{"id":34039,"date":"2026-03-06T09:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/34039\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:04:13","slug":"podcast-from-brussels-to-iran-celebrations-and-struggles-this-international-womens-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/34039\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast: From Brussels to Iran \u2014 celebrations and struggles this International Women\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

While people across Europe prepare to celebrate International Women\u2019s Day on Sunday, 8 March, women elsewhere in the world face growing uncertainty. <\/p>\n

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The Iran war and the death of Iran\u2019s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on Saturday have raised urgent questions about what lies ahead for women in the country.<\/p>\n

To answer this question, and to assess where the European Union (EU) stands in terms of gender equality, Brussels, My Love?<\/a> spoke to four experts: European Women\u2019s Lobby\u2019s secretary general Mary Collins, Euronews\u2019 journalist Evelyn Dom, associate professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam Ladan Rahbari, and Alde\u2019s secretary general Didrik de Schaetzen. <\/p>\n

Women in Iran<\/p>\n

On the seventh day of the Iran war, accessing information from the Middle Eastern country remains complicated by an internet blackout.<\/p>\n

But what is certain is that the situation is worrying for Iranians living both inside and outside the country. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a very difficult two months for everybody,\u201d Iranian academic Rahbari told Euronews, referring to the protests sparked by the dire economic situation at the end of 2025, their repression, and the recent conflict.<\/p>\n

According to Rahbari, in this turmoil, women are paying the higher price. \u201cIt is often women who have to bear the responsibility for caregiving for children, for the elderly, and this, of course, impacts women differently based on their own backgrounds and differences,\u201d Rahbari said. <\/p>\n

Despite these concerns, Rahbari told Euronews she\u2019s trying to \u201ccultivate hope\u201d for the future of Iranian women. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that I hold on to is the Women Life Freedom movement in Iran,\u201d she said, mentioning the grass-roots feminist activism sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini while in custody of the Iranian \u201cmorality police\u201d in 2022. <\/p>\n

The movement, which also has branches across European countries, has faced repression from the Khamenei regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn spite of this and in the midst of all of this, Iranian women do remain defiant,\u201d Rahbari told Euronews. <\/p>\n

Women in Europe<\/p>\n

This year, International Women\u2019s Day in Europe comes just over one week after the European Commission\u2019s announcement that member states can use the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) to provide access to safe and legal abortion for women who are barred from doing so in their home country.<\/p>\n

The ruling was hailed as historic by the European executive, yet sparked many debates. <\/p>\n

According to Collins, with this decision, \u201ca door has opened\u201d towards safe and accessible abortion in the EU, but this is only the first step. \u201cWhat we need to have is the right to abortion in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights,\u201d she told Euronews.<\/p>\n

Dom, who has been reporting <\/a>on the topic, explained that the Commission\u2019s decision came in response to the citizens\u2019 initiative \u201cMy Voice, My Choice.\u201d <\/p>\n

After speaking with its coordinator, Dom noted that while this is not 100% what the initiative wanted, \u201cMy Voice, My Choice\u201d still considers this important because it shows that the EU has the competencies to act on sexual and reproductive rights. <\/p>\n

De Schaetzen also shared his enthusiasm for the journey of \u201cMy Voice, My Choice\u201d: \u201cThis is not an initiative that came from a political family or from the European Commission; it came from the citizens. I\u2019m happy that it is a successful example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the podcast in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts. <\/p>\n

Additional sources \u2022 Georgios Leivaditis, sound editing and mixing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While people across Europe prepare to celebrate International Women\u2019s Day on Sunday, 8 March, women elsewhere in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[8914,211,210,5636,18940],"class_list":{"0":"post-34039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-abortion","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-brussels","11":"tag-gender-equality","12":"tag-iran-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116181432215039277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}