Women for Women International's CEO Laurie Adams pens a new op-ed about the situation unfolding in Iran, women's agency and their right to choose, as well as her personal motivation to support women survivors of war.
I’ve been listening to colleagues in Iraq and Afghanistan to better understand what it means to them to wear the hijab. Many tell me that it is a profound expression of their faith, but they also feel strongly that policing women’s choice of clothing is an act of political repression. As the CEO of an international women’s rights organization, I know that choice is one of the most fundamental rights we possess—the freedom to choose what to wear, whether to have sex, when and if to give birth. The freedom to choose to go to school, to work outside the home, to earn money and then to choose how to spend that money.
I also know that it is my privilege and duty to listen and to amplify the voices of women who cannot speak out.