{"id":6810,"date":"2012-03-07T13:50:51","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T20:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=6810"},"modified":"2012-03-07T13:50:51","modified_gmt":"2012-03-07T20:50:51","slug":"taking-a-stand-with-women-in-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=6810","title":{"rendered":"Taking a stand with Women in the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Women\u2019s Day: Taking a stand with women in the Middle East<\/strong><br \/>\n6 March, 2012 &#8211; Amnesty International<\/p>\n<p>People around the world should show their solidarity with the courageous women who were pivotal in uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, Amnesty International said.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of International Women\u2019s Day on 8 March, the organization is calling on its supporters to mark the day by sending messages of support to women in the region.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of individual actions are expected to be taken, with a focus on four countries \u2013 Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen \u2013 where women remain at the heart of calls for reform, but a broad spectrum of women\u2019s rights are still threatened. <\/p>\n<p>In North Africa, which saw momentous events in 2011, political change has yet to translate into real gains for women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAcross the Middle East and North Africa, women have been an inspiring force for change, standing up against repressive regimes to defend basic human rights and promote reform and equality,\u201d said Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis International Women\u2019s Day, we stand in solidarity with these courageous women, to support them in their struggle for human rights and freedom, and to let them know the world is behind them at this historic moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Imprisoned in Iran for defending women\u2019s rights<\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s women played a key role in massive protests around the June 2009 elections, when they advocated for a wide range of human rights reform, including greater freedoms for women.<\/p>\n<p>But the country\u2019s women activists continue to pay a high price for their peaceful work.<\/p>\n<p>Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prisoner of conscience and human rights lawyer, is serving a six-year jail sentence, reduced from 11 years on appeal, on charges of \u201cpropaganda\u201d and belonging to an \u201cillegal\u201d organization \u2013 the Centre for Human Rights Defenders. She denies all charges. &#8230;more<\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D6810&amp;text=Taking+a+stand+with+Women+in+the+Middle+East&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women\u2019s Day: Taking a stand with women in the Middle East 6 March, 2012 &#8211; Amnesty International People around the world should show their solidarity with the courageous women who were pivotal in uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, Amnesty International said. Ahead of International Women\u2019s Day on 8 March, the organization is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=6810#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2632],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6811,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6810\/revisions\/6811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}