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We begin tonight’s edition of A Window to the Fatherland with Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh reading one of his poems from the book of his collected works.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
Today is the International Women’s Day across the world and we do celebrate and mark it as well.
In our country where the issue of hijab has been the symbol of repression of our women, and men, under the Islamic republic regime, we hereby declare that while we mark this day, we honestly announce that as the men of Iran we have not been able to do much in liberating our country we regard our women as the vanguard of this struggle. So happy women’s day to all of our Iranian women!
We speak to our guest Dr. Kazem Kardavani about this international day and its significance for the Iranian women.
Dr. Kazem Kardavani:
The only area where the Islamic republic regime has not been successful to impose all its repressive measure is among our female population.
Our women were the first to oppose the regime’s upcoming despotic rule after the revolution. They protested against the mandatory hejab as they regarded it as a measure of the religious rulers’ anti-women attitude and culture.
Before the revolution the Iranian women were free to chose if they wanted to wear a hijab or not and they all lived alongside each other in peace and harmony.
The Shah’s regime had offered them this freedom of choice and many other social and individual freedoms. However, due to the lack of any independent and non-governmental organization to protect these rights for our women, they did not have the social power to impose their will on the new religious regime after the revolution.
I do not mean to say that what Reza Shah did by forcefully removing the hijab of the Iranian women was completely wrong, but he should have allowed women’s democratic organizations to flourish so in years to come the freedom of choice had established itself as part of our nation’s values
