Busy day in the world for the week ending this March 11, 1979.
In an effort to kickstart the stalled Egyptian/Israeli peace talks, President Jimmy Carter disclosed he was flying to Israel to meet with Menachem Begin and then on to Egypt to meet with Anwar Sadat in the hopes of bringing about some settlement in the decades-old struggle in the Middle-East. Carter viewed it as a last-ditch effort to establish some form of peace in the region. Opinions were evenly divided over the success of the mission but the alternatives were few and getting fewer.
Meanwhile, the streets of Tehran were filled as tens of thousands of women dressed in blue jeans and skirts walked off their jobs Saturday and rallied in the streets of Tehran to protest curtailment of their freedoms. Moslem zealots enraged by the unveiled protesters beat some and at least one woman was stabbed. The job walkout paralyzed the nation’s banking institutions and most private business. Saturday is a normal working day in Iran. Several women wearing the traditional “chador” a body length black veil joined the orthodox Moslems who attacked protesters near the British Embassy on Ferdowsi Street. Several women were injured in the brief clash. Militiamen fired into the air to disperse the attackers. In other parts of the city zealots harassed women with a slogan roughly translating into English: “Either you wear a head wrap or you get a head rap!” There were reports that women demonstrators have been attacked at Tehran high schools over the past few days. About 3000 women went to the Justice Ministry on Saturday and complained to government officials about the violent harassment. A delegation of 30 women also went to Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan’s office to present their grievances. The mass demonstration then broke up peacefully. The women are demanding that equal rights’ guarantees be written into the new constitution that is to be drawn up after a March 30 referendum on on the question of whether Iran will be an Islamic republic. Such a religiously oriented society is the goal of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini the Moslem holy man whose revolution toppled the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi last month. The growing feminist revolt in Iran was a direct challenge to the 78-year-old white-bearded Khomeini who has annulled a family protection law that allowed women to contest divorce actions without being present in court has abolished co-education and has called on women to wear the chador in public.
And while analysts predicted China and Vietnam were jockeying for position before launching a decisive battle in their border war, Peking said today it would pull out its invading troops if Hanoi would withdraw its forces from Cambodia. In making the pull-out challenge, China told Vietnam, “We do not think you dare’, according to Peking’s official Hsinhua news agency. Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December, ousted China’s ally Premier Pol Pot, and in January set up a pro-Hanoi government. Vietnam claimed earlier to have put 1,600 Chinese troops out of action in a northeastern province where analysts believed one of the most important battles of the 11-day border war was to be fought. The Voice of Vietnam said its troops wiped out a Chinese regiment and two battalions in the hilly province of Lang Son on Tuesday, but did not give the exact location of the fighting.
In Tokyo, the Japanese news agency Kyodo, said it had learned from sources in Hanoi that fierce fighting was going on in the Lang Son area. The sources were quoted as saying there was no sign of a Chinese pullback in that region. ONE VIETNAMESE officer was quoted by these sources as saying the Chinese were using “typical human wave tactics.” and their charges were heralded by the sound of bugles. He was reported to have said it was easy for the Vietnamese to deal with such tactics because of their long combat experience.
And while the story in Iran was unfolding at a rapid rate, that’s just a sample of what was going on in the world, for the week ending March 11, 1979 as reported by The World This Week from CBS Radio.
