Nobel Women’s Initiative and IPS Continue to Team up to get Women’s Views onto Op-Ed Pages

Shirin Ebadi. Credit: Arash Ashourinia/IPS

Women activists are at the forefront of the struggle for human rights in Iran. Again on June 12, in the one-year anniversary of the elections that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency, they took the streets to peacefully demonstrate for democracy.

Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi tells some of the moving stories of women activists who keep the demand for rights alive, despite the repressive response from the authoritative Iranian regime. 2,500 political prisoners are currently being held in Iranian prisons. An imprecise number await their fate on death rows.

The column is one of the fruits of the partnership between IPS and the fellow MDG3 grantee the Nobel Women’s Initiative to bring the voices of these tireless human rights defenders to the headlines. It has been picked up by leading newspapers in Europe, Africa, Latin America and in Canada. Read the full story picked up by The Guardian and a comment by Timothy Garton Ash.

Shirin Ebadi, a lawyer, is a founding member of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, the global organization that brings together six women Nobel Peace Laureates.  She won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her work defending human rights in Iran.

The Nobel Women’s Initiative was established in 2006 by sister Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire. Their MDG3 project is called “Conflict and Militarism: Raising Women’s Voices for Peace, Equality and Justice”. Activities include, amongst others; raising public awareness in the Arab world, advocacy and building power alliances. Countries in which the project will take place are: Burma, Central America, Guatemala, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, and Sudan.

Strengthening the number and range of Op-Ed and media interviews featuring women’s and girls voices, and to ensure translation and global distribution of these products, is one of the activities of the IPS MDG3 project.

By working together the Nobel Women’s initiative and IPS are amplifying women’s voices through the media.