Women Still Subject to Discrimination in Iran, Even Women of Different Countries
John Johnston
10/24/2008
10:30 AM
Esha Momeni was a student of Cal State Northridge in her graduate studies program, when she was on a trip to Iran's capital, Tehran, where she was pulled over for a moving/traffic violation and was then detained for no apparant reason. The police took her to the home she was staying in in Iran, where they raided the home and then took her computer where she had documents saved that were vital to her studies. Amnesty International has now stepped in and begun doing independent research on the logistics of her arrest. Momeni is being detained in a reputable bad section of the Iranian government jail system, and supporters of her freedom are worried she will be tortured. It was suspected that Momeni was there to challenge the political status quo as she was doing her thesis on women's rights and the "Change for Equality" group. However, her advisor and personal friends say that she was there to promote friendly education and personal research, as well as spread awareness for the current needs of the women's movement in Iran. University officials have now begun taking a position in this case and Iranian officials have stated that they will release no further details until the investigation is complete.
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Something that really bothers me with this article is the fact that they detained someone that was an Iranian American. This woman was doing nothing but trying to attend school and further herself in a different country, but instead she was detained and is now being held for no apparant reason in a terrible place and in awful conditions. I do not understand why it is so difficult for people to catch onto new and exciting change, such as gender and racial equality, and let go of the old held stereotypes. There are documents in place, such as constitutions and movements and policies (and I know this for a fact because I've done blogs on these same type of situations) but they are not enforced and not policed correctly. I think a new and radical change needs to occur in these countries to really get things moving. However, the correct way of doing this is where problems start to occur. It's a sad thing that Iraq has turned into what it has, but changed and progress has been made. Where do we draw the line? When does diplomacy stop working and where should military action begin? Do we hold terrorism a higher threat than (soft) genocide against women? Who decides this? Obviously, we place a lot of our trust into elected people to make these type of decisions on a daily basis, which further shows that we should be eduacted on world problems and American events.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-esha24-2008oct24,0,2680216.story
3 comments:
It really makes you appreciate the freedoms that we take for granted every day. However, discrimination does still take place even in America.
The system on goverment in different countries can really be corrupt. Many people can be money hungrey to take advantage on outsiders. This is a case that needs to looked at an taken more care of.
This artical made me angry because yes women face discrimination all over, but how are the going to change this if men are still the majority in political settings.
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