ACI nominates the “Women’s Movement in Iran” for the United Nations 2008 Human Rights Prize

ACI is proud to nominate the “Women’s Movement in Iran” for the 2008 UN Human Rights Prize coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights.

The UN Human Rights Prize was first awarded on the twentieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1968. One of the first recipients of the Prize that year was the attorney and first Iranian female Senator, Dr Mehrangiz Manouchehrian.

ACI believes that the “Women’s Movement in Iran” deserves international recognition because:

- women have been at the forefront of social change in Iran over the last 100 years. The achievement of many civil and political rights is a credit to women’s unwavering struggle for equality in the face of grave danger and oppression, particularly over the last 30 years;

- of what has been achieved but also for the peaceful, creative and constructive methods that have been used to overcome legal and institutional discrimination in the last thirty years;

- the Iranian women have successfully transformed their fight for equality and justice into a wider movement for social justice and equality that has brought Iranian women and men together signalling a new era in the struggle for human rights in Iran;

- of women’s continued courage and dedication, their fearless approach to changing culture and breaking taboos and traditions, and standing up to the increasing use of violence and persecution against them.

We invite all Iranian and international human rights groups, agencies and organisations to show their solidarity with Iranian women’s struggle for justice and equality by supporting this nomination.