I’ve been looking all over the place to try to find the policy differences between these two guys. I support the movement of the people, but I also want to know to what extent that means I should support Mousavi himself. I found this good blurb on a hilary clintons website and http://www.vitalvoices.org/ Vital Voices that shows a comparison of their women’s rights policy. Based on his women’s rights statements alone I can get behind Mousavi.
Mousavi
* Mousavi pledged to disband the “Morality Police” that monitor women’s clothing in accordance with traditional Islamic dress.
* At a rally in Tehran, Mousavi told supporters, “We should reform laws that treat women unequally. We should empower women financially, women should be able to choose their professions according to their merits, and Iranian women should be able to reach the highest level of decision making bodies.”
* Mousavi vowed to support legal measures to end violence and discrimination against women.
* Mousavi has sounded support for the ratification of CEDAW. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/
* Mousavi promised to appoint female ministries and other high offices, if elected.
Ahmadinejad
* In a BBC News interview, Mahbube Abbasqolizade, a member of the Iranian Women’s Centre NGO, said, “Mr. Ahmadinejad’s policies are that women should return to their homes and that their priority should be the family.”
* Ahmadinejad changed the name of the government organization the “Centre for Women’s Participation” to the “Centre for Women and Family Affairs”.
* Ahmadinejad proposed a new law that would reintroduce a man’s right to divorce his wife without informing her. In addition, men would no longer be required to pay alimony. In response, women’s groups have initiated the Million Signatures campaign against these measures.
* Ahmadinejad’s administration opposes the ratification of the UN protocol called CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. This doctrine is essentially an international women’s Bill of Rights.
* Ahmadinejad implemented the Social Safety program, which monitors women’s clothing, requires the permission from a father or husband for a woman to attend school, and applies quotas limiting the number of women allowed to attend universities.
I’m in awe of what’s taking place on twitter. If you search for #iranelection there are 1000s of updates a minute coming from Iran. What a unique revolution.
