International Women’s Day! Statement of DOIW on 8th March
Greetings on March 8th, International Women’s Day!
The Democratic Organization of Iranian Women congratulates all Iranian women and girls on March 8, International Women’s Day, a day of renewal of commitment and solidarity with women’s struggles to build a world free from poverty, violence, discrimination, injustice, and environmental destruction.
March 8th is celebrated every year by women activists and progressive forces around the world. The celebration commemorates the history of this day, its goals, and the glorious legacy off the movement that Clara Zetkin and other women activists of the labor and communist movements nurtured and founded. Therefore, celebrating this auspicious day is also a manifestation of the history of the global struggle of women around the world to achieve their rights and those rights the violation of which forms the main reason for inequality between women and men; in addition striving to transform the unjust class system that prevails, as well as for vital matters such as establishing peace and protecting the environment.
According to historical documents, 115 years ago, in 1910, the Second Congress of Socialist Women in Copenhagen proposed an International Women’s Day – a proposal made by American socialist women and fully supported by the renowned German communist Clara Zetkin – the proposal was agreed and passed by the Congress. The first International Women’s Day was celebrated successfully in 1911, with the participation of over a million women, in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, and Hungary. However, with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the celebration of this day was overshadowed for several years by the shadow of the war.
Nevertheless, the efforts of the progressive women across the world became well-established with the demand for equal rights and equal pay for men and women, better working conditions for women having been among the earliest demands of this movement – demands that were met with unprecedented support from women. These demands were met with an unprecedented response from women and were able to inspire women’s rights movements around the world, to the point that in 1975, the United Nations named and recognized March 8 as “International Women’s Day.” The United Nations called on all governments to celebrate this day with the purpose of achieving women’s rights and combating gender inequalities. At the same time, this designation strengthened the solidarity among progressive women in their struggle around the world through global women’s meetings and conferences, events that had on their agenda the removing of obstacles to women’s progress, exposing the problems and leading the gender discourse, including in the following important areas:
- Abolition of discriminatory laws against women;
- Passing laws governing gender equality;
- Women’s participation in social production and creating a suitable environment for women to achieve economic independence;
- Receiving equal pay for equal work;
- Education, culture building, and adopting practical measures to ensure gender equality.
The achievements of these efforts and ideas, and the consistent and organized efforts of women at global meetings, bore results such as improving working conditions for women, and reducing inequalities enshrined in law between women and men in many countries around the world, including the following:
Reducing the illiteracy rate among women and increasing their participation in higher education, planning to empower women, leading the discourse on and condemning all types of violence against women, from physical violence to sexual abuse and violation of women’s dignity in the family and work environment, increasing the effectiveness of women’s actions in the struggle for peace, the environment, and for resolving social problems, the formation and expansion of unions and non-governmental organizations in defense of women’s rights and organizing their struggles, not limited to women but also for the rights of children, and minorities, whether in terms of sexuality, race or religion, as well as for women’s right to control their own bodies (abortion), and other. These have helped promote gender awareness in the world.
30th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Beijing Declaration, a Historic Document for Women’s Achievement of Gender Equality and Sustainable Development[i]
In this year, 2025, on the thirtieth anniversary of the “Beijing Platform for Action
” adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), the United Nations Women’s Division writes in its report: “Before the Fourth World Conference on Women, that is, until 1995, only 12 countries had legal sanctions against domestic violence. Today, there are one thousand five hundred and eighty-three legal measures (1,583) in place in 193 countries, of which three hundred and fifty-four (354) specifically target domestic violence.” The report also adds: “Last year alone, 612 million women and girls lived amidst the brutal realities of armed conflict, a worrying 50 percent increase in just a decade.”
At the same time, the United Nations, emphasizing the importance of the historic Beijing Document and in line with the implementation of its resolutions, has set the slogan of this year’s International Women’s Day as a collective cry for action in three key areas: Advancing women’s rights: fighting relentlessly for women’s human rights; challenging all forms of violence, discrimination, and exploitation; and promoting gender equality[ii].
Women are the first victims of wars and regional tensions[iii]. Furthermore, in recent years, the predatory capitalist system, in addition to fueling devastating wars and further destroying the environment, has increasingly left the responsibility for solving its inherent crises on women’s shoulders. Women have been the most vulnerable victims of neoliberal economic policies, and we are witnessing the hardship and poverty women experience around the world, as well as the resulting increase in violence against them.
The reality is that today, the greater attention that governments pay to the issue of women and their role and influence in various areas of social, economic, cultural, and political life is the result of the efforts and persistent struggle of women around the world over the past hundred years. However, depending on the political conditions of countries, this attention from governments is not the same everywhere. In addition, due to the rise of right-wing political forces in some industrial capitalist countries, women are unfortunately losing some legal gains, such as the right to abortion.
8th March International Women’s Day in Iran
In our homeland, despite the misogynistic efforts and policies of the Islamic Republic regime and its trivialization of the historic day of March 8th – just as its predecessor, the Pahlavi regime, trivialized this day – the heroic women and girls of our country, in the face of the pressures and repression against gender equality activists and activists, celebrate this glorious day in various ways while promoting gender awareness in society.
A century has passed since the first International Women’s Day was held in Iran, eld on March 7, 1922, at the initiative of the “Peik Nasvan” (Women’s Messenger) Association in Rasht. For more than a hundred years, Iranian women have fought courageously to break the chains of gender oppression and achieve equal rights, which have greatly transformed the face of our country’s patriarchal and superstitious society. This was especially evident in the great ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement, where women made history as they rose up and aimed to shatter the rotten foundations of the reactionary rulers, denounced dictatorship, and have proven their pivotal role in the ongoing struggle. The persistent and courageous struggle of the women of our country from the “Constitutionalism” movement to the present day, on the one hand, and the resistance of reactionary and authoritarian forces to changing medieval laws, on the other, is a narrative of a passionate struggle and an unwavering determination that has transformed the brave women of our country into vanguard fighters for fundamental changes and progressive development in our country. From their struggle for literacy and the right to vote, and the improvement of deplorable working conditions, to confronting deprivation and inequality in all social spheres that considered women inferior and second-class citizens, countless aspects of women’s struggle can be cited. Women have opposed the laws of the Taliban-style political Islam, which, by the “order” of its supreme leader, has determined the place of women in the home and childbearing. With their presence on the scene as social activists and protesters, Iranian women have said and continue to say no to the sexual and gender apartheid imposed on the country.
If in capitalist countries the right to equal pay for equal work, equal rights to workplace promotion, and the right to choose and control one’s own body (abortion) are the demands of women. In our country these demands are, along with other basic demands such as the right to choose one’s dress (for hejab to be optional), the right to freely choose work and education, the right to divorce, monogamy in society, the right to custody of children – the right to travel freely without the permission of the husband – a ban on child marriage – an end to women and girls’ exclusion in many branches of art such as singing and holding concerts – equal rights in inheritance and others. The above limitations imposed on women are areas that violate the human and basic rights of half of society and are clear examples of gender apartheid.
Violence against women and girls, with the help of reactionary laws and the decaying culture of patriarchy, has led to the escalation of social ills, including femicide, honour killings, and domestic violence, with women from the working class and the poor making up the greatest number of victims of these social disorders. In addition, the catastrophic increase in the gender gap in our country – despite the capabilities of women and their attainment of excellent academic degrees – is one of the major challenges of the Iranian labour market today (according to statistics, the unemployment rate of women is twice that of men), and the first victims of workforce reductions are always hardworking women in cities and villages, who inevitably turn to informal labour markets.
Women nurses of our country, this hardworking and dedicated group, have not yet achieved their legitimate demands, which are to improve their pay and working conditions, despite holding various protest rallies and chanting the slogan “We are nurses, not slaves.”[iv] The state continues to build legal cases against teachers, especially women active in the teachers’ union. Hardworking women in our country, especially due to the prevalent gender discrimination resulting from the misogynistic policies of the Supreme Religious leader’s government, suffer more deprivation and pressure than their male colleagues, and suffer doubly because they are women.
“Passing death sentences, the rulers’ revenge against women”
Despite the repression and all the restrictions by the patriarchal regime against the formation and organization of any civil-political movement, and despite arrests, torture, and long prison sentences, the free women of Iran continue their struggle in different fields with various initiatives and bravely cross the regime’s red lines.
The participation of women and female workers activists in various protests, together with the daily, fearless presence of women in the streets and public places – partly with the aim of forcing the concept of the optionality of the veil on the government – and in other social arenas, reflects the passionate scenes of the current anti-dictatorship movement in our homeland. Alongside this image, the militant protest and strike of female political prisoners against the death penalty and to protect the human right to life – this fundamental article of the Declaration of Human Rights – is another stirring image.
Women political prisoners have joined and supported the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign in protest at the death sentences of their comrades, expressing solidarity with the protests against all death sentences in the country’s prisons and calling for their abolition. The women’s ward of Evin Prison witnessed a sit-in and protest by women political prisoners on 26 August 2024. In protest against the death sentences for Pakhshan Azizi, Varisheh Moradi, and Sharifeh Mohammadi, the imprisoned women chanted in unison: “Issuing the death sentence is the rulers’ revenge on women.”
The struggle against the death penalty – the regime’s tool for terrorizing the struggle of the masses – and in defense of the right to life of humans, which is being trampled upon by the regime’s tyrannical apparatus, is becoming more widespread every day. In addition to the protests of political prisoners and human rights organizations and activists, and the statement of 228 lawyers, two female civil and human rights activists and former prisoners, Nasrin Sotoudeh and Sedighe Vosmeghi, have recently called the death sentences of Pakhshan Azizi, Varisheh Moradi, and Sharifeh Mohammadi “a clear revenge against the Women, Life, Freedom movement.”
Also, the Mothers for Justice, who currently constitute one of the effective forces in the popular struggle against the tyrannical regime, have transformed their endless anger into activism and a struggle against any form of state violence, especially executions. Many of the mothers either have open security cases or are in prison.
In the current situation, with the intensification of the country’s current economic and social crises, which are the result of the destructive policies of rule of the supreme religious leader, the country is also threatened by the threat of a devastating war. The women of our country have always been and are against war and military conflicts. They are aware that it is in conditions of peace that the struggle against the tyrannical and misogynistic regime of the religious jurisprudence can be intensified and, in order to liberate the homeland trapped in the shackles of tyranny, the demand for equality and the elimination of discrimination can be linked to other popular demands of the movement.
The Democratic Organization of Iranian Women once again sincerely congratulates all women of the country on March 8th, especially those men and women who fight for women’s rights, political and ideological women prisoners, mothers of those executed, and those seeking justice, retirees and female educators, nurses, workers and hardworking women, housewives, students, and others.
May the 8th of March be auspicious for all those who strive for freedom, equality, peace, social justice and safeguarding the environment!
Long live the united struggle of the women of Iran and the world for equality and an end to dual gender-class oppression!
Forward to a world free of war!
No to executions!
No to sexual and gender apartheid
Democratic Organisation of Iranian Women
March 2025
[i] In its adopted document, the Beijing Conference identified twelve fundamental and worrying areas to address the problems facing women and girls and obliged governments to comply with them. These twelve areas are: Women and poverty; education; health; economy; violence against women; women and military tensions; women in power; empowerment and decision-making mechanisms for women’s advancement; human rights; media; environment and children
[ii] This year’s slogan for the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the “Beijing Declaration” is the struggle and collective action to “advance women’s rights, that is, the relentless struggle for women’s human rights, challenging all forms of violence, discrimination, and exploitation. Promoting gender equality.” Hammihan Newspaper, January 25, 2024
[iii] Etemad Online, citing the “Report of the Director-General of the World Health Organization,” wrote: “Of the 45,000 people killed in Gaza, 60 percent were women and children.”
[iv] Nurses’ slogan in the call for a nationwide strike on November 19, 2024, on the eve of Nurses’ Day
