María de los Ángeles Armisén – Spokesperson for the Spanish senate committee for equality
Mrs. Rajavi, distinguished companions, dear friends attending at this important ceremony which we are celebrating today, I am really happy and thankful for this invitation to participate today.
And I do not say it just on my behalf, but also on behalf of all my Spanish parliamentary colleagues who are here today to support Mrs. Rajavi and the Iranian resistance: all of you and the women who are in Iran today fighting for the democracy, liberty and the rights of women every day. [Big applause] Human rights and the rights of women are essential elements for those who defend democracy and liberty.
Today, eighth of March, we must remember all those women who from all over the world and day after day work for gender equality and our rights. We must recall those who defend our right to freedom and a very important right, which has been mentioned several times here today, the right of freedom of choice.
Today we have to remember all of those women in the Liberty camp who are risking their lives for the rights of the Iranian women and therefore for the rights of all women. There are many people in every part of the world, many of them women.
Today, we are many here with different responsibilities and from different places. Many of the women here are committed to equality, to the participation of women in all fields of public life, but today we are especially here to support Mrs. Rajavi, a woman who believes in equality, in the right of the Iranian women and who believes and who is willing to make heard the voice of all of those women who suffer because of a fundamentalist and totalitarian regime, which does not respect the right of equality.
Today, eighth of March, is a day of demand because, although it is a celebration, it has to be a day of demand for all the women who still do not have the right of freedom and the right of equality.
Women are and have to be the driving force of change in all societies. We are many and we still have to advance. And that is how I feel it individually and I know that all the Spanish representatives who are here today have this obligation and we are going to demonstrate it with our support for the commitment; your commitment is also ours; the rights and liberties of the Iranian women are also ours.
And therefore, we are going to support it and decide that the international community and our country also support the equal treatment principle, the right to democracy and to liberty which your country has. No more refugee camps! Together we are going to produce that change, which is essential to all women.
