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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Irans Basij Sisters suppressed election protests |
| 2009-08-06 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] The female wing of Iran's paramilitary volunteer militia the Basij played a crucial role in suppressing the protests of women in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential elections, according to a prominent Iranian-American activist. Janet Afary, Iranian American researcher and feminist activist, the Basij Sisters is a group of militia women founded by Marziyeh Dabbagh, the most prominent woman fighter in Iran. Dabbagh was arrested and tortured in 1972 for associating with Khomeini and was later released after her health deteriorated. She went to Europe where she formed Iranian cells that she personally supervised. "Dabbagh became Khomeini's confidant and became his guard in Paris in 1978," Afary told Al Arabiya. "She took part in the Iran-Iraq war where she was a military commander and joined the Revolutionary Guard where she was in charge of liquidating opposition groups." In the late eighties, she was sent to Moscow to meet former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and throughout the past two decades has been the head of the government-affiliated Islamist Women's Society. She also became Majlis (Iranian Parliament) deputy in its first, second, and fifth sessions. The ages of women who join the Basij, Afary added, range between 18 and 38, but the militia also includes older women who have been there since its establishment. When war with Iraq started in 1980, Iran established special military training camps for women that included thousands of Basij volunteers, many of whom were related to male soldiers. |
| Posted by:Fred |