Gozaar Hosts Event for Mehrangiz Kar

On Thursday, August 9, 2007, Gozaar hosted a discussion and book signing with Mehrangiz Kar, who recently penned her autobiography Crossing the Red Line: The Struggle for Human Rights in Iran. Mehrangiz Kar is one of the most celebrated activists of the women’s movement in Iran. At the Gozaar event, she was greeted enthusiastically by friends, old and new.

 

Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director of Freedom House, and Azar Nafisi, Freedom House Board Member and author of Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, offered opening remarks to the gathering. Ms. Nafisi described how Mehrangiz Kar gives a voice to “the other Iran,” meaning Iranian women who struggle for equality. “Iranian women are canaries in the mine,” as their condition defines so much of what happens in Iran. In closing Ms. Nafisi reminded the audience that “human rights must be not only compassionate, but also pragmatic,” words which have defined Mehrangiz Kar’s approach. As a lawyer she has cited modernist Islamic thinkers in her defenses and has worked within the boundaries set by the Islamic Republic.

 

Mahnaz Afkhami, Founder and President of the Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace, moderated the evening discussion. She addressed Mehrangiz Kar as a dear friend and as a strong force for the cause of women and their movement in Iran and abroad. The fight of Iranian women is “not political, but existential,” Ms. Afkhami explained, and “despite the many obstacles presented by the current regime and the Islamic Revolution, Ms. Kar has stood up to these challenges and risen to the occasion. She is the phoenix, a bird the rises from the ashes.”  

 

Ms. Kar thanked Gozaar for providing her with a forum to share her experiences and observations from the fight for human rights in Iran. She practiced law and worked to improve legal literacy among Iranians for over 22 years. She found herself crossing many red lines in her efforts to provide viable and gradual solutions for problems facing Iranian women.

 

Not long after the 1979 Revolution, Mehrangiz Kar passed the bar exam and earned her license to practice law. Immediately, she began facing obstacles created by the government’s new policies discouraging women in the work force. The government barely acknowledged women outside the home, and women working as lawyers faced even greater challenges. Women were banned from serving as judges, removed from their positions, and rerouted to bureaucratic posts. After the Revolution, “judges would not even look us in the eyes. They humiliated us and did not take us seriously in the courtroom,” Ms. Kar recalled.

 

For the next several years, Ms. Kar worked quietly away from the spotlight. She took to writing again and earned a strong reputation by defending a variety of clients in the newly established Islamic courts. Mehrangiz Kar adjusted to the challenges in the new system pragmatically and creatively continuing her career as a public attorney. “This position would allow me to develop better relations with the cleric judges and also, by representing clients on a pro-bono basis, I would be offered the opportunity to learn the new language of the law and new defense strategies within the Islamic legal system,” writes Ms. Kar in Crossing the Red Line (p. 58). She argued against the injustices to Iranian women which existed in the new laws and regulations, including unfair divorce laws and the lowering of legal ages for boys and girls.

 

In her remarks, Ms. Kar described the risks and threats that Iranian women face as they embarked on the first steps of the women’s movement in Iran. Today the movement has become more public and the people of Iran as well as the outside world are more familiar with the needs and demands of women in Iran. Yet after the election of Mahmood Ahmadinejad the obstacles have increased and the “red lines” are becoming harder to cross. For example, recent crackdowns to enforce strict hejab policies demonstrate that the state is committed to tightening its grip on Iranians. Legislating hejab is not only criticized and condemned by many Iranian women, but even by some clerics such as Hojatoleslam Seyed Mohsen Saeedzadeh and Hojatoleslam Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari, who believe that the veil should not be mandated by the state. “Every woman, Muslim or non-Muslim, should have the freedom to choose her own clothing,” Ms. Kar added. 

 

Despite their frustrations, the women of Iran continue to fight for their equality. Campaigns such as the Campaign for One Million Signatures and the Stop Stoning Forever campaign are just two examples of recent efforts by Iranians to fight against the unfair and unjust policies of the Islamic Republic. Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, a founding member of the Campaign for One Million Signatures, was among the guests and offered inspiring remarks on the determination by men and women to keep the campaign alive despite attacks by security officials.   

 

Ms. Kar then took questions from audience members. When asked about her own influence in the women’s movement, she indicated that thirty years have passed since the Islamic Revolution and a tremendous number of injustices have been done to the Iranian people by the current regime. “Because of our short memories, we do not look at these events as a trend, but tend to focus on the present. We look at these events as individual incidents,” Ms. Kar told the audience.  

 

Mehrangiz Kar emphasized the need for “slow, peaceful, and consistent” change for women’s rights in Iran. In the past she has collaborated with Hojatoleslam Seyed Mohsen Saeedzadeh and other religious figures in an effort to bridge the diverse interests of various parts of Iranian society. In her book, she writes, “Hojatoleslam Saeedzadeh provided an alternative approach to the problems. His approach was focused on reforming religious interpretations in favor of women. He spoke of the equality of men and women and was not satisfied with anything less. I learned a great deal from Saeedzadeh during the years we collaborated. With his assistance, I learned how to write in the difficult and dangerous environment of the time. I was able to learn a new language and style of writing appropriate for the Islamic Republic – a language and style that minimized the assaults of the clerical establishment.” (p. 110) Because of Saeedzadeh’s collaboration with Ms. Kar, he has been defrocked as a Hojatoleslam or Shi’a cleric. Since then, clerics have been unwilling to work with Mehrangiz Kar, for fear of losing their positions.

 

In response to a question about how the international community can support the women and other groups in Iran, Ms. Kar said that the international community must educate itself on the problems and struggles that Iranian women face. Aggressive and hands-on diplomacy is not always the answer. She cautioned against the financial involvement of international organizations with NGOs in Iran which could result in closing down of those NGOs by the Iranian government. Connections between Iranians NGOs and foreign organizations place Iranians at risk of imprisonment. However, the international community can educate itself and spread information and knowledge of the struggle of Iranians.

 

Asked about the future of women’s rights in Iran, Ms. Kar replied that gradual change is the best way forward. Iran’s current Constitution, which does not respond to the needs of women, has not been designed to bend easily. Also the Velayat-e Faqih system makes change very difficult. We can hope for better leaders and the development of an eventual understanding among them regarding a need to reform the laws of the land. In the meanwhile, Iranian youth, both women and men, are carrying on the fight. We can hope for slow and eventual improvements. With time and determination, new movements will arise to continue the struggle – like a phoenix rising from ashes – for a better tomorrow for the men and women of Iran.                    

 

Kar, Mehrangiz. Crossing the Red Line: The Struggle for Human Rights in Iran. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, May 2006