Hello Amy,

My name is Napoleon, and I have chatted with a few Iranian women, and am amazed at the fear and mistrust these women have of Iranian men, most of them Muslims. They feel that they are being seen as sex objects only and psychological fear for their safety is deep.

Having said that Amy, they ask me if I can help them somehow. I live in Chicago, Illinois, so I came across the vday.org on "The Nation " magazine and that is how I came to you.

Is there anything that can be done for the women in Iran? What do you recommend they do in the mean time?.

Respectfully,

Napoleon

I'm a bit confused by your note. It seems like a case by case basis, and there has been so much work recently in the middle east to gain women rights and independence, and this hopefully will trickle down/back to these individual women. But sadly the men they usually fear the most are the ones who are closest to them, and yet that culture doesn't often afford them many opportunities to rid themselves of those relationships or even to challenge them, thus the only viable options becomes disrupting to their entire lives; something most people don't want to do.

There are several women's groups working in that area, such as The Global Fund for Women, Equality Now, The Feminist Majority Foundation, etc. I suggest you direct your question to one of those groups since they have "on the ground" contacts in those countries and thus might be able to help more specifically.

Good luck.

-- Amy