This English translation of a Farsi statement by 10 organizations was posted to Instagram on March 10, 2024 by @maosyangarim and @Nev.Suomi. Additions in brackets by IEC volunteers.
We are the successors of those millions of women who, since March 1911, have taken to the streets all over the world for the right to vote and in solidarity with those women workers from the sweatshops of Lawrence who demanded “bread and roses” for all. We have lived under patriarchy for thousands of years while this oppressive relationship was justified as “natural” by religion and pseudo-science.
This March 8, 103 years have passed since this was designated as International Women’s Day at the 2nd International Communist Women’s Meeting in Moscow, and 45 years since the women’s uprising against Khomeini’s mandatory hijab decree in Iran. We are the successors of the rebellious women who made our commitment quite clear to the Islamic Republic during the Jina uprising, shouting “You have made the compulsory hijab a symbol of our subjugation, we will burn your symbols and end patriarchy!”
The patriarchy that in Iran takes the form of mandatory hijab, in Afghanistan takes the form of keeping women at home and barring them from getting an education; in Turkey, it takes the form of femicide and violence against women; in Palestine, it takes the form of war, humiliation and the rape of women; in Mexico, the form of the disappearances of women; in Argentina, when Miley came to power, it took the form of an attack against women’s abortion rights; in the US it takes the form of abolishing the right to abortion. Europe (Italy, the Netherlands, France) and China are making return to the traditional role of women in the family and family values headline political debates. All over the world, millions of women and LGBTQ+ are oppressed.
The international labor market has become “feminized” and poverty has become “feminized.” Women make up an increasing share of not just low-wage service jobs, but of temporary jobs, work in the informal sector, and in the slavery of prostitution in trafficking networks.
Patriarchy is global and so is women’s struggle against the global capitalist system!
The whole framework of the globalist capitalist system is intertwined with male-supremacist/patriarchal relations, and cannot survive without them. It has viciously attacked even the slightest changes in the in the status of women that have been achieved in recent decades, and promotes a culture of hatred and subjugation of women. Especially in this time, capitalist crises and imperialist contention demand a new order [in the world]. In the response to the problems constantly generated by the functioning of the imperialist capitalist system, it has produced reactionary alternatives [ranging] from fundamentalism to fascism, alternatives that threaten not only women’s lives, but all of humanity.
Today, Palestine is one of the bloodiest expressions of this contention between reactionary alternatives. It is our blood that is shed in Palestine while people wait in line for "humanitarian aid," yet there is no waiting line for the bombs that fall on our heads.
There is no solution to this situation created by the imperialist countries of the global north and their dependent capitalist countries (of either variety, oppressive Islamic, or "secular and democratic" ), other than internationalist struggle and solidarity.
The women of the world are a single body that, in order to free themselves from the chains of male supremacy/patriarchy, must liberate all humanity from the chains of oppressive and exploitative relations, from traditional property relations and from the outdated ideas and values [they give rise to].
Let's join together and raise awareness of the problem that confronts us and its solution. Without waging this conscious struggle, the potential of women will be diverted and and squandered by various strata and [kept within the bounds] of the ruling classes. We have been fighting and winning some battles for over a hundred years, but our great victory will be to overthrow the ruling class.
This March 8th, let’s take to the streets in our common struggle against capitalism and the patriarchy intertwined with it, and shout out our common pain and fury!
Baloch Women'sMovement @balochwomenmovementt,
Bread and Roses (Turkey) @ekmekvegul,
Burn The Cage @burnthecage,
Free Nahid @free.nahid,
Institute for Women's Social Equality in Afghanistan,
je.cocreation @je.cocreation,
Osyan @maosyangarim,
Uxan Global Media @uxanmedia,
Woman Life Freedom Finland @nev.suomi,
Youth in Exile @bahamad_fa/@bahamad_en
Click on any photo to view full-sized lightbox.
