The non-profit online Leadership Training Organization (WELL) celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8 and congratulates all the women of the world, including Iranian women inside and outside the country.
Years of effort and struggle of women around the world led the United Nations General Assembly to name March 8 as the day of women’s rights and world peace in 1977. Throughout history, especially in the last few decades, the women of the world have gained many rights, but there is still a long way to go before reaching full gender equality. Therefore, women’s struggles continue, especially in societies where women are under Islamic rules, such as Iran, where women’s rights in most cases, including family, social, economic, cultural, and political rights and participation in leadership are limited.
Indeed, during the last four decades, in addition to losing the rights that Iranian women achieved before the Revolution of 1979, more deprivations and discriminations have been imposed on them.
Despite this, Iranian women have continued struggling until today despite all the deprivations. The result of these struggles is the revolutionary movement “Woman, Life, Freedom”, which started after the murder of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish girl, which took place on September 25, 2022, by the Islamic morality police. This movement, which is led by women for the first time, is different from previous movements, including the leadership of women, the active presence of men in defense of women’s rights, and the great role of adolescent girls and young women.
Despite the harsh government repression, the presence of women in the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement has not faded, but their activism has expanded and given them new creativity and strength to create new ways to continue their survival in the political scene. Women’s Leadership Training (well) is aimed at holding online leadership classes, research projects, and creating a digital library, to train women’s leadership strategies, which is derived from the knowledge and experience of leading women throughout the world. This helps to expand the current movement and strengthen women’s leadership in future Iranian society. All of us are aware that gender equality and active leadership of women at high levels of decision-making are the foundation and essence of democracy.
