![](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/03\/sarahphillips.jpg\" "\\"sarahphillips\\"")
NCRI – In an unprecedented conference in Paris on 10 March, 2012, women who had gathered from several continents called for support for women who have risen in the Arab world to struggle against tyranny and fundamentalism and also for women of Iranian Resistance in camps Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq who are facing serious threats. This conference was convened at a time that the second group of 400 Ashraf residents has moved to Camp Liberty in Iraq.<\/p>\n
Sara Philips:<\/strong><\/p>\n Before I start I would like to invite, I see there\u2019s several youth over here, several French youths.\u00a0 Would you please come up on stage with me? [applause] [lots of cheering] Thank you.\u00a0 My name is Sara Phillips.\u00a0 I\u2019m a scholar of women\u2019s studies globalization.\u00a0 I fight for equality every single day of my life no matter whether it be a cup of coffee and conversation with friends or it be here standing in front of a wonderful audience like you.\u00a0 Madame Rajavi, honored guests, my friends, I\u2019m humbled to be here today in front of this amazing assembly.\u00a0 I say amazing because who I see before me are some incredibly powerful women.\u00a0 Where would the world be without us?\u00a0 A much lonelier and darker place.\u00a0 It is on the shoulders of women that history is made but it\u2019s rarely told.\u00a0 Today, there are a thousand brave women at Ashraf and Liberty that history is being created right now. [applause] Years from now, grandmothers will look at their granddaughters and tell them a story.\u00a0 They will say, \u201cOnce upon a time I had to do something that was contrary to what I was told to do and it was the right thing.\u00a0 And because of it the world today is a better place.\u00a0 Life will not be easy but know that the harder road leads to the greater reward.\u201d<\/p>\n As we come together to celebrate the accomplishments of women worldwide, I would like to offer a few thoughts.\u00a0 A woman alone standing is like a small stick; she can break and just be discarded.\u00a0 But if you hold in your hands several sticks together suddenly they become unbreakable.\u00a0 That is like the force of the women at Ashraf. [applause] While we here today might not be behind the gates that are guarded by the golden lions, we too can band together and support the cause for equality and fair and equal treatment for women.\u00a0 We are standing together today and lifting our voices that our words might aid the women of Ashraf to stand a little bit stronger to face the oppression that the mullahs rain down upon them.\u00a0 It is the greatest fear of the mullahs to see that strength, that raw courage and conviction of what it means to be a woman.\u00a0 Women have borne out the brunt of inequality for long enough.\u00a0 It is our time to take our equal place in this world and demand respect even at the greatest cost.<\/p>\n I engage those of you that are here today and those that may be listening to my words around the world do not forget where you came from.\u00a0 We all have different color to our skin, different color to our eyes, and different color to our hair but we were all born of a woman for only a woman has the strength to give new life.\u00a0 It is my mantle as a woman to make my voice heard because for too long too many of my sisters of the past have let their voices go silent or forgotten.\u00a0 What can we do to aid the women of Ashraf aside from these words in these conferences?\u00a0 We\u2019re all here at this conference today because we all already agree.\u00a0 It is those that don\u2019t agree with us or know about the situation that we need to turn and focus our efforts on.\u00a0 We must appeal to the forces that can make a change.<\/p>\n As we speak, the women and the men of Ashraf are facing a greater challenge.\u00a0 They are in fact forcibly being relocated to a camp that is anything but humane.\u00a0 It is beyond me why Iraq chose to keep the name Liberty when even the most basic of needs are not being met.\u00a0 It is nothing about the place that suggests liberty.\u00a0 The fact that there is a four-meter tall concrete wall suggests that this is in fact a prison.\u00a0 When water, the very first thing a human needs to survive is denied, that is an active act of oppression.\u00a0 Not only are our friends being denied the sustenance to sustain their bodies and also their hygiene, they are mentally being tormented by the guards around the clock in the prison walls.<\/p>\n I implore each of you to get involved, get involved now.\u00a0 Write to your respective legislators [applause] your lawmakers, your parliament.\u00a0 Write to your newspapers, even the local ones.\u00a0 Call your radios and call your televisions.\u00a0 The only way for something to be heard is for it to be discovered.\u00a0 Much of the world is in the dark about what is truly happening at Ashraf and to the men and women who fight side by side for equality.\u00a0 The injustice is beyond contemplation.\u00a0 It can only be rectified through our unity and strength as we work as one solid voice.<\/p>\n The U.S. and the European Union must take action now.\u00a0 They must put pressure on the Iraqi government to provide for the very basic of needs for those that are being transferred to Liberty and also those that still reside at Ashraf.\u00a0 Let us work together to make sure that the sacrifice of those that are at Ashraf and Liberty are not in vain.\u00a0 I physically stand here in Paris today but really I stand with all of you women at Ashraf and I cry with one strong, solid voice, \u201cEquality for all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NCRI – In an unprecedented conference in Paris on 10 March, 2012, women who had gathered from several continents called for support for women who have risen in the Arab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-11808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ashraf-liberty","8":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n