By: Peter Truden
On March 5th, 2022, an international conference entitled “Women’s Power for Change in Iran, Global Peace and Stability” was held in Berlin, organised by the National Resistance Council in Iran (NCRI). In her speech, newly elected NCRI President Maryam Rajavi greeted Ukrainian women and suggested that this year’s International Women’s Day be renamed Women’s Resistance Day in Ukraine. The wife of the Slovenian Prime Minister Urška Bačovnik Janša, who was described by the NCRI as an “activist during the second half of the 2021 Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council”, also spoke at the conference.
At the conference, the wife of Slovenian Prime Minister Urška Bačovnik Janša highlighted the extraordinary political, social, cultural, and ideological challenges facing Iranian women, including the new NCRI President Maryam Rajavi. The Slovenian First Lady therefore highlighted Rajavi’s courage and her commitment to empowering Iranian women.
In addition to Urška Bačovnik Janša, many other influential women spoke at the international conference, who wanted to mark International Women’s Day and called for solidarity. More than 50 percent of NCRI members are said to be women, so at a global conference in Berlin they wanted to make it clear that change is “urgent, inevitable and long overdue.”
The extraordinary courage of Iranian women
“Iranian women were in the forefront of protests against the Iranian Islamic regime. They showed exceptional courage, intelligence, and strength,” said Bačovnik Janša in her address. “We, women around the world, can be proud of them. But despite all their heroic efforts, the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to restrict the rights of Iranian women and wipe them out of all walks of life.”
The wife of the Slovenian Prime Minister pointed out that Iranian women continue to be subject to “unimaginably discriminatory laws for the 21st century”. They cannot travel abroad or obtain a passport without the written permission of their male guardians. Singing and dancing are banned, while women who wear the hijab poorly face flogging and up to 15 years in prison. “I continue to be deeply affected by the many reports of sexual abuse that Iranian women have witnessed in prisons,” Bačovnik Janša said, pointing out that many women had been executed and described the Iranian justice system as “rigid”. According to her, the women who were executed for committed murder are in fact victims of horrific domestic violence. “They kill to protect themselves and their children, as they have no other legal means to put an end to an unhappy marriage.”
In the end, Urška Bačovnik Janša called on all women and governments in the West to resist the policies of the Iranian regime, which stifles women’s freedom. “The words of Western women’s organisations and governments must be translated into action.”