Source: To take action please visit Human Rights First website.
Help Free Iranian Women's Rights Leaders: Campaigning for Equality is not a Crime
On Sunday, March 4, Iranian police arrested and jailed 33 women gathered in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The women were peacefully supporting five women scheduled to be tried for organizing a demonstration last year. Eight of the women detained outside the court were released on Tuesday, March 6, but 25 women remain in Tehran's Evin Prison.
We are concerned that more arrests could take place on March 8, International Women's Day.
Authorities violently broke up a peaceful gathering in support of women's equality before Iranian law in June 2006, arresting dozens. Five of those arrested are being prosecuted for exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
With your help, we can add to mounting international pressure on the Iranian government to release the 25 activists immediately and to stop arresting peaceful human rights defenders.
Please take action to show your support for women's human rights advocates in Iran.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
8 women have been released
8 of arrested women have been released under personal surety. They are:Parastoo Dokoohaki, Sara Laghayi, Saghi Laghayi, Niloofar Golkar, Parastoo Sarmadi, Nahid Entesari, Farideh Entesari and Sara Imanian.
They also confirmed the news about the hunger strike of other women who are still in prison.
They also said, Shahla Entesari is kept in solitary confinement.
Persian source:zanestan
They also confirmed the news about the hunger strike of other women who are still in prison.
They also said, Shahla Entesari is kept in solitary confinement.
Persian source:zanestan
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Source: Amnesty International
AI Index: MDE 13/022/2007 (Public)News Service No: 044 5 March 2007
AI Index: MDE 13/022/2007 (Public)News Service No: 044 5 March 2007
Iran: Arrests of women may be an attempt to prevent International Women's Day calls for equality
Amnesty International today called for the immediate and unconditional release of over 30 women activists who were arrested on Sunday, 4 March while staging a peaceful demonstration in Tehran. The organization believes the arrests may be intended to deter activists from organizing events to mark International Women's Day on 8 March.
The women were arrested outside Tehran's Revolutionary Court, where they had gathered to protest at the trial of five women charged in connection with a demonstration held on 12 June 2006 to demand that women be given equal rights with men under the law in Iran. The June demonstration was violently dispersed by security forces, who arrested at least 70 people.
"Rather than arresting peaceful demonstrators, the Iranian authorities should be taking seriously women's demands for equality before the law and addressing discrimination against women wherever it exists in the Iranian legal system," said Irene Khan, Amnesty International's Secretary General. "We worry that the women detained yesterday may be kept in detention until after 8 March, a day on which they were planning to campaign for their internationally recognized right to equality."
Those arrested on Sunday, who included at least four of the five on trial, were taken to the Vozara Department for Social Corruption, a detention centre usually used for people accused of minor crimes, such as violations of the dress code. Family members of those detained are said to have gone to the Vozara Building in an attempt to gain access and secure the release of their relatives, without success. According to reports, all the women were later transferred to Section 209 of Evin Prison, which is run by the Ministry of Intelligence and is outside the control of Iran's prison service.
Background
Those arrested in the 12 June 2006 demonstration include Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, Shahla Entesari, Noushin Ahmadi Khorassani, Parvin Ardalan and Sussan Tahmasebi. All had been summoned to appear before Branch 6 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran on charges of "propaganda against the system", "acting against national security" and "participating in an illegal demonstration".
Others have also been charged in connection with the 12 June demonstration, but have not yet been summoned to court. Another, Zhila Bani Ya'qoub, a journalist who was among those arrested on 4 March, was tried and acquitted in January 2007 on a charge of participating in an illegal demonstration relating to the 12 June demonstration.
In August 2006, Iranian women's rights activists launched a "Campaign for Equality", aimed at collecting a million signatures from Iranians in support of changes to the law to end legalised discrimination against women. The campaign's website has been filtered by the Iranian authorities on several occasions in recent weeks, making it difficult for people in Iran to access information about the campaign. Amnesty International is supporting this campaign and will issue a joint statement calling for equal rights for women in Iran on International Women's Day with Iranian lawyer and prominent human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
Arrested women started their hunger strike
All 33 arrested women started their hunger strike. Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani said to her husband Javad Moosavi Khoozestani in a short phone conversation that this was a group decision that they made at the lunch time. The hunger strike is started because the officials promised women to release the younger people among the group today but they didn’t so.
Persian source: Zanestan
Persian source: Zanestan
Monday, March 5, 2007
Nobel Women's Initiative took an action
Source: Nobel Women's Initiative
Another Attack on the Rights of Iranian Women Activists
(5 March 2007) More than 32 women were arrested on Sunday, March 4th, and charged with endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering. The women were protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran to demand a fair trial for five prominent women’s rights activists arrested last June during a peaceful protest in support of women’s rights. The June protest turned violent as police used force to disburse the crowd and arrested over 70 people. Mirroring the former protests, those in attendance on Sunday have given appalling reports of police brutality as well.
The women on trial - Nusheen Ahmadi Khorasani; Parvin Ardalan; Sussan Tahmasebi; Shahla Entesari; and Fariba Davoodi Mohajer – left the courtroom in support of the demonstrations taking place and were promptly arrested along with their lawyer.
These latest arrests signal yet another crackdown on rights activists in Iran. Last month three journalists and women’s rights activists were detained without charge while on their way to India to participate in a journalism workshop.
Radio Free Europe- Radio Liberty
Source: Radio Free Europe- Radio Liberty
Iran: Activists Arrested Ahead Of International Women's Day
By Golnaz Esfandiari
March 5, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- More than 30 Iranian women have been arrested in Tehran for protesting against government pressure being put on women's rights activists.
The women had gathered outside a court in Tehran on March 4 to show their support for four women's rights activists who went on trial that day for organizing a protest last summer against discriminatory laws. Reports say many of the protesters and the activists are now in jail. The arrests are the culmination of a year of increasing pressure on women's rights activists, who have been arrested, summoned to court, threatened, and harassed. Their protests have also been disrupted -- in some cases violently -- and their websites have been blocked.
MORE: Coverage in Farsi from Radio Farda.
Trying To Silence Activists
Some observers believe the arrests are aimed at intimidating activists who were planning to hold a gathering on March 8 to mark International Women's Day and to protest injustice against women. The move is also seen as an attempt to silence activists who have been fighting for equal rights. Many of those who had called for holding a protest in front of the parliament on March 8 are now in jail. Iranian rights groups report that between 30 and 34 women who were arrested are being held in Tehran's Evin Prison. Among them are four top women's movement leaders: Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan, Sussan Tahmassebi, and Shahla Entesari.
Right To Freely Assemble
They went on trial on March 4 in connection with a June gathering against laws that they consider discriminatory against women. Charges against them include acting against Iran's national interests and participating in an illegal gathering. The four leaders were arrested after they left the court and joined other women who had gathered outside Tehran's revolutionary court. They were reportedly holding banners that said: "Holding peaceful gatherings is our absolute right." Shahla Entesari (kosoof.com)Activists say the Iranian Constitution ensures the right to holding a peaceful gathering. Yet police forces disrupted the activists on March 4 and drove the women away in minibuses. Peyman Aref, a student activist in Tehran, told Radio Farda that police used force against demonstrators. "They were threatened and they were also beaten up," Aref said. "The crowd -- [which] included more than 50 people -- tried to resist by sitting on the ground and not reacting to the beatings. Finally, around 10:00, female police came and the activists were arrested."
Reaction To Activists' Campaigns?
During the June demonstration, which was also violently dispersed by police, some 70 people were arrested. All of them have since been released. An Iranian rights group, the Student Committee of the Human Rights Reporters, said today that the families of some of those arrested on March 4 gathered in front of Evin Prison and called for their release. Authorities have said they are investigating the case. Azadeh Kian, a lecturer in political science and an Iran researcher at France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), believes women's rights advocates are being targeted in connection with two campaigns they have launched in recent months. One campaign aims to end the practice of stoning to death convicted adulterers. Authorities, however, deny that stoning sentences are being carried out. Another campaign aims to gather the signatures of one million Iranians who are in favor of changing discriminatory laws and to present these signatures to the parliament. Islamic laws as applied in Iran deny women equal rights in divorce, child custody, inheritance, and other areas. Kian tells RFE/RL that the campaigns have been well received, leading to concern among Iranian leaders.
'Intolerance For Human Rights'
Parvin Ardalan (undated kosoof.com file photo)"The goal of women's rights activists is to gain the support of women from different classes who are in favor of changing the laws but have so far not joined the women's movement," Kian said. "This leads to concern among some of those in power in Iran about the implications of these actions. I see the arrests of activists [on March 4] in this relation; it shows that more and more women want changes in laws and also that women's issues are in fact becoming more and more political." Human rights groups have expressed concern over the pressure and persecution of women's rights advocates, including those who are calling for reform legislation. Kian says that by arresting peaceful activists, Iranian leaders are demonstrating their intolerance and lack of respect for human rights. "It shows once more that under the Islamic establishment, especially under the current government, there is no respect for human rights principles," Kian said. "These women were arrested even though they had not committed any violent or armed action against the establishment. None of the demands of these women are against Islam. This shows that the current government is not ready to accept even the slightest opposition." The Center of Human Rights Defenders, cofounded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, today described the March 4 arrests as "illegal" and called on authorities to release all of those arrested.
Amnesty International U.S.A issued an urgent action
Source : Amnesty International U.S.A
AMNESTY INTERNATIONALPRESS RELEASEAI Index: MDE 13/022/2007 (Public)News Service No: 044 5 March 2007
Iran: Arrests of women may be an attempt to prevent International Women's Day calls for equality
An article by Golbarg Bashi
Source: Payvand
3/5/07
Shedding Crocodile Tears
By Golbarg Bashi
On Sunday March 4th 2007, more than thirty two women's rights activists were arrested after they had peacefully gathered in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran to protest the trial of five of their fellow activists. The five were being tried for "organizing a protest last June against [unequal gender] laws…[and for] endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering."[1] According to various news agencies, this "gathering was to protest the recent state pressures on women's rights defenders".[2]
According to Iran-e Emrooz and other sources, "the organizers of the two major current campaigns, "Stop Stoning Forever," and "One Million Signatures to Change the Discriminatory Law," have been among the women rights defenders [arrested] by the National Security Police." The New York-based Human Rights Watch has highlighted these arrests and demanded that the Islamic Republic "end its prosecution of…women's rights advocates for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly"[3]. Furthermore, Iranian bloggers have been active in their quick and extensive coverage of events inside Iran[4]—thus, generating tremendous international attention to these violations.
As it is known to most observes and citizens of Iran, the Islamic Republic is a horrendous gender apartheid state, one where within family law in particular women are treated as second rate beings, are discriminated against culturally, and in the repressive political atmosphere, both feminists as well as civil rights activists are continuously censored, arrested, harassed and even murdered. The Islamic Republic is responsible for the torture and killing of tens of thousands of dissidents since it came to power in 1979 through the militant repression of all other political movements that have an equal claim on the Iranian polity (nationalists, socialists and feminists). This particular persecution, harassment, and incarceration of women's rights activists is yet another indication of the violent criminalisation of dissent within the state apparatus of the Islamic Republic. But at the same time it is a clear indication that what we are witnessing in Iran is a grass-roots movement of unprecedented dimensions.
Women's rights activists have since the presidency of the ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2005 come under increasing attack, while their activism has flourished even further, and taken on ever-more bolder manifestations. In recent years, coalitions of individual women activists, associations and NGOs have effectively mobilised themselves in public and online, demanding their constitutional civil rights and an end to legal discrimination in the Islamic Republic. As such the Iranian women's movement has entered a "new, more daring and organically rooted, phase"[5].
As witnessed by activists as well as scholars in and outside Iran, the Iranian women's movement has never been as socially multifaceted, ideologically diverse and politically bold as it is today. While during the Pahlavi era, women's rights activists were ushered either under the state-controlled imperial women's organisations (and their achievements claimed by Ashraf Pahlavi's WHO or else appropriated in Mahnaz Afkhami's monarchist historiography),[6] or else evident in the guerrilla-based and male dominated oppositional groups, today's women activists and ordinary citizens have united under some basic but clear demands vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic. They have called for an immediate "end to discriminatory laws against women", have set up highly active networks and web sites with hundreds of new essays on various topics dealing with feminist concerns, children's rights and democracy, have gathered peacefully in public, staged acts of civil disobedience, and thus gained much global attention[7]. Iranian women are also at the forefront of literacy, educational, artistic, journalistic, and legal advancements unmatched in the entire Western Asia.
This however is not to paint an overly rosy picture of women's activism in Iran. Inside Iran, women's activism is also caught in all kinds of non-constructive dead-ends—reformists vs. conservatives, seculars vs. religious, etc. Moreover, Iranian women activists are mainly concentrated in the capital and are middle class and Persian-speaking. As such, they are not part of the global feminist debate, which could be very helpful to the growth of an Iranian anti-racist, anti-war transnational feminism[8]. Be that as it may, over the last few years, we are beginning to see major improvements in coalition building and mobilisation against the atrocities of the Islamic Republic.
As even more courageous women's rights activists are, again, arbitrarily arrested in the Islamic Republic, and new and more hopeful signs of coalition building become evident, one may rightly wonder what precisely is the role of women's rights activists outside Iran in these historic moments. Here, apart from the work of a handful of feminist scholars who are doing some groundbreaking work in the quiet corners of their scholarship and a few globally-minded activists, alas, the scene is one of astounding hypocrisy and opportunism. A band of self-appointed secular (as they dub themselves) fundamentalist "lumpen-activists" has now developed the habit of shedding crocodile tears every time women activists inside Iran are arrested. These secular fundamentalist "activists" who are ordinarily busy vilifying and raging against "Islam" and "Muslims" shoulder to shoulder with such racist frauds as Hirsi Ali[9] are again in full gear, stealing the noble cause of women's rights activism inside Iran. As perhaps best represented in the work and speeches of a certain Chahla Chafiq (a principal collaborator with a fraudulent and racist opportunist like Hirsi Ali, chiefly responsible for creating a wide-range of hatred in Europe against Muslims), this barefaced hypocrisy usually moves into full gear as soon as the international spotlight is on the legitimate and acute situation of activists who have been hard at work for decades inside the Iranian theocracy. From the safe distance of their bastion in Frankfurt, Toronto, Paris, Stockholm, London, or Los Angeles, and lucratively provided for by the widespread anti-Muslim and racist sentiments in Western Europe and North America, these lumpen-activists have not for once shown any remorse nor even contemplated their ignoble, parasitical and inorganic role in the humiliation of millions of Muslims, noble women activists inside Iran, and for mudding a multifaceted and emancipatory discourse into "you're either with us, or against us".
This gang of lumpen-hecklers is known and feared for their constant harassments at meetings and conferences, their sabotaging of democratic events, their scandalising and bullying of veiled women, and their intimidation of Iranian women scholars and activists who have attended European and North American conferences. This is all when they are not busy siding with racist policies towards Muslims in Western Europe (to ban veiling in public spaces, for example, or denigrating Muslim communities into subhuman entities and calling "Islam" the "greatest threat to humanity"), or else publicly insulting women's rights activists like Shirin Ebadi or Mehrangiz Kar, distinguished scholars such as the late Parvin Paidar and scores of women's rights activists inside Iran.
These very same Iranian women who are now arrested in Iran, and over whose arrest these lumpen secular fundamentalists are now shedding crocodile tears, would be the subject of terrorising ridicule and shameless insult if they dared to come to Western Europe or North America to present a paper or report of their activities. The lumpen fundamentalists, the functional equivalents of the Hezbollahis inside Iran, pretend to admire these Iranian activists inside Iran only when they get arrested, incarcerated, and silenced. But the second they dare to come out and participate in an international conference (and thus expose the utter uselessness of the secular fundamentalists) they become the targets of the vilest and most vicious attacks for the singular sin of living and working inside the Islamic Republic. I have been personally a witness to repeated insults in IWSF (Iranian Women's Studies Foundation's) annual gatherings against as prominent Iranian women as Mehrangiz Kar and as dedicated and courageous women as Shadi Sadr who are working against all odds inside Iran and occasionally come out to conferences to present a paper or report of their activities. Rarely in history of women's rights activism has an expatriate community been so utterly useless and in fact terrorising and counterproductive in the fate of a people they pretend to represent.
Judging from the names and backgrounds of those courageous Iranian women arrested in Iran (those whose lives are now in danger in the dungeons of a criminal theocracy) they come from a broad range of ideological persuasions and classes—and yet they are all united in their call on the Islamic Republic to end legal discrimination against women. While inside Iran, a vicious theocracy is squeezing progressive intellectuals and activists, outside Iran a whitewashed Iranian "feminism" has degenerated into a racist, reactionary and utterly useless fixation with anti-Muslim fanaticism. In Europe and North America, lumpen-activists keep celebrating an unexamined "secularism" as if once we obtain "secularism" all will automatically be well, as if all women of all classes and colours in the U.S. or France have achieved equality, peace and equanimity. This insular, useless, parochial, illiterate, and ghettoised "feminism" has plenty in common with the neo-conservative ideology now wreaking havoc around the globe. They use the same racist imagery that only the most rightwing and bigoted newspapers in Europe would display to prove the "backwardness" of Muslims. Then when you'd think this "activism" couldn't get any viler, they shed crocodile tears over the fate of arrested veiled women in Iran. They take advantage of being older, more artificially experienced, louder in their vulgar disposition, and even of the simple fact that they have a more streetwise command of Persian to intimidate, frighten, and denigrate the younger generation of feminists and activists, whom they condescendingly dismiss as "nasl-e dovvomi-ha." In IWSF gatherings, I have been personally witness to outrageous intimidation tactics of this squad of secular fundamentalists ganging up against any single voice of dissent that disagrees with them. A band of half-literate, barely educated, and intellectually ghettoized ideologues, more often than not with a pitiful command over the language and culture of their host countries, repeatedly and systematically humiliate and denigrate a younger generation that attends these conferences for intellectual engagement and feminist solidarity. And then this banality has the audacity to issue one nauseating fatwa after another about the fate of women's rights movement inside Iran or Muslim women's predicaments world-wide, about which they know next to nothing and against its leadership they harbour nothing but hatred, jealousy and anger.[10]
On the adjacent side of this barefaced hypocrisy of lumpen-activists we have the overtly right-wing Iranian women memoirists[11] in the U.S. who as an Iranian web site unwittingly announces, "are hot these days!" In the post-9/11 era and in the U.S. in particular, "Iranian women" who classify as "modern, secular, unapologetic, extremely intelligent, media savvy…[are] getting much deserved media attention". To be qualified for the honorary degree of "extremely intelligent" and thus secure "media attention" one must be "secular" and look exactly like the white women who thus bestows these epithets on Iranian expatriate bourgeoisie. Thus millions of working class, rural or religious women in Iran can automatically go to hell—they'd be too backward for the U.S. or even Western European media to be allowed to represent themselves.
Inside Iran, a grass roots and heroic activism is now in grave danger. In addition to their own groundbreaking efforts, the women's rights activists in Iran need our moral support and critical affinity with their glorious uprising against theocracy and systemic prejudice written into the very letter of Islamic law. The opposite side of that Islamic law is not a bland notion of "modernity" and "Eurocentrism". A blind celebration of an unexamined "modernity" is to me the "sealing their approval of global injustice and racism towards 1.5 billion people"[12] and the poor, the hungry, the working-class and the racialised, marginalised, and disenfranchised people living right in the heart of the Western metropolis. Empty rhetorical slogans or tear-jerking stories about the terrible and misogynist Islamic culture, or alternatively the wondrous freedoms of the "Western world", does not amount to joining the struggle of Iranian women for their civil and human rights. The choice isn't between a self-promoting racist like Hirsi Ali and a petite-tyrant like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The future is much brighter than these two identical twin bats can see.
3/5/07
Shedding Crocodile Tears
By Golbarg Bashi
On Sunday March 4th 2007, more than thirty two women's rights activists were arrested after they had peacefully gathered in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran to protest the trial of five of their fellow activists. The five were being tried for "organizing a protest last June against [unequal gender] laws…[and for] endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering."[1] According to various news agencies, this "gathering was to protest the recent state pressures on women's rights defenders".[2]
According to Iran-e Emrooz and other sources, "the organizers of the two major current campaigns, "Stop Stoning Forever," and "One Million Signatures to Change the Discriminatory Law," have been among the women rights defenders [arrested] by the National Security Police." The New York-based Human Rights Watch has highlighted these arrests and demanded that the Islamic Republic "end its prosecution of…women's rights advocates for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly"[3]. Furthermore, Iranian bloggers have been active in their quick and extensive coverage of events inside Iran[4]—thus, generating tremendous international attention to these violations.
As it is known to most observes and citizens of Iran, the Islamic Republic is a horrendous gender apartheid state, one where within family law in particular women are treated as second rate beings, are discriminated against culturally, and in the repressive political atmosphere, both feminists as well as civil rights activists are continuously censored, arrested, harassed and even murdered. The Islamic Republic is responsible for the torture and killing of tens of thousands of dissidents since it came to power in 1979 through the militant repression of all other political movements that have an equal claim on the Iranian polity (nationalists, socialists and feminists). This particular persecution, harassment, and incarceration of women's rights activists is yet another indication of the violent criminalisation of dissent within the state apparatus of the Islamic Republic. But at the same time it is a clear indication that what we are witnessing in Iran is a grass-roots movement of unprecedented dimensions.
Women's rights activists have since the presidency of the ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2005 come under increasing attack, while their activism has flourished even further, and taken on ever-more bolder manifestations. In recent years, coalitions of individual women activists, associations and NGOs have effectively mobilised themselves in public and online, demanding their constitutional civil rights and an end to legal discrimination in the Islamic Republic. As such the Iranian women's movement has entered a "new, more daring and organically rooted, phase"[5].
As witnessed by activists as well as scholars in and outside Iran, the Iranian women's movement has never been as socially multifaceted, ideologically diverse and politically bold as it is today. While during the Pahlavi era, women's rights activists were ushered either under the state-controlled imperial women's organisations (and their achievements claimed by Ashraf Pahlavi's WHO or else appropriated in Mahnaz Afkhami's monarchist historiography),[6] or else evident in the guerrilla-based and male dominated oppositional groups, today's women activists and ordinary citizens have united under some basic but clear demands vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic. They have called for an immediate "end to discriminatory laws against women", have set up highly active networks and web sites with hundreds of new essays on various topics dealing with feminist concerns, children's rights and democracy, have gathered peacefully in public, staged acts of civil disobedience, and thus gained much global attention[7]. Iranian women are also at the forefront of literacy, educational, artistic, journalistic, and legal advancements unmatched in the entire Western Asia.
This however is not to paint an overly rosy picture of women's activism in Iran. Inside Iran, women's activism is also caught in all kinds of non-constructive dead-ends—reformists vs. conservatives, seculars vs. religious, etc. Moreover, Iranian women activists are mainly concentrated in the capital and are middle class and Persian-speaking. As such, they are not part of the global feminist debate, which could be very helpful to the growth of an Iranian anti-racist, anti-war transnational feminism[8]. Be that as it may, over the last few years, we are beginning to see major improvements in coalition building and mobilisation against the atrocities of the Islamic Republic.
As even more courageous women's rights activists are, again, arbitrarily arrested in the Islamic Republic, and new and more hopeful signs of coalition building become evident, one may rightly wonder what precisely is the role of women's rights activists outside Iran in these historic moments. Here, apart from the work of a handful of feminist scholars who are doing some groundbreaking work in the quiet corners of their scholarship and a few globally-minded activists, alas, the scene is one of astounding hypocrisy and opportunism. A band of self-appointed secular (as they dub themselves) fundamentalist "lumpen-activists" has now developed the habit of shedding crocodile tears every time women activists inside Iran are arrested. These secular fundamentalist "activists" who are ordinarily busy vilifying and raging against "Islam" and "Muslims" shoulder to shoulder with such racist frauds as Hirsi Ali[9] are again in full gear, stealing the noble cause of women's rights activism inside Iran. As perhaps best represented in the work and speeches of a certain Chahla Chafiq (a principal collaborator with a fraudulent and racist opportunist like Hirsi Ali, chiefly responsible for creating a wide-range of hatred in Europe against Muslims), this barefaced hypocrisy usually moves into full gear as soon as the international spotlight is on the legitimate and acute situation of activists who have been hard at work for decades inside the Iranian theocracy. From the safe distance of their bastion in Frankfurt, Toronto, Paris, Stockholm, London, or Los Angeles, and lucratively provided for by the widespread anti-Muslim and racist sentiments in Western Europe and North America, these lumpen-activists have not for once shown any remorse nor even contemplated their ignoble, parasitical and inorganic role in the humiliation of millions of Muslims, noble women activists inside Iran, and for mudding a multifaceted and emancipatory discourse into "you're either with us, or against us".
This gang of lumpen-hecklers is known and feared for their constant harassments at meetings and conferences, their sabotaging of democratic events, their scandalising and bullying of veiled women, and their intimidation of Iranian women scholars and activists who have attended European and North American conferences. This is all when they are not busy siding with racist policies towards Muslims in Western Europe (to ban veiling in public spaces, for example, or denigrating Muslim communities into subhuman entities and calling "Islam" the "greatest threat to humanity"), or else publicly insulting women's rights activists like Shirin Ebadi or Mehrangiz Kar, distinguished scholars such as the late Parvin Paidar and scores of women's rights activists inside Iran.
These very same Iranian women who are now arrested in Iran, and over whose arrest these lumpen secular fundamentalists are now shedding crocodile tears, would be the subject of terrorising ridicule and shameless insult if they dared to come to Western Europe or North America to present a paper or report of their activities. The lumpen fundamentalists, the functional equivalents of the Hezbollahis inside Iran, pretend to admire these Iranian activists inside Iran only when they get arrested, incarcerated, and silenced. But the second they dare to come out and participate in an international conference (and thus expose the utter uselessness of the secular fundamentalists) they become the targets of the vilest and most vicious attacks for the singular sin of living and working inside the Islamic Republic. I have been personally a witness to repeated insults in IWSF (Iranian Women's Studies Foundation's) annual gatherings against as prominent Iranian women as Mehrangiz Kar and as dedicated and courageous women as Shadi Sadr who are working against all odds inside Iran and occasionally come out to conferences to present a paper or report of their activities. Rarely in history of women's rights activism has an expatriate community been so utterly useless and in fact terrorising and counterproductive in the fate of a people they pretend to represent.
Judging from the names and backgrounds of those courageous Iranian women arrested in Iran (those whose lives are now in danger in the dungeons of a criminal theocracy) they come from a broad range of ideological persuasions and classes—and yet they are all united in their call on the Islamic Republic to end legal discrimination against women. While inside Iran, a vicious theocracy is squeezing progressive intellectuals and activists, outside Iran a whitewashed Iranian "feminism" has degenerated into a racist, reactionary and utterly useless fixation with anti-Muslim fanaticism. In Europe and North America, lumpen-activists keep celebrating an unexamined "secularism" as if once we obtain "secularism" all will automatically be well, as if all women of all classes and colours in the U.S. or France have achieved equality, peace and equanimity. This insular, useless, parochial, illiterate, and ghettoised "feminism" has plenty in common with the neo-conservative ideology now wreaking havoc around the globe. They use the same racist imagery that only the most rightwing and bigoted newspapers in Europe would display to prove the "backwardness" of Muslims. Then when you'd think this "activism" couldn't get any viler, they shed crocodile tears over the fate of arrested veiled women in Iran. They take advantage of being older, more artificially experienced, louder in their vulgar disposition, and even of the simple fact that they have a more streetwise command of Persian to intimidate, frighten, and denigrate the younger generation of feminists and activists, whom they condescendingly dismiss as "nasl-e dovvomi-ha." In IWSF gatherings, I have been personally witness to outrageous intimidation tactics of this squad of secular fundamentalists ganging up against any single voice of dissent that disagrees with them. A band of half-literate, barely educated, and intellectually ghettoized ideologues, more often than not with a pitiful command over the language and culture of their host countries, repeatedly and systematically humiliate and denigrate a younger generation that attends these conferences for intellectual engagement and feminist solidarity. And then this banality has the audacity to issue one nauseating fatwa after another about the fate of women's rights movement inside Iran or Muslim women's predicaments world-wide, about which they know next to nothing and against its leadership they harbour nothing but hatred, jealousy and anger.[10]
On the adjacent side of this barefaced hypocrisy of lumpen-activists we have the overtly right-wing Iranian women memoirists[11] in the U.S. who as an Iranian web site unwittingly announces, "are hot these days!" In the post-9/11 era and in the U.S. in particular, "Iranian women" who classify as "modern, secular, unapologetic, extremely intelligent, media savvy…[are] getting much deserved media attention". To be qualified for the honorary degree of "extremely intelligent" and thus secure "media attention" one must be "secular" and look exactly like the white women who thus bestows these epithets on Iranian expatriate bourgeoisie. Thus millions of working class, rural or religious women in Iran can automatically go to hell—they'd be too backward for the U.S. or even Western European media to be allowed to represent themselves.
Inside Iran, a grass roots and heroic activism is now in grave danger. In addition to their own groundbreaking efforts, the women's rights activists in Iran need our moral support and critical affinity with their glorious uprising against theocracy and systemic prejudice written into the very letter of Islamic law. The opposite side of that Islamic law is not a bland notion of "modernity" and "Eurocentrism". A blind celebration of an unexamined "modernity" is to me the "sealing their approval of global injustice and racism towards 1.5 billion people"[12] and the poor, the hungry, the working-class and the racialised, marginalised, and disenfranchised people living right in the heart of the Western metropolis. Empty rhetorical slogans or tear-jerking stories about the terrible and misogynist Islamic culture, or alternatively the wondrous freedoms of the "Western world", does not amount to joining the struggle of Iranian women for their civil and human rights. The choice isn't between a self-promoting racist like Hirsi Ali and a petite-tyrant like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The future is much brighter than these two identical twin bats can see.
United Republicans of Iran calls for an immediate and unconditional release of women activist arrested by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Source : United Republicans of Iran
For a Democratic and Secular Republic
703-850-7311
www.iranrepublic.org
international@jomhouri.com
Imprisoned Women
Must be Released Immediately
March 4, 2007
United Republicans of Iran calls for an immediate and unconditional release of women activist arrested by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
These women were attacked and arrested while holding a peaceful vigil in front of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, protesting a recent crackdown on their activities and summoning their leaders before the courts.
Discriminatory laws of the Islamic Republic have made the brave women of Iran a second class citizen.
Since the revolution of 1979 in Iran the women have been at the forefront of the civil and democratic movement. They had waged a campaign to collect one million signatures to force the Iranian Government to change the laws.
URI calls upon all freedom-loving people of the world to contact the Iranian Embassies in their country condemning this barbaric attack and demand for an immediate release of the women.
For a Democratic and Secular Republic
703-850-7311
www.iranrepublic.org
international@jomhouri.com
Imprisoned Women
Must be Released Immediately
March 4, 2007
United Republicans of Iran calls for an immediate and unconditional release of women activist arrested by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
These women were attacked and arrested while holding a peaceful vigil in front of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, protesting a recent crackdown on their activities and summoning their leaders before the courts.
Discriminatory laws of the Islamic Republic have made the brave women of Iran a second class citizen.
Since the revolution of 1979 in Iran the women have been at the forefront of the civil and democratic movement. They had waged a campaign to collect one million signatures to force the Iranian Government to change the laws.
URI calls upon all freedom-loving people of the world to contact the Iranian Embassies in their country condemning this barbaric attack and demand for an immediate release of the women.
An article from Iranian.com by Dr. Ramin Ahmadi
Source: Iranian.com
Until all are freeThe life of Iranian women's rights activists is in danger
By: Dr. Ramin Ahmadi
March 5, 2007 iranian.com
On Sunday more than fifty women's rights activists were violently beaten and arrested for exercising their rights to freedom of expression. These courageous activists had gathered in front of one of Tehran's courthouses to protest the unfair trial of five other women who were leading their struggle against inequality and legal discrimination.
The illegal mass arrest could prove to be an important turning point for their difficult fight for equal rights. They had recently initiated a "One Million Signatures: demanding changes to discriminatory laws" campaign, aimed at fighting legal discrimination against women in Iran. The first law that had become a target of this campaign was the punishment of stoning for women found guilty of adultery.
According to the initiators the campaign aimed to collect one million signatures by June 2007 and was widely successful in the planned activities include door-to-door petitioning as well as conferences and rallies. The campaign operated a website (we-change.org) on which Iranian men and women over 18, inside and outside Iran could sign the campaign petition. The all powerful Islamic Republic state soon had to block access to their website in the interest of "national security".
This was not the first time that the Islamic State panicked about their disciplined and organized movement. The campaign was to be officially launched on August 27, 2006, with a seminar titled "The Impact of Laws on Women's Lives," but the Iranian security forces prevented the event from taking place. The first public protest of the campaign took place on June 12, 2006. The Iranian Police and Judiciary responded immediately with violence and arrests.
Human Rights Watch reported: "The Judiciary filed charges against the women's rights activists following a public demonstration to protest Iran's discriminatory laws against women in Tehran on June 12, 2006. The security forces prevented peaceful demonstrators from gathering and advocating for women's rights. Police agents beat the demonstrators with batons, sprayed them with pepper gas, marked them with color spray, and took 70 people into custody."
The detainees were released later but Iran's judiciary announced holding a trial for some of the detainees. Again Human Rights Watch reported: "On March 4, the Judiciary will hold a trial for five women charged with "acting against national security by participating in an illegal gathering." The women on trial are: Nusheen Ahmadi Khorasani; Parvin Ardalan; Sussan Tahmasebi; Shahla Entesari; and Fariba Davoodi Mohajer. In addition, the Judiciary has charged at least four other activists, Alieh Eghdamdoost, Bahareh Hedayat, Delaram Ali and Azadeh Forghani, with the same offense but has not set their court date."
The campaign was further intensified when three women's rights activists and journalists were arrested at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport en route to a journalism workshop in India, last February. Two of the three, Talat Taghinia and Mansoureh Shojai write for online journal Zanestan ("Land of Women"), an Iranian web-based journal that advocates for women's rights. The third woman, Farnaz Seify, runs a popular feminist blog. The women were escorted from the airport to their homes, where their computers, notes, and books were seized, and were then put in prison. They were released the next day, without their belongings or passports, to face a hearing in two months.
The campaign decided to respond to all this violence and harassments with a public protest on March 4, 2007, showing their solidarity with the five outspoken women on trial that day. The leaders published a public statement titled: We Look to the Future, and asked all activists to show up in front of the courthouse and protest the unfair and unconstitutional trial of the women's rights leaders. The Iranian regime again responded with violence and mass arrest.
It is time for all the international organizations and NGOs to protest the unlawful and unconstitutional actions of the Iranian regime. The world must demand an immediate and unconditional release of all women rights activists. The Judiciary must immediately end its prosecution of women's rights advocates for exercising their right to freedom of speech and assembly.
Governments and corporations that continue to do business with Iran must start facing to their responsibilities and suspend all relations and contracts until every one of these women are free. Arrest and torture of peaceful human rights advocate should not be tolerated even for one day. Only a worldwide protest and immediate political action can bring about the release of the brave and selfless advocates of women's rights in Iran. Comment
Ramin Ahmadi is the Cofounder and Board Member of Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, associate clinical professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, and the founder of Griffin Center for Health and Human Rights.
Until all are freeThe life of Iranian women's rights activists is in danger
By: Dr. Ramin Ahmadi
March 5, 2007 iranian.com
On Sunday more than fifty women's rights activists were violently beaten and arrested for exercising their rights to freedom of expression. These courageous activists had gathered in front of one of Tehran's courthouses to protest the unfair trial of five other women who were leading their struggle against inequality and legal discrimination.
The illegal mass arrest could prove to be an important turning point for their difficult fight for equal rights. They had recently initiated a "One Million Signatures: demanding changes to discriminatory laws" campaign, aimed at fighting legal discrimination against women in Iran. The first law that had become a target of this campaign was the punishment of stoning for women found guilty of adultery.
According to the initiators the campaign aimed to collect one million signatures by June 2007 and was widely successful in the planned activities include door-to-door petitioning as well as conferences and rallies. The campaign operated a website (we-change.org) on which Iranian men and women over 18, inside and outside Iran could sign the campaign petition. The all powerful Islamic Republic state soon had to block access to their website in the interest of "national security".
This was not the first time that the Islamic State panicked about their disciplined and organized movement. The campaign was to be officially launched on August 27, 2006, with a seminar titled "The Impact of Laws on Women's Lives," but the Iranian security forces prevented the event from taking place. The first public protest of the campaign took place on June 12, 2006. The Iranian Police and Judiciary responded immediately with violence and arrests.
Human Rights Watch reported: "The Judiciary filed charges against the women's rights activists following a public demonstration to protest Iran's discriminatory laws against women in Tehran on June 12, 2006. The security forces prevented peaceful demonstrators from gathering and advocating for women's rights. Police agents beat the demonstrators with batons, sprayed them with pepper gas, marked them with color spray, and took 70 people into custody."
The detainees were released later but Iran's judiciary announced holding a trial for some of the detainees. Again Human Rights Watch reported: "On March 4, the Judiciary will hold a trial for five women charged with "acting against national security by participating in an illegal gathering." The women on trial are: Nusheen Ahmadi Khorasani; Parvin Ardalan; Sussan Tahmasebi; Shahla Entesari; and Fariba Davoodi Mohajer. In addition, the Judiciary has charged at least four other activists, Alieh Eghdamdoost, Bahareh Hedayat, Delaram Ali and Azadeh Forghani, with the same offense but has not set their court date."
The campaign was further intensified when three women's rights activists and journalists were arrested at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport en route to a journalism workshop in India, last February. Two of the three, Talat Taghinia and Mansoureh Shojai write for online journal Zanestan ("Land of Women"), an Iranian web-based journal that advocates for women's rights. The third woman, Farnaz Seify, runs a popular feminist blog. The women were escorted from the airport to their homes, where their computers, notes, and books were seized, and were then put in prison. They were released the next day, without their belongings or passports, to face a hearing in two months.
The campaign decided to respond to all this violence and harassments with a public protest on March 4, 2007, showing their solidarity with the five outspoken women on trial that day. The leaders published a public statement titled: We Look to the Future, and asked all activists to show up in front of the courthouse and protest the unfair and unconstitutional trial of the women's rights leaders. The Iranian regime again responded with violence and mass arrest.
It is time for all the international organizations and NGOs to protest the unlawful and unconstitutional actions of the Iranian regime. The world must demand an immediate and unconditional release of all women rights activists. The Judiciary must immediately end its prosecution of women's rights advocates for exercising their right to freedom of speech and assembly.
Governments and corporations that continue to do business with Iran must start facing to their responsibilities and suspend all relations and contracts until every one of these women are free. Arrest and torture of peaceful human rights advocate should not be tolerated even for one day. Only a worldwide protest and immediate political action can bring about the release of the brave and selfless advocates of women's rights in Iran. Comment
Ramin Ahmadi is the Cofounder and Board Member of Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, associate clinical professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, and the founder of Griffin Center for Health and Human Rights.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
A review on the situation by Omid Memarian
Source: Omid Memarian weblog
Monday, March 05, 2007
Extensive Arrests of Women Activist in Tehran*Police forces arrested several people who had gathered to show their support for five Iranian women’s right activists, whose trial was taking place in court yesterday. This court was convening to try Sousan Tahmasbi, Parvin Ardalan, Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani, Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, and Shahla Entesari, who had participated in a peaceful gathering on July 2nd, 2006. Fariba Davoodi Mohajer is currently on a trip to US to visit her daughter. Those arrested yesterday have been transferred to Evin Prison’s 209 Block. According to a women’s rights activist who follows these arrests in Tehran, some of the prisoners’ families have been contacted and told that they can pick up their relatives from prison tomorrow.Hadi Ghaemi, a Human Rights Watch researcher in New York, told RoozOnline daily, “Such wide arrests are unprecedented and extremely worrying, and will create a very negative reaction to Iran worldwide.” He said the way the arrests took place sends various messages. “This is an alarm for human rights activists in Iran, an alarm for more forceful and hurried action on those activists who seek peaceful protests.” According to Ghaemi, such reactions “demonstrate an utmost lack of tolerance by the Government of defenders of women’s rights and civic organizations, because demands of Iranian women represent demands of half of Iranian nation, and the Government cannot dismiss it easily. “In no country in the world, civic elite and leaders of the society are arrested so wantonly and recklessly in one day. This action on the part of Iranian Government highlights Iran quite negatively on an international level.”Zanestan, a well known women which several of its contributors are among the arrested, in a new entry in this relation said that “Contradictory news filter out of the Judiciary and the Police, without any clear direction, and this has worried many of those involved and families of arrested individuals. Since 9:00 a.m. on Monday, many family members, lawyers, and women’s rights activists have gathered opposite Vozara Police Station, and are awaiting release of the women.” This situation continued through midnight. Other women’s rights activists are scheduled to gather today (Monday) by Evin Prison to protest the arrests and to find out about the fate of those arrested.While various lists of names of those arrested have been published, Zanestan names the following individuals:Fatemeh Govaraee, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, Parastoo Dokoohaki, Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan, Nahid Keshavarz, Sousan Tahmasbi, Niloofar Golkar, Maryam Mirza, Maryam Hosseinkhah, Nahid Jafari, Minoo Mortazi, Shahla Entesari, Azadeh Forghani, Jila Baniyaghoub, Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh, Nahid Entesari, Asieh Amini, Shadi Sadr, Saghi Laghaee, Saghar Laghaee, Elnaz Ansari, Sara Imanian, Jelveh Javaheri, Zara Amjadian, Zeinab Peighambarzadeh, Nasrin Afzali, Mahnaz Mohammadi, Somayeh Farid, Farideh Entesari, Rezvan Moghaddam, Sara Loghmani.However, a journalist in Tehran who is following the arrests told Rooz Online that Evin Prison has taken custody of 33 women. According to this source, authorities have told him that research on those arrested will be conducted tomorrow, and some of them will be released. This means that some others may not be released for now.Among those arrested people like Parvin Ardalan, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, Jila Baniyaghoub, and Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani had been previously arrested for their social and cultural activities. Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh was imprisoned by security forces for a month in 2006. Some of the people on the list, such as Sousan Tahmasbi, had their passports confiscated upon return from trips abroad. Parastoo Dokoohaki, Asieh Amini, Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh, Nasrin Afzali, Maryam Mirza, and Maryam Hosseinkhah are bloggers, dedicated to women’s issues. Families of Dokoohaki and some of the other arrested individuals had no news about the situation of their kin.During the protests of last July, more than 60 people were arrested. Most of those arrested were released in the following days, though Ali Akbar Moussavi Khoeiniha was imprisoned for five months. That gathering, also, was held in protest to anti women laws in Iran, and turned into violence with Police intervention.During yesterday’s peaceful gathering, 40 to 70 women’s rights activists carried placards reminding the court authorities that they, too, were present during the July protests. Their placards read: “Article 27 of Iranian Constitution provides us with the undeniable right to a peaceful gathering.”Objections to Arrests of the Past YearA women’s rights activist who has requested anonymity, told Rooz that demonstrators had gathered to protest the continuous stream of arrests of the past year, which seems to be gradually turning this into a “normal routine” for the officials. Recently several women activists were arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, while attempting to board a flight to India to attend a journalism workshop. She said in this recent gathering, police officers attacked them, broke their placards, and using insulting tones threatened them to disperse or they will be “hung from trees.” Some police officers used insulting words.Two small buses were dispatched to pick up the arrested individuals. According to various sources interviewed by Rooz, arrests were performed through physical force. When the court session ended, the four women (Sousan Tahmasbi, Shahla Entesari, Parvin Ardalan, and Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani) left the court and objected to the way the protestors were being treated; hence they, too, were arrested. Everyone was then transferred to the Vozara Complex, a police complex dedicated to “fight against social corruption.”The most violent treatment was handed to Nahid Jafari, who as she was being forced to board the bus, her head was rammed into the side of the bus, causing several broken teeth. Wide objection of witnesses in requesting an ambulance and attendance of a physician, did not meet a favorable reaction from the police.Women Object the ArrestsWith the upcoming International Women’s Day on March 8th, over the past several days, many women’s rights activists who were arrested during the event at the Court had prepared a communiqué, expressing hope for resolution of women’s issues in Iran.“On the threshold of March 8th, International Women’s Day, we, women’s rights activists, believe that trial of several activists is a sign of continued oppressive policies against women. We condemn these policies and actions, and warn against negative consequences of a security-led thinking in the face of peaceful civic activities of women. We re-emphasize democratic and spontaneous demands of Iranian nation, specifically the women’s movement, to show solidarity with five women’s rights activists who have been called to trial a few days before International Women’s Day, for their invitation to the peaceful gathering of July 2nd in Hafte Tir Square (Shahla Entesari, Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, Parvin Ardalan, Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani, and Sousan Tahmasbi). [We also support] all activists who have faced abuse, insults, and degradation for the past year, who were beaten up, summoned, and interrogated (such as Jila Baniyaghoub, Delaram Ali, Alieh Eghdamdoost, Azadeh Forghani, Bahareh Hedayat, Nassim Soltanbeigi, Maryam Zia, Leila Mousazadeh, Fatemeh Haj Hosseini, Massoumeh Zia, and Farideh Farrahi, who were arrested or tried or awaiting trial for their participation in the July 2nd gathering), and those women activists who were arrested and are awaiting creation of a case against them (such as Talat Taghinia, Mansoureh Shojaee, and Farnaz Seifi, who were arrested at the airport because they intended to attend an educational workshop in India). On Sunday, March 4th at 8:30 a.m., we will show up in front of Revolutionary Court (located on Shariati Avenue, Moallem Avenue) to protest all security-judicial confrontation against women’s peaceful civic activities to pursue their rights.In another part of this communiqué, the group says, “Let’s feel the pressure of international community on our shoulders, which is adding pressure through threats, sanctions, and the nightmare of war on a daily basis. We, a group of women’s rights activists, on the threshold of International Women’s Day on March 8th, announce our protest of all patriarchal policies, whether in an inappropriate interpretation of Islam, or in the name of human rights or democracy, and believe that what international community must insist upon should be the discussion of democracy and human rights, and not nuclear power, and this must be achieved through diplomatic dialogue and not through war and destruction.”An Eye Witness AccountIn Zanane Solh (Women of Peace) website, an eyewitness who attended the protest has written her account of the events. “After picking up the placards, gradually uniformed and plain-clothes police force, one of whom was a woman, showed up. The police approached us and asked us to leave because your gathering does not have a permit. One of my friends said that according to the Constitution, peaceful gatherings don’t need permits. The police argued that your gathering disrupts traffic on Moallem Avenue. They attacked the protestors’ line. Colonel.….started tearing up our placards, and using his wireless terminal, he hit some of the men in attendance in the head and chest, and removed them from the women’s line with violence…Again, Colonel....who had gained increased self-confidence as a result of new police arriving, said: ‘Ya Ali. Get lost!’ and he attacked the group. Our friends went to the pavement and didn’t move. A colonel who was behaving more politely suggested to the group not to stop on the pavement, but to keep walking. Our friends were smarter than him.”This eyewitness continues: “If they walked, it would have become a ‘demonstration,’ and Police could have used the legal (!!) excuse to arrest us. Then the mean colonel started threatening us, saying that if you don’t leave I will dispatch the buses to come take you slime. In the next attack of the colonel and his forces, some of our friends were separated from the rest. Their separation caused them to be pushed onto the street. Our remaining friends (about 40) decided to sit on the floor next to each other. Our separated friends went to the top of the street and several police officers were assigned to avoid their joining our group. The rest of us just sat there. Slowly there were more and more plain-clothes officers, too. Two white vans (the same as the ones used in the July 2nd arrests) arrived the Revolutionary Court building and waited there. About 11 a.m. Shadi Sadr, Nooshin Ahmadi, Parvin Ardalan, and Sousan Tahmasbi left the court building. Just as soon as they came out, and the plain-clothes man arrived, it appeared that the ‘order’ was received.”She continued that “Police used force in picking up and shoving those sitting down into two vans, and drove them away. First they said they were taken to Vali-e-Asr Army Base, but they weren’t there. Those who had cellular phones called others. Jila said it is really hot in the van and they are suffocating. Twenty adults were fit into a van. Someone else said they are just aimlessly driving on the streets. It was almost 1 p.m. when it became clear that they had been taken to Vozara. Mahboubeh said ‘they are keeping us in the courtyard of Vozara Monkarat. Finally, half an hour later they told us in their last telephone call that they were being ‘delivered.’ ‘We are 36,’ they said. It was Sunday February 4th at 1 p.m.”The Court ProceedingsAll of this happened while the court was reviewing charges against Nooshin Ahmadi, Parvin Ardalan, Sousan Tahmasbi, and Shahla Entesari, in the Sixth Branch of Revolutionary Court. They are accused of publicity against the regime, actions against national security, and participation in an illegal gathering. Mohammad Sharif, Nasrin Sotoudeh, and Mohammad Dadkhah were their attorneys.Mohammad Sharif, Fariba Davoodi Mohajer’s lawyer, who is one of the primary individuals accused in the July 2nd case, told ILNA: “As my client had left the country for a familial visit prior to being served the court summons, I have requested a re-scheduling of her court date, and the Judge will need to make a decision about that. Nevertheless, I delivered my power of attorney to the court on March 1st and requested to review the file, but the Sixth Branch of the Revolutionary Court advised me that in addition to my power of attorney, we had to present the Court with a separate contract between myself and my client. Since such a contract does not exist between myself and Ms. Davoodi Mohajer, and the Court insisted on having this document, I could not access the case file. It is, therefore, unknown to me on what basis the charges have been made.”Sharif further explained that as he could not review the file, he could not defend his client. He said his client is accused of “publicity against the regime,” and “congregation and collusion to commit a crime against national security.” He said he hopes the Court will grant a permission to reschedule and to waive the requirement for a separate contract between him and his client, in view of the fact that he has not been able to review the case file. He said he hopes to be able to defend his client at a later court meeting.Nasrin Sotoudeh, attorney for Parvin Ardalan and Nooshin Ahmadi, others accused in this case, told ILNA that “the court meeting was held in absence of her clients, as they were arrested in the gathering outside the Court. She said in this meeting Ms. Ebadi’s deposition supporting the attorneys in the case was presented to the Court. I and Leila Karami, another attorney on the case, delivered our verbal defense. Defense’s final argument regarding Nooshin Ahmadi’s case was received by the Court, and because we have been unable to review the case file, we requested a re-scheduling.”Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, attorney for Sousan Tahmasbi, another individual charged in this case has said that “in this meeting the charges against my client were read, and we began defending against those charges. We also submitted our last defense.” He said that the charges lack legal foundation and said: “As according to our Constitution, gatherings are allowed, these charges lack legal legitimacy.”*I have written this piece for Roozonline daily and It has published today...The English version publishes on my blog first.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Extensive Arrests of Women Activist in Tehran*Police forces arrested several people who had gathered to show their support for five Iranian women’s right activists, whose trial was taking place in court yesterday. This court was convening to try Sousan Tahmasbi, Parvin Ardalan, Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani, Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, and Shahla Entesari, who had participated in a peaceful gathering on July 2nd, 2006. Fariba Davoodi Mohajer is currently on a trip to US to visit her daughter. Those arrested yesterday have been transferred to Evin Prison’s 209 Block. According to a women’s rights activist who follows these arrests in Tehran, some of the prisoners’ families have been contacted and told that they can pick up their relatives from prison tomorrow.Hadi Ghaemi, a Human Rights Watch researcher in New York, told RoozOnline daily, “Such wide arrests are unprecedented and extremely worrying, and will create a very negative reaction to Iran worldwide.” He said the way the arrests took place sends various messages. “This is an alarm for human rights activists in Iran, an alarm for more forceful and hurried action on those activists who seek peaceful protests.” According to Ghaemi, such reactions “demonstrate an utmost lack of tolerance by the Government of defenders of women’s rights and civic organizations, because demands of Iranian women represent demands of half of Iranian nation, and the Government cannot dismiss it easily. “In no country in the world, civic elite and leaders of the society are arrested so wantonly and recklessly in one day. This action on the part of Iranian Government highlights Iran quite negatively on an international level.”Zanestan, a well known women which several of its contributors are among the arrested, in a new entry in this relation said that “Contradictory news filter out of the Judiciary and the Police, without any clear direction, and this has worried many of those involved and families of arrested individuals. Since 9:00 a.m. on Monday, many family members, lawyers, and women’s rights activists have gathered opposite Vozara Police Station, and are awaiting release of the women.” This situation continued through midnight. Other women’s rights activists are scheduled to gather today (Monday) by Evin Prison to protest the arrests and to find out about the fate of those arrested.While various lists of names of those arrested have been published, Zanestan names the following individuals:Fatemeh Govaraee, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, Parastoo Dokoohaki, Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan, Nahid Keshavarz, Sousan Tahmasbi, Niloofar Golkar, Maryam Mirza, Maryam Hosseinkhah, Nahid Jafari, Minoo Mortazi, Shahla Entesari, Azadeh Forghani, Jila Baniyaghoub, Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh, Nahid Entesari, Asieh Amini, Shadi Sadr, Saghi Laghaee, Saghar Laghaee, Elnaz Ansari, Sara Imanian, Jelveh Javaheri, Zara Amjadian, Zeinab Peighambarzadeh, Nasrin Afzali, Mahnaz Mohammadi, Somayeh Farid, Farideh Entesari, Rezvan Moghaddam, Sara Loghmani.However, a journalist in Tehran who is following the arrests told Rooz Online that Evin Prison has taken custody of 33 women. According to this source, authorities have told him that research on those arrested will be conducted tomorrow, and some of them will be released. This means that some others may not be released for now.Among those arrested people like Parvin Ardalan, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, Jila Baniyaghoub, and Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani had been previously arrested for their social and cultural activities. Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh was imprisoned by security forces for a month in 2006. Some of the people on the list, such as Sousan Tahmasbi, had their passports confiscated upon return from trips abroad. Parastoo Dokoohaki, Asieh Amini, Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh, Nasrin Afzali, Maryam Mirza, and Maryam Hosseinkhah are bloggers, dedicated to women’s issues. Families of Dokoohaki and some of the other arrested individuals had no news about the situation of their kin.During the protests of last July, more than 60 people were arrested. Most of those arrested were released in the following days, though Ali Akbar Moussavi Khoeiniha was imprisoned for five months. That gathering, also, was held in protest to anti women laws in Iran, and turned into violence with Police intervention.During yesterday’s peaceful gathering, 40 to 70 women’s rights activists carried placards reminding the court authorities that they, too, were present during the July protests. Their placards read: “Article 27 of Iranian Constitution provides us with the undeniable right to a peaceful gathering.”Objections to Arrests of the Past YearA women’s rights activist who has requested anonymity, told Rooz that demonstrators had gathered to protest the continuous stream of arrests of the past year, which seems to be gradually turning this into a “normal routine” for the officials. Recently several women activists were arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, while attempting to board a flight to India to attend a journalism workshop. She said in this recent gathering, police officers attacked them, broke their placards, and using insulting tones threatened them to disperse or they will be “hung from trees.” Some police officers used insulting words.Two small buses were dispatched to pick up the arrested individuals. According to various sources interviewed by Rooz, arrests were performed through physical force. When the court session ended, the four women (Sousan Tahmasbi, Shahla Entesari, Parvin Ardalan, and Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani) left the court and objected to the way the protestors were being treated; hence they, too, were arrested. Everyone was then transferred to the Vozara Complex, a police complex dedicated to “fight against social corruption.”The most violent treatment was handed to Nahid Jafari, who as she was being forced to board the bus, her head was rammed into the side of the bus, causing several broken teeth. Wide objection of witnesses in requesting an ambulance and attendance of a physician, did not meet a favorable reaction from the police.Women Object the ArrestsWith the upcoming International Women’s Day on March 8th, over the past several days, many women’s rights activists who were arrested during the event at the Court had prepared a communiqué, expressing hope for resolution of women’s issues in Iran.“On the threshold of March 8th, International Women’s Day, we, women’s rights activists, believe that trial of several activists is a sign of continued oppressive policies against women. We condemn these policies and actions, and warn against negative consequences of a security-led thinking in the face of peaceful civic activities of women. We re-emphasize democratic and spontaneous demands of Iranian nation, specifically the women’s movement, to show solidarity with five women’s rights activists who have been called to trial a few days before International Women’s Day, for their invitation to the peaceful gathering of July 2nd in Hafte Tir Square (Shahla Entesari, Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, Parvin Ardalan, Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani, and Sousan Tahmasbi). [We also support] all activists who have faced abuse, insults, and degradation for the past year, who were beaten up, summoned, and interrogated (such as Jila Baniyaghoub, Delaram Ali, Alieh Eghdamdoost, Azadeh Forghani, Bahareh Hedayat, Nassim Soltanbeigi, Maryam Zia, Leila Mousazadeh, Fatemeh Haj Hosseini, Massoumeh Zia, and Farideh Farrahi, who were arrested or tried or awaiting trial for their participation in the July 2nd gathering), and those women activists who were arrested and are awaiting creation of a case against them (such as Talat Taghinia, Mansoureh Shojaee, and Farnaz Seifi, who were arrested at the airport because they intended to attend an educational workshop in India). On Sunday, March 4th at 8:30 a.m., we will show up in front of Revolutionary Court (located on Shariati Avenue, Moallem Avenue) to protest all security-judicial confrontation against women’s peaceful civic activities to pursue their rights.In another part of this communiqué, the group says, “Let’s feel the pressure of international community on our shoulders, which is adding pressure through threats, sanctions, and the nightmare of war on a daily basis. We, a group of women’s rights activists, on the threshold of International Women’s Day on March 8th, announce our protest of all patriarchal policies, whether in an inappropriate interpretation of Islam, or in the name of human rights or democracy, and believe that what international community must insist upon should be the discussion of democracy and human rights, and not nuclear power, and this must be achieved through diplomatic dialogue and not through war and destruction.”An Eye Witness AccountIn Zanane Solh (Women of Peace) website, an eyewitness who attended the protest has written her account of the events. “After picking up the placards, gradually uniformed and plain-clothes police force, one of whom was a woman, showed up. The police approached us and asked us to leave because your gathering does not have a permit. One of my friends said that according to the Constitution, peaceful gatherings don’t need permits. The police argued that your gathering disrupts traffic on Moallem Avenue. They attacked the protestors’ line. Colonel.….started tearing up our placards, and using his wireless terminal, he hit some of the men in attendance in the head and chest, and removed them from the women’s line with violence…Again, Colonel....who had gained increased self-confidence as a result of new police arriving, said: ‘Ya Ali. Get lost!’ and he attacked the group. Our friends went to the pavement and didn’t move. A colonel who was behaving more politely suggested to the group not to stop on the pavement, but to keep walking. Our friends were smarter than him.”This eyewitness continues: “If they walked, it would have become a ‘demonstration,’ and Police could have used the legal (!!) excuse to arrest us. Then the mean colonel started threatening us, saying that if you don’t leave I will dispatch the buses to come take you slime. In the next attack of the colonel and his forces, some of our friends were separated from the rest. Their separation caused them to be pushed onto the street. Our remaining friends (about 40) decided to sit on the floor next to each other. Our separated friends went to the top of the street and several police officers were assigned to avoid their joining our group. The rest of us just sat there. Slowly there were more and more plain-clothes officers, too. Two white vans (the same as the ones used in the July 2nd arrests) arrived the Revolutionary Court building and waited there. About 11 a.m. Shadi Sadr, Nooshin Ahmadi, Parvin Ardalan, and Sousan Tahmasbi left the court building. Just as soon as they came out, and the plain-clothes man arrived, it appeared that the ‘order’ was received.”She continued that “Police used force in picking up and shoving those sitting down into two vans, and drove them away. First they said they were taken to Vali-e-Asr Army Base, but they weren’t there. Those who had cellular phones called others. Jila said it is really hot in the van and they are suffocating. Twenty adults were fit into a van. Someone else said they are just aimlessly driving on the streets. It was almost 1 p.m. when it became clear that they had been taken to Vozara. Mahboubeh said ‘they are keeping us in the courtyard of Vozara Monkarat. Finally, half an hour later they told us in their last telephone call that they were being ‘delivered.’ ‘We are 36,’ they said. It was Sunday February 4th at 1 p.m.”The Court ProceedingsAll of this happened while the court was reviewing charges against Nooshin Ahmadi, Parvin Ardalan, Sousan Tahmasbi, and Shahla Entesari, in the Sixth Branch of Revolutionary Court. They are accused of publicity against the regime, actions against national security, and participation in an illegal gathering. Mohammad Sharif, Nasrin Sotoudeh, and Mohammad Dadkhah were their attorneys.Mohammad Sharif, Fariba Davoodi Mohajer’s lawyer, who is one of the primary individuals accused in the July 2nd case, told ILNA: “As my client had left the country for a familial visit prior to being served the court summons, I have requested a re-scheduling of her court date, and the Judge will need to make a decision about that. Nevertheless, I delivered my power of attorney to the court on March 1st and requested to review the file, but the Sixth Branch of the Revolutionary Court advised me that in addition to my power of attorney, we had to present the Court with a separate contract between myself and my client. Since such a contract does not exist between myself and Ms. Davoodi Mohajer, and the Court insisted on having this document, I could not access the case file. It is, therefore, unknown to me on what basis the charges have been made.”Sharif further explained that as he could not review the file, he could not defend his client. He said his client is accused of “publicity against the regime,” and “congregation and collusion to commit a crime against national security.” He said he hopes the Court will grant a permission to reschedule and to waive the requirement for a separate contract between him and his client, in view of the fact that he has not been able to review the case file. He said he hopes to be able to defend his client at a later court meeting.Nasrin Sotoudeh, attorney for Parvin Ardalan and Nooshin Ahmadi, others accused in this case, told ILNA that “the court meeting was held in absence of her clients, as they were arrested in the gathering outside the Court. She said in this meeting Ms. Ebadi’s deposition supporting the attorneys in the case was presented to the Court. I and Leila Karami, another attorney on the case, delivered our verbal defense. Defense’s final argument regarding Nooshin Ahmadi’s case was received by the Court, and because we have been unable to review the case file, we requested a re-scheduling.”Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, attorney for Sousan Tahmasbi, another individual charged in this case has said that “in this meeting the charges against my client were read, and we began defending against those charges. We also submitted our last defense.” He said that the charges lack legal foundation and said: “As according to our Constitution, gatherings are allowed, these charges lack legal legitimacy.”*I have written this piece for Roozonline daily and It has published today...The English version publishes on my blog first.
The Nobel Women's Initiative support for the one million signature campaign in Iran
Nobel Women's Initiative
The link to the action letter:
http://www.nobelwomensinitiative.org/take-action.php?WEBYEP_DI=12
Join Human Rights First Letter Writing Campaign
BackgroundIranian women’s rights activists have initiated a landmark campaign to collect one million signatures to demand an end to legal discrimination against women in Iranian law. The campaign One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws is a follow-up project to the June 12th demonstration for women’s rights in Tehran where several activists were beaten and arrested. The collection of a million signatures is only the first phase in this widespread campaign for women's rights in Iran. The Campaign intends to promote cooperation between activists advocating for positive social change by developing connections between a broad base of women’s groups from different backgrounds. The organizers of the project are committed to increasing and improving knowledge through enhanced dialogue, collaboration, and democratic action. The Campaign's overall objective is to amplify the voices of women whose needs are often not addressed in Iran's national policy. In an effort to halt this campaign, Iranian authorities recently blocked access to the campaign’s website from within Iran.Take ActionJoin Human Rights First letter writing campaign to defend these activists’ right to organize.
The link to the action letter:
http://www.nobelwomensinitiative.org/take-action.php?WEBYEP_DI=12
Join Human Rights First Letter Writing Campaign
BackgroundIranian women’s rights activists have initiated a landmark campaign to collect one million signatures to demand an end to legal discrimination against women in Iranian law. The campaign One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws is a follow-up project to the June 12th demonstration for women’s rights in Tehran where several activists were beaten and arrested. The collection of a million signatures is only the first phase in this widespread campaign for women's rights in Iran. The Campaign intends to promote cooperation between activists advocating for positive social change by developing connections between a broad base of women’s groups from different backgrounds. The organizers of the project are committed to increasing and improving knowledge through enhanced dialogue, collaboration, and democratic action. The Campaign's overall objective is to amplify the voices of women whose needs are often not addressed in Iran's national policy. In an effort to halt this campaign, Iranian authorities recently blocked access to the campaign’s website from within Iran.Take ActionJoin Human Rights First letter writing campaign to defend these activists’ right to organize.
The petition from French intellectuals to support Iranian women’s rights activist
This text is in French:
Soutenons les féministes iraniennes dans leur combat pour la liberté
Des féministes iraniennes s’engagent dans une lutte sans cesse renouvelée par différentes campagnes dont celle pour changer les lois discriminatoires envers les femmes en se référant aux pactes internationaux relatifs aux droits civils et politiques et aux droits économiques, sociaux et culturels dont l’Iran est signataire[1]. En effet, ces pactes soutiennent l’élimination des discriminations basées sur le sexe, alors que les lois iraniennes légalisent et légitiment le statut inférieur des femmes au nom de la religion de l’Etat. Sous prétexte du respect de valeurs culturelles et cultuelles, les femmes subissent diverses violences et discriminations dans tous les champs de leur vie, aussi bien au sein de la famille qu’à l’extérieur. Bien qu’elles soient présentes massivement dans les écoles et les universités, actives dans les lieux de création littéraire et artistique, visibles sur la scène sociale, elles sont considérées par les lois en vigueur comme des « demi-hommes » et sévèrement bridées dans leur être et leur devenir.
Les mouvements de femmes en Iran lancent, sur le plan national et international, un défi d’une importance majeure au regard des enjeux de la lutte pour la liberté et l’égalité entre les femmes et les hommes dans un monde menacé par l’avancée des mouvements extrémistes qui prônent l’exacerbation des identités nationales, ethniques et religieuses. Les femmes sont les premières victimes de cette vision figée du « culturel » et du « cultuel » qui conduit, comme le démontre l’expérience iranienne, à la sacralisation des discriminations au nom de Dieu. Inspirés du principe de l’universalité des valeurs démocratiques, ces mouvements échappent aux étiquetages stériles tels que « les droits de l’homme islamique » et « le féminisme islamique » pour insister sur le fait qu’être musulman(e) n’est pas en contradiction avec le fait d’être adepte des droits humains et de vouloir vivre dans la liberté et l’égalité. Ils prônent ainsi un universalisme pluriel et féministe.
A l’approche du 8 mars, journée internationale pour les droits des femmes, ces mouvements connaissent une répression massive par le biais des arrestations de féministes actives. Sous prétexte de considérations liées à l’intérêt général, des dizaines d’entre elles sont interpellées et mises en détention. Dans un contexte de répression généralisée des médias, ces événements ne trouvent qu’un écho limité à l’intérieur du pays.
Nous appelons de vive voix les féministes, les défenseur(e)s des droits de l’Homme, les artistes, les écrivain(e)s, les intellectuel(le)s, les femmes et hommes politiques à soutenir les féministes iraniennes dont la lutte porte de réels espoirs pour des lendemains démocratiques.
Initiatrice et initiateurs de l’appel :
Chahla Chafiq, essayiste et nouvelliste d’origine iranienne, militante féministe et laïque ;
Karim Lahidji, président de la Ligue de défense des droits de l’Homme en Iran, vice-président de la Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme ;
Reza Moini, chercheur d’origine iranienne à Reporteurs sans frontières.
Premières signatures de soutien (par ordre alphabétique) :
Mohamed Abdi, secrétaire général de Ni putes ni soumises
Brigitte Allal, fondatrice du Manifeste des libertés
Tewfik Allal, fondateur du Manifeste des libertés
Fadela Amara, présidente de Ni putes ni soumises
Francine Bavay, vice-présidente du Conseil régional d'Ile-de-France
Sophie Bessis, chercheuse, secrétaire générale adjointe de la Fédération internationale des droits de l’Homme
Denise Brial, présidente d’Atalante vidéos féministes
Nadia Châabane, vice-présidente de l’Association des Tunisiens en France
Hélène Cixous, écrivaine
Jocelyne Clarke, responsable du secteur féministe de l’Union des familles laïques
Monique Dental, responsable du Réseau féministe Rupture
Catherine Deudon, photographe
Clara Domingues, présidente de la Maison des femmes de Paris
Caroline Fourest, essayiste, journaliste
Liliane Kandel, sociologue
Catherine Kriegel, psychologue
Sihem Habchi, vice-présidente de Ni putes ni soumises
Fatima Lalem, sociologue, membre du Planning familial
Claudie Lesselier, historienne, présidente du Réseau pour l’autonomie des femmes immigrées et réfugiées
Juliette Minces, écrivaine, sociologue
Ariane Mnouchkine, artiste, metteuse en scène, directrice du Théâtre du soleil
Mariana Otero, cinéaste
Nadja Ringart, sociologue
Nicole Savey, membre de l’Association de solidarité avec les femmes algériennes démocrates
Maya Surduts, porte-parole du Collectif national pour les droits des femmes et de la Coordination des associations pour le droit à l’avortement et à la contraception
Wassila Tamzali, avocate à Alger, ex-directrice du Droit des femmes à l'Unesco
Fiametta Venner, essayiste, journaliste
[1] Voir : http://www.we4change.com
Soutenons les féministes iraniennes dans leur combat pour la liberté
Des féministes iraniennes s’engagent dans une lutte sans cesse renouvelée par différentes campagnes dont celle pour changer les lois discriminatoires envers les femmes en se référant aux pactes internationaux relatifs aux droits civils et politiques et aux droits économiques, sociaux et culturels dont l’Iran est signataire[1]. En effet, ces pactes soutiennent l’élimination des discriminations basées sur le sexe, alors que les lois iraniennes légalisent et légitiment le statut inférieur des femmes au nom de la religion de l’Etat. Sous prétexte du respect de valeurs culturelles et cultuelles, les femmes subissent diverses violences et discriminations dans tous les champs de leur vie, aussi bien au sein de la famille qu’à l’extérieur. Bien qu’elles soient présentes massivement dans les écoles et les universités, actives dans les lieux de création littéraire et artistique, visibles sur la scène sociale, elles sont considérées par les lois en vigueur comme des « demi-hommes » et sévèrement bridées dans leur être et leur devenir.
Les mouvements de femmes en Iran lancent, sur le plan national et international, un défi d’une importance majeure au regard des enjeux de la lutte pour la liberté et l’égalité entre les femmes et les hommes dans un monde menacé par l’avancée des mouvements extrémistes qui prônent l’exacerbation des identités nationales, ethniques et religieuses. Les femmes sont les premières victimes de cette vision figée du « culturel » et du « cultuel » qui conduit, comme le démontre l’expérience iranienne, à la sacralisation des discriminations au nom de Dieu. Inspirés du principe de l’universalité des valeurs démocratiques, ces mouvements échappent aux étiquetages stériles tels que « les droits de l’homme islamique » et « le féminisme islamique » pour insister sur le fait qu’être musulman(e) n’est pas en contradiction avec le fait d’être adepte des droits humains et de vouloir vivre dans la liberté et l’égalité. Ils prônent ainsi un universalisme pluriel et féministe.
A l’approche du 8 mars, journée internationale pour les droits des femmes, ces mouvements connaissent une répression massive par le biais des arrestations de féministes actives. Sous prétexte de considérations liées à l’intérêt général, des dizaines d’entre elles sont interpellées et mises en détention. Dans un contexte de répression généralisée des médias, ces événements ne trouvent qu’un écho limité à l’intérieur du pays.
Nous appelons de vive voix les féministes, les défenseur(e)s des droits de l’Homme, les artistes, les écrivain(e)s, les intellectuel(le)s, les femmes et hommes politiques à soutenir les féministes iraniennes dont la lutte porte de réels espoirs pour des lendemains démocratiques.
Initiatrice et initiateurs de l’appel :
Chahla Chafiq, essayiste et nouvelliste d’origine iranienne, militante féministe et laïque ;
Karim Lahidji, président de la Ligue de défense des droits de l’Homme en Iran, vice-président de la Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme ;
Reza Moini, chercheur d’origine iranienne à Reporteurs sans frontières.
Premières signatures de soutien (par ordre alphabétique) :
Mohamed Abdi, secrétaire général de Ni putes ni soumises
Brigitte Allal, fondatrice du Manifeste des libertés
Tewfik Allal, fondateur du Manifeste des libertés
Fadela Amara, présidente de Ni putes ni soumises
Francine Bavay, vice-présidente du Conseil régional d'Ile-de-France
Sophie Bessis, chercheuse, secrétaire générale adjointe de la Fédération internationale des droits de l’Homme
Denise Brial, présidente d’Atalante vidéos féministes
Nadia Châabane, vice-présidente de l’Association des Tunisiens en France
Hélène Cixous, écrivaine
Jocelyne Clarke, responsable du secteur féministe de l’Union des familles laïques
Monique Dental, responsable du Réseau féministe Rupture
Catherine Deudon, photographe
Clara Domingues, présidente de la Maison des femmes de Paris
Caroline Fourest, essayiste, journaliste
Liliane Kandel, sociologue
Catherine Kriegel, psychologue
Sihem Habchi, vice-présidente de Ni putes ni soumises
Fatima Lalem, sociologue, membre du Planning familial
Claudie Lesselier, historienne, présidente du Réseau pour l’autonomie des femmes immigrées et réfugiées
Juliette Minces, écrivaine, sociologue
Ariane Mnouchkine, artiste, metteuse en scène, directrice du Théâtre du soleil
Mariana Otero, cinéaste
Nadja Ringart, sociologue
Nicole Savey, membre de l’Association de solidarité avec les femmes algériennes démocrates
Maya Surduts, porte-parole du Collectif national pour les droits des femmes et de la Coordination des associations pour le droit à l’avortement et à la contraception
Wassila Tamzali, avocate à Alger, ex-directrice du Droit des femmes à l'Unesco
Fiametta Venner, essayiste, journaliste
[1] Voir : http://www.we4change.com
Petition from “Women’s Field” site for releasing arrested women
The Women’s Field sit (Stop Stoning for Ever Campaign), have a new released petition to support Iranian women’s rights activist who were arrested today in Tehran. Please sign the petition and send it to your friends to get more and more signatures.
http://www.meydaan.org/English/aboutcamp.aspx?cid=52
http://www.meydaan.org/English/aboutcamp.aspx?cid=52
BBC report
BBC, has a report about Iranian women's rights activists who were arrested earlier today in Tehran:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6416789.stm
Iran women arrested over protest Iran's authorities have arrested more than 32 women activists protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran.
The protesters were showing solidarity with five women on trial for organising a protest last June against laws they say discriminate against women.
The five have been charged with endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering.
US pressure group, Human Rights Watch, has urged an end to the prosecution.
It said the women had been exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.
The five are organisers of a demonstration last June which was violently broken up by the police and led to the arrest of 70 people, many of them innocent bystanders.
'Intimidation'
The BBC's Frances Harrison, reporting from the demonstration, says almost all the leaders of Iran's women's movement were arrested.
The women held up banners outside the revolutionary court, saying: "We have the right to hold peaceful protests".
The aim of the women is to draw attention to discriminatory Islamic laws on polygamy and child custody that often cause great suffering to women, our correspondent says.
When the five women on trial left the court building they were arrested again, along with their lawyer.
Parveen Adalan, one of those on trial, said her lawyer had not yet seen any of the evidence against her, although she has been questioned five times by the intelligence agencies.
"They didn't give them our documents to read, so we don't know what's happening," she told the BBC.
One of the women demonstrators, Nahid Mirhaj, accused the police of trying to intimidate them.
She said the police chief was "using obscene words and describing us as 'misfits'".
Our correspondent says police and plain-clothes security men chased away journalists and onlookers and then loaded the women onto a curtained minibus and drove them away.
The women believe the authorities are trying to intimidate them to prevent any kind of protest during International Women's Day on 8 March.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6416789.stm
Iran women arrested over protest Iran's authorities have arrested more than 32 women activists protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran.
The protesters were showing solidarity with five women on trial for organising a protest last June against laws they say discriminate against women.
The five have been charged with endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering.
US pressure group, Human Rights Watch, has urged an end to the prosecution.
It said the women had been exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.
The five are organisers of a demonstration last June which was violently broken up by the police and led to the arrest of 70 people, many of them innocent bystanders.
'Intimidation'
The BBC's Frances Harrison, reporting from the demonstration, says almost all the leaders of Iran's women's movement were arrested.
The women held up banners outside the revolutionary court, saying: "We have the right to hold peaceful protests".
The aim of the women is to draw attention to discriminatory Islamic laws on polygamy and child custody that often cause great suffering to women, our correspondent says.
When the five women on trial left the court building they were arrested again, along with their lawyer.
Parveen Adalan, one of those on trial, said her lawyer had not yet seen any of the evidence against her, although she has been questioned five times by the intelligence agencies.
"They didn't give them our documents to read, so we don't know what's happening," she told the BBC.
One of the women demonstrators, Nahid Mirhaj, accused the police of trying to intimidate them.
She said the police chief was "using obscene words and describing us as 'misfits'".
Our correspondent says police and plain-clothes security men chased away journalists and onlookers and then loaded the women onto a curtained minibus and drove them away.
The women believe the authorities are trying to intimidate them to prevent any kind of protest during International Women's Day on 8 March.
The Dutch reporter is released
The Dutch reporter who was filming around the court and was arrested earlier today is released now. His films are taken away and he safely has been send back home.
Human Rights Watch's report
The Human Rights Watch has an urgent report about Iranian women’s rights activists who were arrested:
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2007/02/27/iran15416.htm
Iran: Women on Trial for Peaceful Demonstration
Activists Arrested for Protesting Discriminatory Laws
(New York, February 27, 2007) – The Iranian Judiciary should immediately end its prosecution of several women’s rights advocates for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 4, the Judiciary will hold a trial for five women charged with “acting against national security by participating in an illegal gathering.” The women on trial are: Nusheen Ahmadi Khorasani; Parvin Ardalan; Sussan Tahmasebi; Shahla Entesari; and Fariba Davoodi Mohajer. In addition, the Judiciary has charged at least four other activists, Alieh Eghdamdoost, Bahareh Hedayat, Delaram Ali and Azadeh Forghani, with the same offense but has not set their court date. “Iran is prosecuting women for peacefully protesting laws that discriminate against them – and that violate Iranian and international law,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. The Judiciary filed charges against the women’s rights activists following a public demonstration to protest Iran’s discriminatory laws against women in Tehran on June 12, 2006. The security forces prevented peaceful demonstrators from gathering and advocating for women’s rights. Police agents beat the demonstrators with batons, sprayed them with pepper gas, marked them with color spray, and took 70 people into custody. All the detainees have since been released. Freedom of assembly is guaranteed under international human rights law. Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides everyone with the right to peaceful assembly. Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, recognizes the right to peaceful assembly, stating that “no restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order, the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.” The Iranian constitution also ensures the right to peaceful assembly. Article 27 of the constitution stipulates that “public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried and that they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.” Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is a lawyer for several of the accused women, told Human Rights Watch that the June 12 gathering fulfilled all of the conditions set forth by Article 27 of the constitution and the Judiciary has no legal grounds for prosecuting the demonstrators. On January 5, 2007, the Judiciary held a trial for Zhila Baniyaghoub, a journalist who attended the June 12, 2006 demonstration. The authorities charged her with “acting against national security by participating in an illegal gathering.” Police agents arrested her during the demonstration and released her on bail after one week of detention. During the trial, her lawyer, Farideh Gheirat, argued that Baniyaghoub was present at the demonstration as a journalist to cover the event. The presiding judge subsequently dropped charges against Baniyaghoub and acquitted her. Human Rights Watch commends Baniyaghoub’s acquittal and calls on the Judiciary to drop charges against all other defendants as well. In addition to prosecuting women’s rights activists, the government has also increased its persecution of people who continue to call for reforms of Iran’s discriminatory laws against women. Women’s rights activists launched a campaign, “Change for Equality,” to collect 1 million signatures to protest these laws. The authorities have targeted campaign volunteers by harassing them and denying them the ability to advocate for their cause in public spaces. They have also blocked access to the campaign’s website by filtering it. During the past two weeks, campaign organizers have moved their website to a new domain at least three times due to filtering. “By targeting peaceful advocates, the government is demonstrating its intolerance for civil society actions,” Whitson said. “The authorities should listen to women’s rights advocates and work with them to reform discriminatory laws, instead of prosecuting them and perpetuating a system of discrimination.”
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2007/02/27/iran15416.htm
Iran: Women on Trial for Peaceful Demonstration
Activists Arrested for Protesting Discriminatory Laws
(New York, February 27, 2007) – The Iranian Judiciary should immediately end its prosecution of several women’s rights advocates for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 4, the Judiciary will hold a trial for five women charged with “acting against national security by participating in an illegal gathering.” The women on trial are: Nusheen Ahmadi Khorasani; Parvin Ardalan; Sussan Tahmasebi; Shahla Entesari; and Fariba Davoodi Mohajer. In addition, the Judiciary has charged at least four other activists, Alieh Eghdamdoost, Bahareh Hedayat, Delaram Ali and Azadeh Forghani, with the same offense but has not set their court date. “Iran is prosecuting women for peacefully protesting laws that discriminate against them – and that violate Iranian and international law,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. The Judiciary filed charges against the women’s rights activists following a public demonstration to protest Iran’s discriminatory laws against women in Tehran on June 12, 2006. The security forces prevented peaceful demonstrators from gathering and advocating for women’s rights. Police agents beat the demonstrators with batons, sprayed them with pepper gas, marked them with color spray, and took 70 people into custody. All the detainees have since been released. Freedom of assembly is guaranteed under international human rights law. Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides everyone with the right to peaceful assembly. Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, recognizes the right to peaceful assembly, stating that “no restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order, the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.” The Iranian constitution also ensures the right to peaceful assembly. Article 27 of the constitution stipulates that “public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried and that they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.” Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is a lawyer for several of the accused women, told Human Rights Watch that the June 12 gathering fulfilled all of the conditions set forth by Article 27 of the constitution and the Judiciary has no legal grounds for prosecuting the demonstrators. On January 5, 2007, the Judiciary held a trial for Zhila Baniyaghoub, a journalist who attended the June 12, 2006 demonstration. The authorities charged her with “acting against national security by participating in an illegal gathering.” Police agents arrested her during the demonstration and released her on bail after one week of detention. During the trial, her lawyer, Farideh Gheirat, argued that Baniyaghoub was present at the demonstration as a journalist to cover the event. The presiding judge subsequently dropped charges against Baniyaghoub and acquitted her. Human Rights Watch commends Baniyaghoub’s acquittal and calls on the Judiciary to drop charges against all other defendants as well. In addition to prosecuting women’s rights activists, the government has also increased its persecution of people who continue to call for reforms of Iran’s discriminatory laws against women. Women’s rights activists launched a campaign, “Change for Equality,” to collect 1 million signatures to protest these laws. The authorities have targeted campaign volunteers by harassing them and denying them the ability to advocate for their cause in public spaces. They have also blocked access to the campaign’s website by filtering it. During the past two weeks, campaign organizers have moved their website to a new domain at least three times due to filtering. “By targeting peaceful advocates, the government is demonstrating its intolerance for civil society actions,” Whitson said. “The authorities should listen to women’s rights advocates and work with them to reform discriminatory laws, instead of prosecuting them and perpetuating a system of discrimination.”
Update on arrested Iranian women- Bad news
All the women have been transferred to the 209 of Evin prison which we all know it is under control of ministry of information. Arrested women’s family are protesting but they have been told nobody will be released at least until tomorrow. One Dutch reporter has been arrested as well.
Here you can find some pictures form the arrested women:
http://www.khosoof.com/archive/355.php
http://www.khosoof.com/archive/356.php
Here you can find some pictures form the arrested women:
http://www.khosoof.com/archive/355.php
http://www.khosoof.com/archive/356.php
50 of Iranian women's rights activists were arrested
I supposed not to start writing with broadcasting such sad and scary news. I planed to gift this weblog to myself for the international women day but the call that I received at 3:30 am today changed my mind. Azadeh(my sister) delivered the news. Fifty of Iranian women’s rights activists were arrested in Tehran. I could not believe it. Fifty people!! I started to count the names I knew…yes, right…
Today four women have been called to the revolutionary court of Tehran for their trail. Their crime was organizing a peaceful gathering for the international women day last year. That peaceful protest has been suppressed in the cruelest way and a year after just few days before March the 8th the organizers were going to receive their punishments. These four women are:
Nooshin Amhadi Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan, Shahla Entesari and Susan Tahmasebi.
Many other women’s rights activists gathered in front of the court from morning to support their accused friends and colleagues. Soon after they held their banners, the guard (some in uniform and some undercover) including one woman, attacked and beaten them. The police van arrived and all women have been arrested. They have transferred to the social immorality section of Vozara court.
The arrested women are:
Asieh Amini, Jila Bani Yaghoub, Mahboubeb Abbasgholizadeh, Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh, Sara Loghmani, Zara Amjadian, Mariam Hossein Khah, Jelveh Javaheri, Niloofar Golkar, Parastoo Dokoohaki, Zeinab Peyghambarzadeh, Maryam Mirza, Saghar Laghayee, Khadijeh Moghaddam, Saghie Laghayee, Nahid Keshavarz, Mahnaz Mohammadi, Nasrin Afzali, Tal'at Taghinia, Fakhri Shadfar, Maryam Shadfar, Elnaz Ansari, Fatemeh Govarayee, Azadeh Forghani, Sommayeh Farid, Minoo Mortezayee, Sara Imanian.
Later when the four accused women left the court house and learned about their friends’ situation, began to ask for their release but in result they have been arrested as well. Here you can find the preliminary report:
http://azadehpourzand.blogspot.com/
Please spread the news.
Today four women have been called to the revolutionary court of Tehran for their trail. Their crime was organizing a peaceful gathering for the international women day last year. That peaceful protest has been suppressed in the cruelest way and a year after just few days before March the 8th the organizers were going to receive their punishments. These four women are:
Nooshin Amhadi Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan, Shahla Entesari and Susan Tahmasebi.
Many other women’s rights activists gathered in front of the court from morning to support their accused friends and colleagues. Soon after they held their banners, the guard (some in uniform and some undercover) including one woman, attacked and beaten them. The police van arrived and all women have been arrested. They have transferred to the social immorality section of Vozara court.
The arrested women are:
Asieh Amini, Jila Bani Yaghoub, Mahboubeb Abbasgholizadeh, Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh, Sara Loghmani, Zara Amjadian, Mariam Hossein Khah, Jelveh Javaheri, Niloofar Golkar, Parastoo Dokoohaki, Zeinab Peyghambarzadeh, Maryam Mirza, Saghar Laghayee, Khadijeh Moghaddam, Saghie Laghayee, Nahid Keshavarz, Mahnaz Mohammadi, Nasrin Afzali, Tal'at Taghinia, Fakhri Shadfar, Maryam Shadfar, Elnaz Ansari, Fatemeh Govarayee, Azadeh Forghani, Sommayeh Farid, Minoo Mortezayee, Sara Imanian.
Later when the four accused women left the court house and learned about their friends’ situation, began to ask for their release but in result they have been arrested as well. Here you can find the preliminary report:
http://azadehpourzand.blogspot.com/
Please spread the news.
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