Iranian press festival for Muslim women opens

Iran has launched the first international press festival for Muslim women in Tehran, but antagonism and worries over the festival’s content have left women’s rights advocates frustrated. According to the country’s official news agency, the opening ceremony of the event was attended by a number of Iranian officials including Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini as well as Iranian and foreign cultural, press and media and arts personalities. The festival is being held with participation of 50 foreign periodicals from different world countries and 60 domestic ones in the venue of Iran’s National Library. Fardous Mukhtari, a Tehran-based writer and women’s rights activist, told Bikyamasr.com that the idea of the conference is “demeaning” toward women and should “not be praised.” She argued that “Iran has one of the worst records in the world when it comes to women’s rights and women’s issues, so this conference and festival is nothing but lip service to women’s empowerment. It is a joke.” Expert committees to be held at the sideline of the festival will examine such issues as “role of women in establishing the new Islamic civilization”, “media policies of West and Islamic world press”, “a look at the western and Islamic life styles” and “a review of latest Islamic world developments”. An exhibition focusing on reflection of Islamic awaking movements worldwide is also organized at the sideline of the festival, reports said. Women like Mukhtari are hopeful that the festival can bring awareness to the world of the plight of women, by focusing coverage of the event on the “realities facing women in this country. “We have lived under the doormat of men for decades and we barely have a voice, so hopefully the international press will see this event and take on the issue of women in the country from our perspective, the activists fighting,” she added.