Activists from the Ukrainian feminist organization FEMEN have the Islamic Republic in their sights and are keeping the pressure on the regime over its egregious abuses of Sakineh Ashtiani and by extension many women who are forced to live under the anti-woman principles of the Islamic Republic. During the same actions, they decried the Ukrainian government for continuing to have friendly relations with the criminal regime and demanded closure of the embassy of the Islamic Republic.
On November 3, 2010, several members of FEMEN staked out the Islamic regime’s embassy, banging stones on the ground and shouting out against the stoning sentence of Sakineh Ashtiani. The women held a sit-in in front of the embassy, blocking the entrance to the building and shouting “Ambassador out, ambassador out” and “Eat your stones yourselves.” Th slogans on their signs condemned Khamenei, and demanded that the regime stop killing women.
Climbing to a high position on the building, the FEMEN activists effectively hoisted their own flag of flowers, ribbons, and feminist activism over the embassy, defying Ukrainian police during their protest against the Islamic Republic’s anti-woman foundations. As reported by Reuters, FEMEN member Aleksandra Shevchenko stated that “The country where women can be sentenced to death for adultery is a country of apes. It’s a country of sub-humans for whom there is not a place on our planet. We are against it. We should not let anyone, any Iranian who subscribes to such rules of existence in Iran into Ukraine. We came here today to protest against it, and we demand the Iranian ambassador to be expelled from Ukraine and this institution to be closed.”
A few days later, FEMEN struck again: on November 11, the activists disrupted a regime-sponsored cultural event. Iranian cultural events sponsored by the regime are one of the ways that the Islamic Republic disseminates state-controlled messages about life in Iran to the international community. Regime-sponsored cultural events have met with activist disruption elsewhere in the world, including Canada and Germany.
Hundreds of Ukrainian and Iranian dignitaries were in attendance at the Ukrainian House convention centre, where the event was being held. The FEMEN activists tore off their clothes in front of the audience and shouted slogans against “court-sanctioned murder.” One activist wore a noose around her neck, representing the method by which the Islamic Republic holds onto power in Iran, while another wore a black veil over her face. Enforcing compulsory hijab (including the veil) is another method by which the Islamic regime maintains control over the lives of women in Iran.
In an absurd reflection of the regime’s attempts to assert masculinist control over women’s bodies, security guards attempted to cover the women’s breasts as they struggled to physically expel the activists from the premises. But the scuffle only drew more attention to the activists’ messages. They shouted “Don’t kill women!” and continued to hold their signs, and fists, aloft.
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Outside the convention center, a FEMEN spokeswoman issued a statement to numerous members of the international press about their protest against the Islamic Republic, repeating their demands that the Ukrainian government stop dealing with the regime, close the Iranian embassy in Kiev, and eject representatives of the regime from Ukraine.
Mission Free Iran congratulates FEMEN for their fantastic and effective action against the anti-woman Islamic Republic. It shows that this regime cannot go anywhere without being confronted by people who stand united around the world against its barbaric inhumanity.
برای ایران آزاد mission free iran 
Stop the Stoning
Excuse me ! But I am going to be insensitive about laws that are blatantly insensitive? This is an ALERT to anyone OUT THERE involved in condoning the ‘stoning’ of Sakineh to death. Know that your Iranian Dictatorship Government tyrannising here & now in the 21st century, violating & impinging upon the rights & lives of innocent people (in this case not just Sakineh but also her brother, lawyer & two journalists), will NEVER be tolerated EVER by the conscious ‘evolving’ people of this world. Where is the Law that says no individual has the right to think or decide for themselves ? It appears that the ideological battle for women in your dictatorship who defy convention & try to live their life openly can expect censure, discrimination & ostracism, at best; vicious tortuous attacks, imprisonment and even death, at worst. This inhumane oppressing discrimination must end NOW for the growth of all humanity. The justification of Religious Laws that forbids women to demonstrate their love for another, stems from a major fallacy about life, which states that some human beings are better than other human beings. It is this fallacy that allows societies to follow in the footsteps of organised religions & practise discrimination of all kinds. Are we to abandon basic human values in order to honor religious or cultural diversity? Is it insensitive to be sensitive about laws that are insensitive? Trampling on each other is permitted, but not trampling on beliefs. In fact, it has become a tradition to trample on each other because of our beliefs. And so, absurdity has come full circle. To all religious groups out there, who wish to practise what they preach – mercy, compassion, forgiveness etc… Wisely consider this statement – “understand that neither gender nor race nor nationality nor religious persuasion nor sexual orientation nor any other aspect of a person’s individuality should disqualify that person from participating fully in the human experience at the highest level and in whatever way he or she chooses, so long as that choice does not impinge upon the rights or safety of others.” *Extracts taken from ‘Conversations with God’ by Neale Donald Walsh.
Free Sakineh NOW !!!
AUSTRALIA
Posted by Angela Free | November 13, 2010, 1:56 amOops! I’d like to correct my letter above where I typed brother. I meant to type son ~ Sakineh’s son Sajjad Qaderzadeh.
“The facts surrounding Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s continued detention under a sentence of death by stoning, plus the subsequent imprisonment of her son Sajjad Qaderzadeh and lawyer Javid Houtan Kiyan, who were arrested on 10 October 2010 along with two German journalists, illuminate the deep flaws in the administration of justice in Iran.”
Blessings & peace be upon you Sajjad & all the brave ‘warriors of light’ fighting against this darkness…. (darkness or the shadow side of all beings is actually a total disconnection from Our Wonderful Creator) .
This life is a test, an illusion so we are told. If so, is it not our duty to be diligent and steadfast in awareness of all the compassionate teachings bestowed upon us in the Koran re; tolerance, patience, mercy and forgiveness.
How dare we take the free will given to us by Allah and choose to ignore it. Ignorance of the practice and application of these universal laws towards one another is what keeps this world in darkness.
“The only way to measure the significance of our lives is by valuing the lives of others”
AFreeAngel
Posted by Angela Free | November 13, 2010, 10:15 pmJust imagine if you had protested top-less anywhere in the United States of America, the land of free and the self-promoted guardian of the Human Rights. You WERE TAKEN TO JAIL for inorderly conduct and would be charged with a misdemeanor. As late as 2003, if you were arrested while having sex with your same sex partner in the State of Texas, you would have been charged with sodomy and would have gotten 3 months of prison, the law was repealed by the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision Lawrence v. Texas.
The moral of the story: anywhere in the world you go there are limits to freedom, whether you like it or not.
Posted by A Tea Bag | November 25, 2010, 3:06 pm