Christival: A carnival or a crusade against women and homosexuals?

 

The festival of young Christians, called Christival, will be held from April 30th to May 4th in Bremen, Germany. It is funded by the German state and various churches (congregations). Even though Christival is called a "carnival", it is in fact the congress of young protestants with over 150 seminars and workshops. The discussions are planned around Christian moral and values as a means to "save humanity" in today's world. Three of the workshops include on abortion, on homosexuals and on "Moslems".

 

Christival is targeting abortion rights and considers it one of the major problems causing misery for humanity. They want to unleash religious believes and prejudices against women's right. After years of struggle, women succeeded in making abortion right legal and now Christival is preparing to take abolish this right.

 

Christival has taken up the attack on homosexuality.  After years of struggle in the context of humanity's advances scientifically, socially and philosophically, age-old beliefs and values have lost their validity and credibility. Western society has achieved a more advanced understanding of the question of sexuality. As a result homosexuality as a right is introduced in the legislation of many Western countries. Christival plans to overthrow this right. They want to rehabilitate old and religious values and bring back the church and religious institutions into the realm of people's private life.

 

Christival is an organization for propagating and spreading political and organized religion in order to justify poverty and bleak future for millions. This festival intends to encourage people to accept this vicious capitalist world, where thousands die every day from hunger, war and curable diseases; where billions don't even have access to clean drinking water, all the while unthinkable wealth is accumulated in the hands of a few countries and in the hands of a tiny percentage of the people. Christival is a concentrated attempt to give people a bunch of lies and superstitions as justification for these human miseries; they promote religion as solution to these miseries and in this way put people to sleep and mobilse them for spreading organized stupidity.

 

Christival sheds crocodiles tears for the fetus and by various kinds of hypocritical claims such as "respect for life" threatens women's right to abortion. They call for “respect for life” but would they  in any of their 150 seminars oppose Germany's war in Afghanistan? No they won't.

Will they oppose death and imprisonment of  thousand and thousands of Afghan women as one of the outcomes of this war? Will Christival tell the youth to resist US's endless war in the Middle East and occupation of Iraq? No they won't.

Will Christival show any concern for thousands of asylum seekers living in inhuman conditions in Germany? No they wont'.

Christival is raising religious fundamentalism as a shield for preventing the system from collapsing. It is long since this system needs to be buried, but christival wants to help spread it and delay its funeral by propagating superstition and religious stupidity.

 

It is some time since christival has become an organ with strong backing among European powers specially Germany to help strengthen the European base for Bush-US crusade. Today the European states need to get rid of the last remnants of the welfare state. Spreading the influence of religion is good for them because religion would help them to pacify the masses – for European politicians , christival's service is "god's blessing".

 

It  is several decades that we Iranian and Afghani women are under the yoke of religious fundamentalist laws and moral codes. We know first hand the horrifying impact of  religious morality and laws on women's lives. People of the world and women in particular should stand against spread of religious influence and its role in organizing the life of society.

Hitler, carried out his fascist agenda by targeting  Jews, communists, homosexuals and the handicapped. Today religious fundamentalists are targeting women and homosexuals. The religious fundamentalists say human society is in misery because women control their own bodies and because women and homosexuals violate 'sacred family's values.

Organized religion in today's world is a tool for justifying widespread poverty, suppression and male-chauvinism. It should be opposed. In today’s world, we need more than ever, a  progressive, scientific, and justice- and equality- seeking thought.

 

8 March women's organization

April 2008

 

www.8mars.com

zan_dem_iran@hotmail.com