Women, March 8th and their demands have recently been the focus of a significant portion of articles, news, and even blog posts. The necessity of addressing women’s issues in the ups and downs of the slogans of democracy and equality is an important aspect to consider, as a considerable portion of the world’s population is made up of women. This figure has had a significant impact on the daily economic, social, and even political trends of the world, and concealing it, given the events and news of the world, is not only impossible, but a gendered and discriminatory view towards this group and the resulting harm will directly affect all of these trends. This belief has led intellectuals to remember the importance of maintaining balance and equality in terms of gender as one of the important branches of freedom and democracy. However, from the proposal to action and from slogans to implementation, there is a distance from one end of the spectrum to the other.

A brief look at the headlines in the past year tells the story of a widespread movement for women’s rights around the world. From France to Sweden, elections and the role of feminist women, from Egypt and Tunisia and Yemen to the rise of women in Saudi Arabia, from the unveiling of the hijab to naked protests, from the right to vote to women driving in Saudi Arabia, from the ban on polygamy in Libya to women’s leadership in the Yemeni revolution, from the nudity of women protesting against the way women are portrayed in Egyptian election campaigns to the campaign against violence in Malaysia – all are vivid signs of rapid changes in a world that is rushing towards achieving its ideals of gender equality.

Amidst severe oppression, Iranian women continue to slowly and steadily try to take successful steps, perhaps in silence or in fleeting reflections, under constant pressure. A brief and not very thorough report by human rights reporter Ahmad Shahid mentions a corner of these relentless pressures and the struggles of women who are even imprisoned for standing up for their rights. Nasrin Sotoudeh, as a lawyer and defender of women and children’s rights, is the only symbol of the injustice that is imposed on Iranian women; someone whose crime is simply defending their rightful rights and whose punishment is not only a ban on defending, but also a 10-year imprisonment. Incomplete statistics on imprisoned women activists in Iran and their sentences and conditions, as reported by human rights activists, and the increasing number of them and the wave of relentless arrests, the situation of women’s prisons and the judicial system’s treatment of such detainees all indicate the government’s desire to suppress all women who strive for equality, freedom, and democracy

This year, on March 8th, 2012, some activists of the women’s movement, by declaring their dissatisfaction with the possibility of war in Iran, drew attention to the potential harm to women and children and mentioned the destructive effects of it, such as poverty, displacement, and devastation. This group of active women emphasized that no changes have been made in discriminatory laws and issues that they have been protesting against in Iran. History has shown that values such as peace, human rights, women’s rights, security, and stability are never achieved through war and foreign intervention.

Also, one day before March 8th of this year, Bahareh Hedayat won the Herald Adelstam Award in Sweden for “extraordinary courage and active commitment to justice in the face of human rights violations in Iran.” Before her, Shirin Ebadi, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, and the first winner of the Italian International Human Rights Committee Award, as well as the “Johann Philipp Palm” award for freedom of thought and press from the Shorndorf Foundation in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

The reference to pressures and suppression, to international honors and awards, was a brief emphasis on the continued presence of women who strive to never give up in the fight for gender equality, and to play a crucial role alongside men in building a more equal tomorrow in the pursuit of democracy step by step.