This Iranian woman, Hajiyeh, was stoned to death by the Islamic Republic of Iran. She was executed for fornication. It took her 2 1/2 hours to die.
Posted on 06/13/2005 6:56:15 PM PDT by humint
June 8th, 2005: Senate Event, Partial Transcription: “The plight of Iranian women and children under Islamic rule”. Full transcription of Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky:
Begin Transcription
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Good morning to all of you and thank you [Organizer] I’d like to thank our distinguished panelists for being here and I also know that we have distinguished senators coming by and welcome to all of you. The president in fact did make it clear in his State of the Union Address that the United States supports the democratic aspiration of the people of Iran. As part of our commitment to spread freedom and democracy around the globe, the empowerment of women is very crucial to this effort. As the president has said “no society can advance with only half of its talents and energy and that demands the full participation of women.”
In the Middle East overall we are seeing positive change and a growing number of calls for reform have emanated from within the region. There is a heightened recognition of what the 2003 Arab human development report called a serious deficit in women’s empowerment and an acknowledgment that women are key agents for change and for reform. The status of women while still bound by legal, political, economic and social constraints is nevertheless improving. The decision to grant Kuwaiti women full political rights was the most recent significant example of this.
The situation in Iran however remains bleak. Women in Iran are subject to widespread discrimination and abuse. The disqualification of all 93 women who had registered to run in this month’s, June election demonstrates how the Iranian regime is closing rather than opening space for women to participate in the country’s political arena. We are using various tools to call international attention to the plight of Iran’s women.
The State Department’s annual reports on human rights, on religious freedom and trafficking in person’s document, highlight and encourage international scrutiny of the denial of fundamental freedoms. We’re pleased that the Congress recently approved $3 million in the FY05 appropriation to make grants to educational, humanitarian and nongovernmental organizations and individuals to support the advancement of democracy and human rights in Iran. The state department’s bureau of democracy, human rights and labor is implementing this program and has conducted an open competition for proposals.
Our priority areas include but are not limited to: support for political parties, media development, labor, civil society and human rights. The announcement has already prompted a great deal of interest as you can imagine, by potential grantees and proposals are now going to be under review. We will notify Congress of the projects we hope to fund this summer and it is our hope that Iranian women will be the beneficiaries of a number of these very grants.
In FY05 the department allocated $1 million to the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center which is based in Connecticut to enhance the analytical documentation of human rights abuses in Iran since 1979 in addition, some $500,000.00 have been given to the National Endowment for Democracy to support programs and proposals in support of democracy and human rights programs in Iran.
We also operate a very well received, we think, Persian language web site which makes available a wide range of information about U.S. society, about values and about policies. The site gets some 15,000 visitors a month with half of those coming from a within Iran. In addition we strongly support Persian language Radio Farda which is a joint venture between a Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Voice of America played a key role in bringing international scrutiny to allegations of stoning of women.
Finally, I would like to share with you, we have also recently established with European and Canadian Allies a human rights working group that will meet quarterly to share information, to compare information and also strategies for advancing human rights to include women’s rights. We have made clear to the Iranian regime its responsibility to meet its international commitments on nonproliferation and on human rights for all its citizens especially including women and children.
We believe the Iranian people share the desire of people everywhere for freedom and prosperity and that the future of Iran can be a much writer one that it is today if its people, it’s varied people are allowed to determine their own future. Women can particularly be an important force for this very transformation. We see the varied influence that women have in building the new democracies in Afghanistan and I’m delighted to see if a number of Afghan colleagues here today. They can contribute to this discussion and also those in Iraq, women in Iraq who have been running for office, participating in government, organizing civil society. The women of Iran if given a chance can also play these very leadership roles and can in turn protect their families, protect their children and protect their societies. As the first lady who recently said at the world economic forum which was held in Aman, Jordan. She said “all people men and women want to contribute to that success of their country and all people, men and women must have the opportunity to do so”
I want to thank you for holding this very timely gathering and I also want to recognize [Another Speaker] who is representing us on the panel here today as the senior quarter for international women’s issues. We very much look forward to hearing the commentary, the hearing the suggestions and recommendations and I especially wanted to mention the process that we're in right now, in terms of review of these proposals. We look for your suggestions and we look for your input and I really wanted thank you for inviting me here today.
[Applause]
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End Transcription
bbbbut....Islam is the Religon of Peace.
In the Middle East overall we are seeing positive change and a growing number of calls for reform have emanated from within the region. There is a heightened recognition of what the 2003 Arab human development report called a serious deficit in women’s empowerment and an acknowledgment that women are key agents for change and for reform. The status of women while still bound by legal, political, economic and social constraints is nevertheless improving. The decision to grant Kuwaiti women full political rights was the most recent significant example of this.
The situation in Iran however remains bleak. Women in Iran are subject to widespread discrimination and abuse. The disqualification of all 93 women who had registered to run in this month’s, June election demonstrates how the Iranian regime is closing rather than opening space for women to participate in the country’s political arena. We are using various tools to call international attention to the plight of Iran’s women.
Do you work for FMC?
No. But I below to the FreeRepublic Network that supports them.
I peaked, I see you are new. Welcome!
Do you see the news feed that you can subscribe to that says "News / Activism /Activism / Chapters"?
The Chapters are the FreeRepublic Network. FR Network supported the FMC rally in DC.
Good post. Welcome to FR!
Thanks for the ping!
Either you don’t remember busting my balls for my other posts or you only welcome people when they post something you enjoy reading. Anyway… war and politics, by definition are impersonal arts. Water under the bridge as far as I’m concerned… I enjoy FR and I'm glad to be here thanks.
Care to take a stab at any of the questions I posted under the transcription?
My fault... got you confused with another tagname... I guess that proves I'm a newbie. Thanks for the welcome.
I'd like to ask you if this was a joke? >>>>
" Any idea what Iranians are authorized by the Iranian regime to do to build democracy inside Iran?"
"validation of reform and valeyat e-faqhe?"
"Any idea what Iranians are authorized by the Iranian regime to do to build democracy inside Iran?"
Do these questions really need answers?
"what they think the results of democracy building inside Iran will be on short and long term U.S. policy toward that country."
Again, does this really need an answer? What do you think a true democracy would mean for U.S. policy toward Iran?
A joke is in the eye of the beholder... If you read it as a joke then I suppose it is. I was hoping it would spark a conversation and a few ideas.
If you’d rather laugh than think, I’ll answer some of my own questions. I don't think funding political parties under a dictatorship is the right thing to do. Maybe Dobriansky has something else in mind, or is interpreting political parties in a different way.
I think programs like this do get NGOs involved and start the kind of relationship building that can lead to more positive trends in the future. The Human Rights Documentation Center is a great step forward for academics, which have been relatively silent or opposed to democracy building. It’s probably because they’ve been left out of these kinds of projects in the past.
I can’t imagine how any of this is going to prevent nuclear weapons development by the regime. On the contrary, I’d imagine this will speed up any development they’ve got. Obviously this project is isolated from the IAEA process however I’d like to see an NGO organize a protest against Nuclear Chief Elbaradei. Those would be tax dollars well spent.
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