[women-rights] Iran: Arrests of women may be an attempt to prevent International Women's Day calls for equality

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE 
AI Index: MDE 13/022/2007
5 March 2007 

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.