From kupperma@u.washington.edu Sat Mar 8 10:57:56 1997 Received: from jason01.u.washington.edu (jason01.u.washington.edu [140.142.70.24]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW96.12/8.8.4+UW97.03) with ESMTP id KAA16962; Sat, 8 Mar 1997 10:57:54 -0800 Received: from dante33.u.washington.edu (dante33.u.washington.edu [140.142.15.17]) by jason01.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW96.12/8.8.4+UW97.03) with ESMTP id KAA10334; Sat, 8 Mar 1997 10:52:07 -0800 Received: from localhost (kupperma@localhost) by dante33.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW96.12/8.8.4+UW97.03) with SMTP id KAA55752; Sat, 8 Mar 1997 10:57:53 -0800 Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 10:57:53 -0800 (PST) From: "K. Upperman" To: "Annette M. Bryan" , Deirdre Raynor , Subject: Happy Women's Day (fwd) Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Let us not forget those women here in the U.S. and throughout the world who have no chance at a "Happy Women's Day" as we remember and celebrate the wonderful women in our world at UWT. Kate ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 08 Mar 1997 09:20:30 -0800 From: "A. Goudarz Eghtedari" Reply-To: iwidg@u.washington.edu To: Discussion of Iranian Womens Issues Subject: Happy Women's Day Today, Dec. 8th is the International Women's Day. It is a day to CELEBRATE achievments by women during the years and remember those who lived the struggle and never made it this far. Women in our country are experiencing new grounds of struggle every day and of course never give up to manage to overcome new restrictions. Their fights is right in front of our face, their struggles are ours and we all go through this process together, but no need to say that it is their fight and we in the best situation can only support them. In a familly level let's look at our own mother, wife, partner, sister and daughter and put yourself in their shoes. Try to imagine what would have happened to you if you were a woman in our society. Think about the kind of inspiration that we get from these close parts of our soul. Bring them a flower and honour their friendship and support. Happy Women's day to all! Peace; Goudarz Some excerpt from a message fron Sinn Fein Womem's Department: .... In the most basic areas of human rights taken for granted by men, women still daily struggle for their right of equality. Gains have been won by the action of women themselves but there is a danger that these advances may be eroded. International Women's Day is an opportunity for women to celebrate the advances which we have made but also to recommit ourselves to working to ensure the recognition of women's rights as human rights. The specific needs and rights of women in the family, the labour force and as citizens must continue to be advanced and protected if the concept of human rights is to have integrity. "All Issues Are Women's Issues" The recognition that the concept of women's issues is not solely confined to gender issues and that women have a view and a contribution to make on areas such as conflict resolution processes, the exercise of self determination and the pursuite of democracy is vital. Women have an equal contribution to make in the search for peace and in our view they have a vested interest in defining new models and shaping the type of societies we wish to live in. As women have never argued an exclusive agenda, the issues of equality, representation and participation that women will bring to conflict resolution processes and political negotiations will affect and benefit all of our societies. There are those who argue that the issue of self determination is not a women's issue and therefore the women's/feminist movement have distanced themselves from the many national liberation campaigns which women are increasingly playing a central role in. The international women's/feminist movement does itself and the many women involved in national liberation campaigns a great disservice by refusing to accept the validity of their struggle for national self determination. Self determination is about being in control of our own lives. It is about being involved in decisions that affect us. It is being empowered and challenging conditions that seek to disempower us. It is about the importance of collective action and of communities of people. We take this opportunity to call on the international women's movement and all concerned with issues of democracy and justice to support the exercise of self determination and to voice it's opposition to all forms of oppression against women. To-day we celebrate our strength and diversity as women. We wish you well in your discussions today, in your struggle for justice and look forward to a future International Women's Day where we can both celebrate the gaining of a just and last peace in our countries. Beir Bua (Irish--"Birth to Victory") Joan O'Connor Director Sinn Fein Womem's Department .