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12 March, 2007
While women across the globe celebrated work/life accomplishments on 8 March 2007, women in Iran had to cancel a planned demonstration for women’s rights because of certain arrests. Only four days earlier, over 30 women were arrested while protesting and detained at Evin Prison in Tehran.
In Palestine, different from Iran in that a vibrant trade union movement is underway, women celebrated through their union, ICEM affiliate Petroleum, Mining, and Chemicals Workers of Palestine (GUPMCWP). The union marked the day in a moving statement by paying tribute to the hard-won efforts of women everywhere, and then letting women leaders of the union speak for themselves.
GUPMCWP Head Mohammed Jadallah said the day must be held up as one in which women have “crossed the border” between balancing family life with work in all walks of life. He said country after country began recognising International Women’s Day in the early 20th Century when “women started pushing the wheel of the economy in the west.”
The head of the union’s women’s committee as well as the union’s International Officer, Dr. Nuzha Mohammed Jadallah, said the participation of women in all trade unions must strengthen, and that mass participation by women must occur in all “activities and organisations of civil society.”
The GUPMCWP’s Nabeela Mahmmoud said the ability of women to take different courses regarding trade union issues is paramount to building strong women leaders. She said that “educating the unionist women” to the key roles they can play inside the union is the surest way to a strong union.
The GUPMCWP concluded the statement by declaring their solidarity with the women strikers of Turkish ICEM affiliate, Petrol-İş, at Fresenius Medical Care. The Palestinian union said it was proudly supporting the strikers “until they achieve their demands of dignity and justice, on and off the job, and our union in Palestine stands firmly with them to achieve their just demands. The working women in Palestine congratulate them on this International Women’s Day, and the victory that is to follow for their and their union, Petrol-İş.”