Woman, life, freedom
In 2023 Narges Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to stop the suppression of women and promote human rights in Iran. In this group-work session the participants will become better acquainted with how individuals and organisations take states to task when it comes to women’s rights.
Quick facts
Activity goals
- To learn about how individuals and organisations have contributed to realising the rights of women throughout history and are still doing so today.
- To learn more about the United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Instructions
- The facilitator introduces the topic: Narges Mohammadi is a human rights activist who is in prison in Iran. In 2023 she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her engagement. She is a part of the protest movement that uses the slogan “Woman, life, freedom!”. What do you think this slogan means, and how is it connected to human rights?
- The goal of this introductory reflection in a plenary session is to prepare the participants to work on the topic of women’s rights.
Group work
- Divide the participants into groups of three or four and issue each a copy of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. (Use an abbreviated version). Task: Find three examples of struggles for rights that have focused on improving the conditions for women throughout history and in our contemporary world. Select one of these struggles for rights and answer the following questions:
- What did or does the struggle for rights concern? Where and when?
- Can you point out examples of articles in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women that have been broken?
- What was done to attract attention to the cause?
- Was the cause fronted by an individual or an organisation?
- Did the protests contribute to change? How?
(The groups can use the internet).
- The groups present their findings in a plenary session.
Reflection
- What do you think is meant by the following quotation? “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead)
- In which ways is the “person on the street” important for realising human rights?
- Do you think that all countries have had struggles for rights in their history? Why? Why not?
- Are there any connections between human rights and democracy? If so what are they?
Debriefing
Narges Mohammadi and many other individuals throughout history have contributed to highlighting and realising women’s rights. Individuals and organisations are important activists for change. In states where the authorities do not respect human rights many activists risk being imprisoned. Some lose their lives due to their commitment.
In a democracy, individuals and organisations can step out into the streets to demonstrate and demand their rights peacefully. The people can also have an impact through elections. Realisation of human rights and democracy are thus closely interconnected.
