Martin
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Women have been at the forefront of the pro-democracy demonstrations sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa. But will efforts at reform and revolution, lead to increased legal rights and a greater role for women in politics in Arab nations?
New America Media / By Sandip Roy / Listen
A year after the controversial elections in Iran, what is the status of the opposition movement? Mahnaz Afkahmi speaks of the women who were at the forefront of protests, and of the regime’s attempt to behead the democratic movement. Indeed almost all activists from the June 2009 protests have been imprisoned, harassed, or tortured. Those who were released from prison and allowed to travel were then often tried in absentia and heavily sentenced, effectively condemning them to exile.
International Museum of Women / By Clare Winterton / Listen
Mahnaz Afkhami spoke with I.M.O.W. Executive Director Clare Winterton as part of the Extraordinary Voices, Extraordinary Change Speaker Series. Together they covered a variety of subjects, including the WLP partnership goal of changing the architecture of human relations, and Mahnaz’s hand in helping to create a new generation of powerful women in the Muslim World.
NPR KQED Radio / By Michael Krasny / Listen
In her new book, “Paradise Beneath Her Feet,” Isobel Coleman profiles women she calls quiet revolutionaries who are working for social justice in the Middle East. We’ll also check in with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islamic fundamentalism, and Mahnaz Afkhami. In the interview, Afkhami takes issue with Muslim ‘exceptionalism’ and emphasizes the importance of mutual empowerment, learning and solidarity between women’s rights advocates.
VOA News / By Judith Latham / Listen
One way the One Million Signatures Campaign has overcome those barriers is by reaching out to women through “one-on-one” contact. Afkhami said women in the campaign, who go into private homes as well as to places where women gather, try to get other women to sign on to the petition for change. “But if they don’t, they leave the information with them because the aim is to get one million activists, not so much one million signatures,” she said.
PRI’s The World / By Marco Werman / Listen
Iran’s authorities recently confiscated Shirin Ebadi’s Nobel Peace prize medal. Activists say the move against the Iranian human rights lawyer exemplifies Tehran’s hostility toward women. Mahnaz Afkhami was the Minister for Women’s Affairs in Iran before the 1979 revolution. She now lives in Bethesda, Maryland. Afkhami wrote the foreword to a new book called Iranian Women’s One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality. Anchor Marco Werman talks with Afkhami about the women’s movement in Iran and the ‘One Million Signatures’ campaign.
NPR / By Liane Hansen / Listen
Host Liane Hansen interviews Mahnaz Afkhami, a former Minister of State for Women’s Affairs in Iran, about Farrokhroo Parsay. Parsay was the minister of education from 1968 to 1977 and was executed after the revolution for corruption. Parsay was one of Iran’s most important advocates for women’s rights.
Friday, November 4, 2011