25th of November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

1 - Definition of violence against women

The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993, defines violence against women as all acts of violence. directed against the female sex, and causes or is likely to cause physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether in public or private life.

2- The consequences of violence on women

The harmful psychological, sexual, and reproductive consequences of violence against women affect women at all stages of their lives. For example, early education disadvantages are not only the main obstacle to universal education and girls' right to education, but they are also responsible for limiting access to higher education and leading to limited opportunities for women in the labor market.

3 - Violence associated with some characteristics of women

Although gender-based violence can affect anyone, anywhere, some characteristics of women, such as their sexual preferences, the presence of a disability or their ethnicity, as well as some contextual factors, for example humanitarian crises, including Family conflict and post-conflict. It can increase women's vulnerability to violence.

4- Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread human rights violations

Today, violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in the world. It also remains one of the least reported incidents due to the impunity, silence, stigma and sense of shame that surrounds it.

5 - Forms of violence

Violence against women is understood to include, but is not limited to, forms of physical, sexual and psychological violence, such as:

• Intimate partner violence (battering, psychological violence, marital rape, femicide);

• Sexual violence and harassment (rape, forced sexual acts, unwanted sexual harassment, pedophilia, forced marriage, street harassment, criminal harassment, cyber harassment);

• human trafficking (slavery, sexual exploitation);

• female genital mutilation;

• Early marriage.

First: the class structure that constitutes the inferiority of women, their oppression, and the practice of violence against them

1- Commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women concerns us on several levels, including the following:

2 - The role of women in producing and reproducing the direct life of man grants them the proper position that was given in primitive life with full appreciation, respect and integration, and where all sociological and anthropological studies gather, that the absence of division, authoritarianism and classes in primitive society was the origin of the privilege that women enjoyed in This first life. Refer in this regard to the studies of Lewis Morgan and Frederick Engels on the cohesion of primitive society before its division with the emergence of private property, the family and the state.

3 - That the revolution and backwardness that afflicted primitive societies began with the agricultural revolution and private ownership and the emergence of the exchange value that divided primitive human solidarity and opened the way for conflict and competition over private property and the patriarchal system and the appreciation of the exchange value, on which state power, police and soldiers were built, the emergence of religions, wars and the emergence of successive civilizations And its collapse due to the class struggle that required it. In light of this transformation, the love of possession and violence began to form the basis of the patriarchal system, impose itself on the status of women, and perpetuate their inferiority in different societies.

4 - The current capitalist society, as the highest stage of the old exploitative class societies, inherited from the divided society its patriarchal patterns, all methods of exploitation, appreciation of exchange value, forms of oppression of women and violence against them. Therefore, modern societies cannot get rid of class domination, the inferiority of women, the practice of violence against them, and the recovery of their position, except by gradually and revolutionarily getting rid of private property, exchange value, and class division, and restoring human solidarity under the socialist communist mode of production.

Second: Indicators of violence against women in Morocco and globally

A - Some indicators of violence against women's rights in Morocco

The dominance of the bourgeois family pattern in Moroccan society and its spread with the entry of French colonialism and the imposition of the capitalist production pattern and the gradual elimination of the previous agricultural, industrial and commercial production patterns pushed towards new forms of patriarchal violence against Moroccan women. We refer below to a sample of indicators of the spread of violence against women. According to the context and form of violence and the woman’s place of residence, during the year 2019 from the latest statistics of the High Commissioner for Planning (National Research on Violence against Women in 2019):

Violence context - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Total - - - Rural - - - - Urban

Domestic violence Family/husband - - - - - - 52.1 - - - - 53.3 - - - - 51.4

Violence in the workplace - - - - - - - - - - - - - 15.4 - - - - - 8.7 - - - - - 18.2

Violence in the study and training space - - - 18.9 - - - - - 26.2 - - - - - 17.9

Violence in the public sphere - -- - - - - - - - - - 26.6 - - - - - 6.7 - - - - - 15.6

Violence in various spheres of life - - - - - - - - 56.5 - - - - - 55.3 - - - - - 57.1

These indicators highlight the evolution of the prevalence of violence among adult women (18-64 years) according to the context and form of violence, according to the woman's place of residence. These indicators reflect the extent of alienation occurring among the Moroccan bourgeois family, whether rural or urban, due to the control of the patriarchal system and religious values, and the need for the capitalist mode of production for this control to ensure its continuity and reproduction of itself.

B - Some indicators of violence against women globally:

The annual report on the sustainable development goals refers to the general manifestations of violence that women in the world suffer from. The following are some of these manifestations as mentioned in the report:

• In all, 26 percent of women who entered into a partnership or marriage age 15 and over (641 million) have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their husband or intimate partner at least in their lifetime;

• In a 2021 survey conducted in 13 countries, 45 percent of women reported that they or a woman they knew had experienced some form of violence since the COVID-19 pandemic;

• In 2021, one in five young women were married before the age of 18;

• 35 per cent and 28 per cent of young women were married as children, respectively in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia;

• The global prevalence of child marriage has decreased by about 10 percent in the past five years;

• Up to 10 million more girls could become child brides by 2030 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the 100 million girls who were at risk before the pandemic;

• No less than 200 million girls and women today have been subjected to female genital mutilation, mainly in 31 countries as a result of religious beliefs and the patriarchal system;

• As of January 1, 2022, the global share of women in lower and ordinary assemblies in national parliaments is 26.2 percent, compared to 22.4 percent in 2015;

• At this pace, it will take at best another 40 years for women and men to be represented equally in national parliaments;

• Women's share is just over a third in local governments;

• In 2019, before the pandemic hit, women made up 39.4 percent of the total workforce. In 2020, women accounted for nearly 45 percent of global employment losses;

• The proportion of women in managerial positions worldwide increased from 27.2 to 28.3 percent from 2015 to 2019, but remained unchanged from 2019 to 2020, the first year without an increase since 2013;

• Between 2007 and 2021, 57 percent of married or partnered women between the ages of 15 and 49 made their own informed decisions regarding sexual relations, contraceptive use, and reproductive health care;

• In the first year of the epidemic, an estimated 1.4 million additional unintended pregnancies occurred in low- and middle-income countries;

• Only 15 of the 52 reporting countries have included sufficient provisions in their legal frameworks to protect women's rights to land;

• Between 2018 and 2021, only 26 percent of countries had comprehensive systems in place to track public allocations for gender equality, 59 percent had some features of such a system, and 15 percent did not have minimal elements of such a system.

While the United Nations reports, in addition to the above, confirm the following:

- Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 45% of women said that they or other women have experienced some form of violence against women and girls. 7 in 10 women said they believed that verbal or physical abuse from a partner had become more common;

- 6 out of 10 women believe that sexual harassment in public places has gotten worse;

- 85% of women worldwide have experienced or witnessed virtual violence against other women;

- Every hour on average, more than five women or girls are killed by members of their entourage in 2021, according to a study published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women. This report describes these figures as "a stark reminder that violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread human rights violations in the world."

Third: The role of religious beliefs in perpetuating violence against women

1- Religion is one of the social and cultural components inherited from the time of social and class division: Religions, especially monotheistic religions, have entrenched the inferiority of women, as religious authorities interpret texts according to the political and economic contexts of the prevailing mode of production. While, over time, some of the dogmas behind freedom of thought and action were bound to disappear, the redefinition of world geopolitical and economic strategy seems to favor, through religious extremism, societal withdrawal. When masculine power becomes of divine essence, the inferior status of women legitimizes all forms of discrimination to which they are subjected, and the denunciation of violence becomes unimaginable; On the other hand, the use of unbridled violence against those who violate marital honour rules can be encouraged.

2- Studies conducted in France have highlighted that, among the socio-cultural data collected, religion appears to be a decisive factor: 17% of Muslim or Jewish respondents practiced domestic violence, and 9.1% of Catholic and Protestant respondents compared to 7. 8% of those who did not profess any religion. Then it appeared that women who were raised in the Catholic religion were more distant from religion than Muslims. The very serious level of marital violence rises with the degree of religious affiliation: 5,2% of those who consider religion very important are in a very dangerous situation of violence against 2% of those who do not attach importance to it.

3 - All religions have dealt with the issue of women. Some were more open to women than others. Certain religions cannot deny the woman's role first as a wife and partner in the formation of the home, and also as a mother, where she bears the responsibility of raising her children, and she must prepare them in the right way to face the difficulties and circumstances of life.

4- However, this did not prevent some religions from enacting "sacred" laws against women's rights and freedoms, but rather guaranteed power and control for men. For her, the role of authority, leader, responsible person, and decision-maker is reserved for men only, while women's only role is that of receiver, believer, and teacher.

5 - In contrast to Christianity, in which women were denied the priesthood, there is Islam, which still requires women to wear the hijab, just as the Qur’an guarantees rights for men that women are often denied in litigation, inheritance, marriage and guardianship, and the husband was also allowed the possibility of beating women according to a sacred Qur’anic verse .

6- Religion did not consider marital violence as an individual deviant behavior, nor as a disease, and its origin lies at the core of social relations between men and women, as no one can deny the influence of religion on the mentality of believers and their models of behavior. Religion directly and indirectly affects the individual. Religions, which contain laws and lessons that devalue women and make them inferior to men, encourage men to act sometimes unconsciously against women by enjoying the role of dominator.

7 - In present-day Iran, we are constantly witnessing the spread of violence against women, through scenes that are becoming more horrific every day. Meanwhile, the mullahs' regime officials' efforts to cover up cases that have reached the sky, refrain from prosecutions, and release the perpetrators of crimes; The clerical regime is benefiting from this situation.

8- The mullahs’ regime has not signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The certain fact is that all factions of the mullahs’ regime agree on the need to suppress women.

9- It is worth noting that repression is one of the two main pillars of the mullahs’ regime’s survival. The most comprehensive part of the oppression targets women, and in this way the religious dictatorship imprisons the entire Iranian society.

10- It should be noted that the mullahs’ regime is the official sponsor of the oppression of women in the world in the name of religion, and that the extent of government violence against women under political pretexts or veiling … etc. Equivalent to several times the forms of social and family violence.

11 - Naturally, improving these conditions became more difficult than ever, as a result of the rise of the chief executioner to power in the country; As his record of large-scale political executions taints his black record.

Fourth: Violence against women in Iran and the emergence of strong revolutionary processes to change the regime at the hands of women:

1- The form of the arrest and death of the girl, Mahsa Amini (22 years), on September 13, 2022, at the police station, to which she was taken after carrying her from a train station by the morality police, in which she was with her brother to travel, claiming that her hijab was not worn in an appropriate manner that respects religion. The Islamic movement was the spark that made the Iranian youth push a strong protest rebellion movement that is still continuing despite the brutal repression and deaths.

2- The Human Rights Organization in Iran, which is based in Oslo, reported in its latest toll on November 22 that 416 people were killed at the hands of the security forces, including 51 children and 21 women, and pointed out that 72 people died last week alone, including 56 in death. Kurdish-populated areas in the west, where protests have escalated in recent days.

3 - The death of Mahsa Amini has become a symbol of the rebellion of Iranians in general and women in particular against the ruling Islamic regime in the country since the return of Imam Khomeini from exile in 1978. These protests led to the killing of more than 416 people, while the popular mobilization continues to demand the practice of Democratic freedoms and living without religious or social restrictions.

4 - Iranian youth raised slogans such as "Women, Life, Freedom" and also "Death to the dictator", and "Death to tyrants - whether the Shah or the Supreme Leader". New slogans were also added such as: "With the blood of our comrades we stand to the end", and " Poverty and corruption exist until we overthrow you.” The most militant protests were in the cities of Tehran and Tabriz, cities in Khuzestan, including Izeh, Abadan and Ahvaz. And Kurdish-majority cities like Mahabad, Saqqez, Sanandaj. The latter also emerged again as the most revolutionary, with General strikes break out again, violent clashes drive out security forces, barricades are erected, mountain passes and roads between cities are closed.

5 - All historical revolutions were led by women or at the forefront, the most prominent of which was the February 1917 revolution in Russia. We have seen young Iranian women go out to the streets, cut their hair and dance in blatant defiance of the guards of the Iranian revolution. She also led the uprising youth in Marivan, Mahabad, Saqez, Sindaj, and others, the Revolutionary Youth Neighborhood Committees (Shura). These organizations were inspired by the workers' councils and neighborhood committees in the 1979 revolution. Apart from the main slogans of the broader youth movement, they raised slogans drawn from the communist youth of 1979, including: "Bread, work, freedom", along with a new slogan: "Neither the mullahs nor the Shah - Yes to the Shura government. But the influence of these councils, which do not extend beyond these young radicals to broader strata of society, should not be exaggerated.

6 - In Tabriz, students crowded outside universities, adding a new slogan: "From 67 to Aban (i.e. November) - Iran is stained with blood", a reference to the mass execution of leftists in 1988 (1367 in the Persian calendar), and the most recent 2019 uprising (which It started in the month of Aban in the Persian calendar). The historic Bazaar of Tabriz was also completely closed through the strike.

7- In Tehran and the surrounding areas such as Karaj and Arak, large rallies were organized in a number of universities. But the most striking incidents were the violent clashes at the barricades, where Molotov cocktails once again became commonplace, with al-Shabaab driving security forces out of parts of the city.

8 - In Khuzestan, students at the Universities of Ahvaz and Abadan chanted the slogan: "From Zahedan to Tabriz - Poverty, Corruption and Discrimination". In Ahvaz, Abadan and Izza, barricades have also been set up, and youths from parts of these cities have been beating security forces as well. In the town of Ezeh, al-Shabaab completely expelled the security forces. These street protests are significant because they include numbers of working-class youth.

9 - Prior to these events, November saw a sharp decline in what many have called the "Mahsa Uprising". In the face of the most extreme uprising in the history of the Islamic Republic, the regime has stepped up its repression in the past few weeks. In total, since the beginning of the uprising, 15,000 protesters have been officially arrested and the regime has killed more than 416, but the real numbers are expected to double, if not triple, that number.

10 - It is clear that the regime seized the opportunity to regroup and was seeking to regain lost territory by mobilizing the security forces to quell this latest wave of protests. East Kurdistan, and especially Mahabad, has once again turned into a war zone, with the regime cutting electricity and the internet to ensure there are no witnesses to its brutal crackdown.

11 - But these methods backfired. Starting on Sunday, an almost complete general strike broke out in Kurdish-majority towns as Revolutionary Youth Committees deployed. Students across Iran were met with severe repression, with security forces occupying universities. But there are already calls for protests to stand behind the Kurdish revolutionaries.

12 - Inspired by the revolutionary youth uprising, economic strikes broke out including: Phase 19 of South Pars Petrochemical Company in Bushehr, Masjid Suleyman Petrochemical Company in Khuzestan, Bahman Motors in Karaj, Isfahan Iron Foundry and others. Most importantly, a political strike began in Tehran between truck drivers and other workers at the Akbarabad freight terminal, with workers chanting slogans: "We are together - do not be afraid" and "Death to the dictator".

13- Several independent labor organizations also made statements of solidarity with the uprising and threatened a political strike, including truck drivers, oil workers, Teachers Coordination Committee, Tehran Bus Company workers, steel workers in Ahvaz, and others. Despite this, a national general strike did not break out, and the few political strikes that we saw were isolated and thus swiftly suppressed by the regime, which led to the reluctance of these workers' organizations to fully commit themselves.

14- The Teachers Coordination Committee renewed its support for the uprising and even publicly denounced the regime, but in the face of the regime's increasing repression against the youth on November 19, it called for a strike on November 20 and 21. In isolation, these strikes will face the same repression they faced in their previous solidarity strike. Contract oil workers are silent, which is not surprising after their attempts to spark a political strike among oil workers on October 10, and their planned strike on October 29, met with severe repression.

15 - Despite these important steps, the task of turning the uprising into a revolution has not yet been solved. While young people have formed organizations and even linked them to some extent on a national level, every call for political protest or strikes depends on the hope that they will spread spontaneously into a revolutionary general strike. But instead, a protracted, bloody revolutionary process is expected for both revolutionary youth and workers alike. Other periods of reaction will be inevitable until the youth and workers unite under a revolutionary program and leadership.

16. The working class cannot be victorious by slogans alone, but only by a concrete revolutionary programme. Such a program would link economic demands with democratic demands and call for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. This would include the abolition of all austerity measures, pensions and living wages, freedom of expression, assembly and the press, especially for trade unions, and the election of a Constituent Assembly based on the Neighborhoods Committee and Workers' Councils to abolish the Islamic Republic, any program that should be further developed by the individuals themselves. Based on such a minimal programme, the revolutionaries would rapidly unite the working class and the poor. The only way for the Iranian masses is to eliminate capitalism and seize power themselves through the Shura Councils.

Fifth: instead of the conclusion

1- Morocco, whose masses immortalized (both men and women) on the evening of Friday, November 25, 2022, with a central stand in front of the Moroccan parliament, still needs a strong women’s revolution for effective equality between men and women and to take actual steps to reduce the practice of systematic violence against women, and it cannot be achieved These demands are without separating religion from the state and complete legal equality between men and women before the judiciary and in the field of inheritance, work and other economic practices.

2 - The role of women as a primary source for the production and reproduction of direct life will remain the basis for inspiring all human revolutions against class inequality and the capitalist imperialist exploitation of man and nature, and against tyranny and dictatorial rule as is currently happening in Iran, which we are in solidarity with the revolution of its young men and women on the horizon of change towards a more liberated situation for the people Iranian.

Moroccan Marxist-Leninist Proletariat Line

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