Hailed as Iran-s finest living poet, Reza Baraheni, is attending the 4th International Human Rights Festival in Geneva, where he is taking part in a debate on the rights of women and religious communities. His new play, Exilith, dealing with the subjugation of Lilith, wife of Adam and arguably the world’s first feminist, is being performed at the Theatre Saint Gervais for the duration of the festival.

Why did you accept the invitation to take part in the debate on religion and women’s rights at the festival?

It is so important to drive home the message that no society, particularly a religious society, can claim to have any form of equality for its members, unless men and women have equal rights at all levels. And that is not possible under a religious regime. It is impossible because religious regimes are patriarchal. Judaism is patriarchal, Christianity is patriarchal, and Islam is patriarchal, only the degrees are different.

Iranian women do have more rights than some of their counterparts in the Arab world. They can vote, stand for election and many of them work and go to university. How concerned are you that the hard line conservative President Ahmadinejad will roll back those rights?

The President is too weak, even the entire government, is too weak to do that. Iranian women are gaining confidence from what they have achieved and they are not alone. Young people have seen how their mothers and sisters have suffered and they will join the struggle for equality. You know, sometimes repression helps to raise consciousness. Under the current regime, it may be two steps back and one forward but the long march towards democracy and equality has begun.

How realistic though is to expect women in Iran to make any real progress under this current President?

This is a passing period in Iranian history. Certainly, the discrimination practised by the hard line government is ugly. But it can not be stopped by someone from outside. More women have been killed in Iraq since the American invasion than in any time in Islamic history. You can not bring democracy, as the Bush administration claims, by bringing it from the outside. It has to come from within.

How difficult is the situation for other minority groups in Iran?

I am from the Azerbaijani community. As a child I was punished for writing in Azeri and as an adult imprisoned for defending my community’s rights of self determination. Persian is the only official language and still today children can not learn Azeri at school. I believe that it is this rupture from their mother language which is one of the reasons that Iran is such a violent country.

This week, the UN Security Council is meeting to discuss action against Iran over its nuclear energy programme, what do you think it should do?

Bombing Iran or trade sanctions is not the answer. This will only unify the people around the current regime. This would be a mistake. After the reign of the Shah, people had the misconception that religion might be their saviour but people now realise this is not the case. They are living in testing times but this regime is in crisis. It will come to an end just as monarchy came to an end. The decision though should come from the people within and not from the outside.