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Zahra Rahnavard_ the political advisor to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami
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Additional
reporting by Riad Zein Edeen, IOL Iran Correspondent
TEHRAN,
September 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - With the participation of
representatives of the three religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism,
an international conference on the lives of Virgin Mary and Fatmah
Az-Zahra (Prophet Muhammad's daughter), called on Iranian women and
women worldwide to follow the example of the two great ladies.
Participants
of the conference, which ended Friday, September 20, demanded the need
for spiritual references, everywhere, for employing the feelings of
respect and sanctity, among the people, for religious figures,
especially great women.
According
to the conferees, this way helps combat currents of corruption and
misguidance threatening family ties and other social entities,
especially among younger generations.
Inter-Faith
dialogue has also been urged, along with supporting human and religious
values, to replace feelings of conflict and hatred, among peoples. The
conferees stressed that religions are against terrorism and violence. In
this respect, the United States received the bigger part of condemnation
and criticism, due to using the attacks of 9/11 in abusing Islam and
Muslims, by portraying Muslims as violent and terrorists.
The
participants also called for the need to investigate and remove the
objective reasons of terrorism; on top of which is injustice befalling
oppressed nations.
It
was natural for the Israeli violations of Christian and Islamic
sanctuaries in Palestine to be marked high on the conference's agenda.
The
President of the Society of Iranian Jews, Haroun Yashiey, told
IslamOnline that "Zionists, like Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, raise the slogan of defending the Jews, while in fact, they hurt
them, by abusing the true values of Judaism".
Yashiey
called for separating "Judaism as a religion" and
"Zionism as a political racist ideology".
Commenting
on the conference main topic; Fatmah and Virgin Mary, Yashiey said;
"This conference represents a positive step on the way of deepening
dialogue and understanding among the followers of all religions. Iranian
Jews, for example, respect Fatmah Az-Zahra and think very highly of
her".
In
another sign of interest in the issues of Iranian women, the cabinet's
Cultural Committee gave its provisional approval to allow women to
attend matches, provided that the sporting authorities are able to
create the "necessary conditions", reported BBC's online news
service Sunday, September 22, 2002.
Football
in Iran has many female fans.
In
1998, hundreds of women forced their way into the Azadi Sport Complex in
Tehran to welcome home the victorious national team, which defeated
Australia in a World Cup qualifying game.
The
authorities turned a blind eye to the "incident" and the
subsequent female jubilation on the street.
A
women's football league was formed later that year.
All
women football matches are held indoors and no male spectator is allowed
to watch.
In
recent years, there has been a growing movement in the media to allow
women to attend men's football games.
Zanan,
a women's monthly magazine, criticized the authorities for their
"discriminatory practices" when they allowed the female fans
of Ireland's football team to attend the World Cup 2002 qualifying match
in Tehran's national stadium.
A
London-based Iranian journalist, Farangis Mohebbi, told BBC News Online
that men behaving badly at football matches have always been used as an
excuse to prevent women from attending games.
"Women
must have the freedom to choose whether they want to watch a football
match at the stadium or not," she said.
