[Marxism] Letter from SOWFI to WBAI in Support of Women's Rights in Iraq

[<mekchi@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sowfi Organization <sowfiorg@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: "Sowfi Organization" 
To: aguttu@xxxxxxxxx, fran_luck_@xxxxxxxxxxx, j4fasulo@xxxxxxxxx, 
journalista1@xxxxxxxxx, laurasaiter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, shourash@xxxxxxx, 
luccoop@xxxxxxxxx, indymediaforum@xxxxxxxxx, emilcecura@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Letter to WBAI in Support of SOWFI
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 17:42:31 +0000


Dear Friends and Supporters,

We, SOWFI, the Solidarity with Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, are 
asking for your support in challenging WBAI?s popular morning news show Wake Up 
Call for their negative mischaracterization of our solidarity demonstration 
with Iraqi women?s struggle for equality. 

On the March 31 edition of Wake Up Call, it was implied that our demo was a 
racist demonization of Muslims and we were denounced as "American women" who 
were "ignorant" of Islam. We subsequently wrote to the producers of Wake-up 
Call, hand-delivered, mailed and emailed the following letter of protest asking 
for a right of rejoinder to this show. Despite verbal indications that an 
invitation to the show would be forthcoming, SOWFI has still not been given a 
date for the show where we stated we would like to bring on the air members of 
SOWFI and speakers from the demo to correct any misconceptions and to reinforce 
the message that women's rights are inalienable; and that the left community 
should be supporting these rights, not defending misogynist practices. 

Now, we have decided to make our letter public and ask supporters of the demo 
and women?s freedom to send a letter to Wake Up Call producers and hosts. Let 
them know that you are a WBAI listener and are requesting that the event 
organizers for the March 3 SOWFI action have equal air time to respond to the 
March 31 Wake-Up Call show which blatantly mischaracterized them.

A sample letter is pasted below. Feel free to write your own more personalized 
letter. A review of our attached original complaint ("Letter to WBAI") will 
give you a good sense of the program content or you can write to us to get a 
taped copy of the Wake Up Call program in question.
Address your letter to Wake Up Call Producers and Hosts:

Sharan Harper sharper@xxxxxxxx
Errol Maitland emaitland@xxxxxxxx
Bernard White bwhite@xxxxxxxx
Deepa Fernandez dfernandes@xxxxxxxx
Station Manager Don Rojas drojas@xxxxxxxx

** and please remember to cc a copy to SOWFI at sowfiorg@xxxxxxxxxxx
 
Allison Guttu 
Solidarity with Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (SOWFI)



*******************************************
SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Wake Up Call Producers,

I am writing as a WBAI listener to urge you to meet SOWFI?s (Solidarity with 
Organization of Women?s Freedom) request for rejoinder to your show. As someone 
who attended the March 3 demo against the US occupation and in support of Iraqi 
women?s struggle for equality (or as someone who supports the struggle for 
Iraqi women?s equality) I believe the mischaracterization of this important 
solidarity effort on your show was shameful. By likening this solidarity 
movement to the racist demonization of Muslim people, you are helping 
strengthen a taboo against defending women's basic human rights.

I share the alarm over racist profiling and racist attacks against Muslims, 
Arabs, and all (perceived to be) of Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian descent, 
and I strongly object to the implication that anyone who speaks out against the 
oppression of women under Islamic governments is participating in racism. The 
answer to addressing racism, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment is not to be 
silent about abuses against women of color by political Islam.

In the interest of justice and responsible journalism, I urge you to support 
SOWFI?s proposal for a right to rejoinder on your program. They should be given 
equal time as was given to the guests who misrepresented SOWFI's efforts at 
building much needed solidarity with Iraqi women?s struggle for equality.
Sincerely
 



April 24, 2004


To the Producers of Wake-Up Call,

On the 3/31/04 Wake-Up call, Bernard White hosted several Muslim guests to 
speak about the negative portrayal of Islam in the American media.  Several 
false characterizations were made regarding a solidarity demonstration we, 
SOWFI (Solidarity with the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq) organized 
on March 3 in support of Iraqi women's struggle for equality.  We strongly 
object to this misrepresentation of our efforts and are therefore writing to 
request the right of rejoinder in the form of equal time on Wake-Up Call.  
Bernard White concluded the program with the promise of a longer upcoming 
segment on the same topic. We request to be guests on Wake-Up Call so as to 
have a fair chance to accurately represent our position and political goals, 
and as well, to be co-guests when the future program airs.  We wish one or both 
segments to include representatives from our organization, SOWFI, and the Iraqi 
and Iranian activists who spoke at our demonstration.  An important part of 
this program would be the presentation of the latest information on the 
struggle of Iraqi women for an Iraqi state that is secular and not religious in 
nature.   (See attachment for program proposal)

Our March 3 "Demonstration Against U.S. Occupation and the Imposition of 
Islamic Shar'ia" was the first of its kind that sought to demonstrate 
solidarity with the indigenous women's movement in Iraq, a movement that the 
American left has largely chosen to ignore.  Far from being "ignorant of Islam" 
as your broadcast suggested, SOWFI organizers made a determined effort to bring 
the voices of Iraqi and Iranian women and men to the public stage to explain 
the situation facing women in Iraq, as only those with first-hand experience 
can.  In the Wake-Up Call segment, one of the guests explained that he attended 
the demonstration, which he wrongly described as organized by "MADRE"  (MADRE 
was one of the demo endorsers).  He described challenging those present to 
explain the problems with Shar'ia law and concluded that they "knew nothing 
about Islam."  What he failed to mention was that many of the individuals 
present were activists from the Middle East who are intimately familiar with 
Islam, and who have spent decades struggling against political Islam (not Islam 
as a religion), a political and totalitarian movement which imposes itself by 
force and strips women of their basic human rights.   Make no mistake; this is 
not an issue of religious choice, but rather the forcible removal of women's 
choice, rights and freedom.  

Indeed, it was the Iraqi women's call for solidarity to which our demonstration 
was a response. In October, the US-puppet Iraqi Governing Council passed 
Resolution 137 (Islamic Shar'ia) which would have set back women's hard-earned 
rights by 50 years.  Despite repeated erosion by Saddam Hussein, the largely 
secular code still gave Iraqi women many more rights than other women in the 
region.   When Iraqi women reacted by taking to the streets and protest poured 
in from around the world, the IGC was forced to rescind the resolution two 
months later.  
Our demonstration was a proud part of that international outcry.  

Equally problematic was a statement made during your broadcast that "the only 
people who see Islamic Shar'ia as oppressive are corporate media, foreign 
policy makers and feminists."  First of all, this statement dismisses decades 
of activism by women living under or in exile from political Islam, groups such 
as RAWA in Afghanistan, the Organization of Women's Liberation in Iran, and the 
Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq.  It also ignores the condemnation of 
the treatment of women living under Muslim laws by human rights organizations 
worldwide.  And while we recognize that foreign policy makers and their 
corporate media allies have exploited women's suffering in countries like 
Afghanistan to gain support for their imperialist wars, this does not make the 
suffering of women in Afghanistan any less real.  It merely shows the hypocrisy 
and utter insincerity of U.S. officials who help sustain the exact same 
brutality in countries like Saudi Arabia with whom they maintain close, 
friendly relations.  On the contrary, many feminist groups, such as 
Redstockings, V-Day, MADRE  Equality Now and SOWFI, have consistently spoken 
out against these crimes whenever and wherever they occur and sought to support 
the indigenous resistance that always accompanies them.  Why doesn't WBAI, the 
American left and the anti-war movement show their solidarity with these 
struggles?  Where is the outrage at the crimes against women's humanity that 
are being promulgated all over the world and bolstered by U.S. aggression and 
occupation?

The attempt to unilaterally impose Shar'ia on the women of Iraq, the widespread 
incidence of rape and abduction, the increased practice of "honor killing" 
(often against those same women who have been victims of rape) the 
assassinations and death threats against women fighting for their rights (OWFI 
leader Yanar Mohammed has received two death threats by Islamic group Jaysh 
Al-Sahaba for her "psychologically disturbed ideas of women's freedoms") all 
have come about as a result of US occupation and alliance with the right-wing 
forces of political Islam.  We find it dismaying that none of these facts were 
reported on your broadcast.  Something is wrong when vicious and inhuman 
practices against women do not warrant condemnation, but a demonstration, such 
as ours, demanding the end of those practices, does.  

Program guests defined Islamic Shar'ia as "sacred law flowing primarily from 
the Koran and the prophetic traditions of Mohammed" but they never delineated 
the laws themselves.   According to the Organization of Women's Freedom in 
Iraq, Islamic Shar'ia includes: giving men the right to have four wives, 
lowering the marriage age to nine (for girls only), giving men the sole right 
of divorce and custody over children, forcing women to veil, making adultery 
punishable by death (stoning for women being the most common practice), 
reducing women's inheritance to half that of a man, counting women's testimony 
in court as half that of a man and enforcing gender segregation in public 
spaces.  These are laws practiced under Islamic governments, with some 
variations, but the ultimate thrust of the law is quite clear: to legalize 
women's inferiority.    Regardless of whether you believe such misogynist laws 
are "sacred" or "prophetic," the fact is that political Islam seeks to make 
Islamic law the law of the state and impose it on all of the society, believers 
and non-believers, enforcing non-compliance with the full power of the state.  

Finally, we share the alarm over racist profiling and racist attacks against 
Muslims, Arabs, and all (perceived to be) of Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian 
descent and we object to the implication that anyone who speaks out against the 
oppression of women under Islamic governments is participating in racism.   
This is no different than accusations of "anti-Semitism" hurled against anyone 
who dares to criticize the inhuman and repressive policies of the Israeli 
government against Palestinians.  The answer to addressing racism, anti-Arab 
and anti-Muslim sentiment is not to be silent about abuses against women of 
color by political Islam.

Because the facts and purpose of our demonstration were significantly distorted 
and misrepresented on your program, we are requesting air time on Wake-Up Call 
to exercise our right of rejoinder. We would like to conduct a live phone 
interview with the Iraqi women who inspire our work and who are protagonists in 
the current struggle for women's lives in Iraq. Especially as the danger 
increases in Iraq, we believe it is more important than ever to ensure that 
Iraqi women's voices reach the airwaves.  We can be reached at 
sowfiorg@xxxxxxxxxxx Please contact us at your earliest convenience. 

Sincerely,

Jennifer Fasulo
Allison Guttu
Priya Reddy

for SOWFI, Solidarity with Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq


cc:  Bernard White, Deepa Fernandes, Kathy Davis, Don Rojas




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