The General Union of Palestinian Women for Social Work, which has over 30,000 members and is considered as one of the most prominent and popular women unions in the Middle East, has issued a statement condemning the clerical regime's executions and crimes against Iranian women.
The committee, which is chaired by Ms. Rabiheh Ziab, Minister of the Palestinian Authority in Women's Affairs and a member of Parliament, said in its statement, “Women in Iran have stood up against the misogynist clerical regime and persevered by saying ‘no' to it.”
The statement also mentioned the female residents of Camp Ashraf. “The presence of 1,000 persevering women in Ashraf City, where 3,400 members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) reside, shows that these women have advanced a cumbersome struggle against the ruling regime in Iran for more than two decades. This is one of the best criteria to show the competence of the Iranian women to obtain freedom and equality.”
More than 400 members of the union, who signed the statement of solidarity with women of the uprising and 1,000 PMOI women in Ashraf, called on the United Nations to assume the protection of Ashraf and demanded from the Iraqi government to lift its siege on the camp and implement the April 24, 2009 resolution of the European Parliament on the rights of the residents.
The signatories started their statement by remembering Neda Aqa Soltan, the young woman who was killed by suppressive forces in June 2009 during a peaceful rally in Tehran, and urged human rights organizations in the world to condemn the Iranian regime's suppressive policies, especially against Iranian women.
The General Union of Palestinian Women for Social Work, which is an independent organization, was founded in 1981. The Ramallah-based organization is comprised of dozens of women's associations and institutions and has dozens of offices in various Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps, including the West Bank, al-Khalil, Tulkarm, Nablus, and Gaza.
