من روزنامه نگارم

we change:

One of the main criticisms against the Iranian women’s movement is that it advocates for the demands of elite groups and disregards the demands and needs of women at the grassroots. Critics claim that the Iranian women’s movement is an elite movement rather than a grassroots movement, and given the fact that the discourse of elite classes differ from that of the masses, ordinary women cannot participate in this movement. Women’s rights activists in recent years too have heard criticisms that claim that the demands of the women’s movement are in reality the demands of a group of Tehran-based and educated women.

The 22nd of Khordaad, 1385 (12th of June, 2006) during which a protest objecting to discriminatory laws against women and demanding reform of the law was staged in Hafte Tir Square, was a different and interesting experience. On the one hand were are the drawbacks of this protest: authorities preventing our protest from taking shape in Haft-e Tir Square, the violent attack of police against protesters and the subsequent beatings of those present in Hafte Tir Square, and the absence of some activists who for various reasons were unable to participate in the protest. On the other hand and the positive side we witnessed the participation of ordinary women in this protest. In fact these women were not members of any social group or NGO, but in unison with women’s rights activists who had organized the protest, these ordinary women demanded equal rights, suffered beatings and yes some were even arrested and taken to prison.

Perhaps one of the reasons contributing to the participation of ordinary citizens in the June 12, 2006 protest can be attributed to a broad call to action which was issued before the protest. A week prior to the protest, booklets which explained the discriminatory nature of laws and their negative impact on women’s lives were printed and 5000 copies distributed to women in Tehran who were informed about the upcoming protest and invited to take part in the effort designed to object to discriminatory laws and in demand of equal rights.

The positive reaction of women, who received the booklets and whom we spoke to on the streets, in the metro, and on busses, created much hope for the organizers of the protest. Their reaction along with the presence of ordinary citizens at the protest was so encouraging that immediately after the protest, we started to think about how to take our message to the grassroots, and to broaden our demand for reform of discriminatory laws, beyond the tight circle of elite communities, such as intellectuals, university students, professors, and women’s rights activists.

The implementation of this idea was not so simple. Despite the fact that inequities supported by and promoted in the law impacted the lives of women from all walks of life irregardless of social and economic class, amplifying the voices of those who suffer because of their gender and who object to the discriminatory nature of the law proved a challenging task. Despite the fact that women were unhappy with the status quo and current laws, the general public’s knowledge on this issue remained limited. As such it was difficult to transform this general discontent into a protest movement. On the other hand, for many of those women who do come into contact with the law and understand how damaging it can be for them, an individual solution seemed the strategy for addressing their problems. Many women in fact understand legal obstacles to be personal problems rather than general problems, and some believe that creating change is not possible, and some are unaware of the negative impact of current laws on women’s lives.

Still, the one hundred year history of the Iranian women’s movement, and the experiences of our feminist sisters around the globe have demonstrated that the first step to improving the condition of women and addressing difficulties experienced as a result of inequities, and specifically legal inequities, is to elevate the demand for change to an encompassing public demand.

As such, the One Million Signatures Campaign Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws incorporated an advocacy and educational effort as the main base for its program and goals. In line with this strategy, the Campaign has worked to introduce its demands within different social layers of society as a strategy to bring about changes to existing laws that discriminate against women and in turn transform the effort into a of the grassroots or a movement from below.

The distribution of educational pamphlets among the public, engaging in face-to-face discussions with the general public about the legal inequities and the collection of One Million Signatures objecting to current laws, is only one dimension of this effort. Another more important dimension of this effort has been the mobilization and organization of women themselves with a view toward expansion of the movement.

In essence, the One Million Signatures Campaign did not limit its activists to those already involved in the women’s movement or in NGOs, and in a parallel effort and beyond working to increase knowledge within society it aimed to attract activists for the Campaign from among the very people with whom it engaged with in face-to-face discussions. The work plan was simple. All those who believed in the need to change current laws about women and who have signed the Campaign’s petitions asking for reform of current laws can assist in the collection of signatures and collaborate with the Campaign after going through a 4 hour training session. Those who want to be more involved can participate in one of the Committees of the Campaign in Tehran, or like cities in other provinces those who are interested can start up working groups in their own city or province and based on specific local needs and conditions begin to work toward the goal of the campaign, through educational activities and collection of signatures.

The model of the Campaign is the first of its kind in terms of social movements and activities in our country, which has allowed for an open collective effort without bureaucratic rules to take shape and thus allowing for activists to join the effort and easily become one of its main actors.

The reception by the new activists choosing to join the Campaign was far beyond the expectation of the Campaign founders. Since its inception, women from different social groups from around the country have joined the Campaign and work towards its aims. The effort of these ordinary women who have joined the Campaign since its inception is not less in its quality or its results (in terms success with respect to collection of signatures) than experienced women’s rights activists or Campaign founders.

The interesting point is that among these new activists you find women from different social groups, including elite women and those from urban areas and big cities, women from the south of Tehran and in the provinces, even women from small cities. Involved in this Campaign are employed women as well as housewives. Women with secular leanings too can be found among these activists, as well as religious women, members of prayer groups, and teachers of the Qoran. Young female university students work shoulder to shoulder with older women who sign the petition and work toward a better future for their children and grandchildren. There are university professors who write about the Campaign, and introduce it to their students, working in concert with illiterate women who sign the petition with an imprint of their finger, instead of a signature.

In fact, one could easily claim that in contradiction to the clichés which claimed the demands of the women’s movement were essentially luxuries and not popular, a claim which over the years had turned into a truth, the One Million Signatures Campaign has demonstrated that if we venture beyond the tight circle of intellectuals and social activists and with easy to understand language speak about our demands with the public, the broadness and popularity of these demands will quickly surface and become clear.

The most important point here which must receive due attention are the strategies employed by the Campaign. To make the demand for legal change an encompassing and popular demand has been a main goal of the women’s movement for years. Of course the major obstacles to realizing it goals of popular support for the women’s movement have been the lack of public platforms and limited resources available to women’s rights activists. These obstacles we assumed would take years to overcome and as such, many of us limited our efforts to raising awareness among the middle class within society. We had hoped that through this strategy we would be able to create multiple connections necessary for expansion of our efforts to other segments of society.

But the Campaign illuminated a new path. The Campaign hoped to be able to slowly attract individuals who had reached a certain level of understanding about the need for legal equality between men and women, and whom did not have a solution for achieving their goals. Through this strategy the Campaign worked to reach different layers of society with its message of equality.

It is important to highlight an important point that acts as guide for the activities of the Campaign. Within the Campaign, no one sets priorities and no one is a leader. As such, activists are free to adopt strategies which work for them. These guiding principles are unique to the Campaign. Other efforts which aimed to reach beyond the Capital city of Tehran into the provinces and into grassroots communities had been stifled because of these same challenges. Recognizing these issues, Campaign founders initiated a discussion with other activists in the provinces and by utilizing participatory strategies sought to move forward with the effort in a collective manner.

Another major factor contributing to the growth of the Campaign is the decision not to identify priorities. In the beginning there was much discussion on which laws to identify as priorities or whether we should pick certain laws to address over others. In the end, the founders of the Campaign decided that identification of priorities and "most important" laws needing reform, by a group of approximately 60 women, living in Tehran, the Capital of Iran, who are all educated and come from middle class backgrounds, would not necessarily be representative of the needs and priorities of all Iranian women. If in fact we believe that the need to change and reform discriminatory laws is broadly felt by Iranian women as whole, then this small group must not take it upon themselves to identify priorities. Instead we should allow those who sign the petition to identify their own priorities. As such, in the petition form we provided the option for each person who signs to identify their own priorities with respect to laws that they felt should be reformed by legislators first.

As such, it was not the demands put forth by the One Million Signatures Campaign that allowed it to grow so broadly, because these demands have been expressed by Iranian women since the Constitutional Revolution in 1906. This time, however, it was the strategies employed by the Campaign that allowed for it to move into new circles and penetrate the grassroots. These include: the different approaches taken toward expressing our demands, or the face-to-face educational strategy; active recruitment of new activists to the Campaign; training provided to new activists joining our effort; and the participatory and horizontal approach to management of the Campaign and implementation of its goals.

By relying on these same strategies, activists are provided an opportunity to introduce the Campaign to women who are struggling on a daily basis with the impact of discriminatory laws on their lives. All public spaces are utilized by activists to reach out to a broader audience, including busses, the streets, universities, prayer meetings and family gatherings and parties. Despite the success of these strategies, we need to keep in mind that still there is a need to address theoretical issues related to the Campaign and the women’s movement. We need to take advantage of the knowledge and expertise of intellectuals and scholars within the women’s movement, with a view toward addressing challenges and shortcomings within the Campaign. The Campaign can thrive only when it relies on the power of the people who struggle for equality, but it must while also rely on the insights of scholars to assist in analyzing its strengths and developing new strategies and approaches designed to achieve goals.

This article was presented in the first public meeting of Campaign activists and then subsequently published in Farsi on Zanestan, the webzine of the Women’s Cultural Center.

Change for Equality:
This is prison; the women’s ward of Evin prison. This is not my first time here; not the first time I’ve come to Evin. The first time, I came here as a journalist. Alongside the warden, I walked from cell to cell to listen to the stories of women who were here on charges of addiction, prostitution and murder. I heard only a few words from each woman, only what the presence of the warden allowed. That day all the inmates spoke highly of prison conditions in front of the officials and said they had no problems but as I was leaving they slipped a crumpled piece of paper in my pocket that read: "Help us! No one thinks about us here.”

The second time I too was a prisoner. Just like everyone else in the ward. While I was in the general ward, thirty other women’s rights activists were in solitary confinement. I was concerned and disoriented, lost between the uncertain fate of my friends and the misery of the inmates I used to write about. That day I was merely a guest who would soon be able to leave.

This time, the third time, however, everything is different. This time because of a $100,000 bail [which I can not afford], I’m just like one of them; one of the hundreds of women shut up inside the high walls of Evin with no-one to help them. The law doesn’t protect them; neither do their families, nor does anyone else in the world. It is exactly here that you can truly understand the meaning of powerlessness: in the eyes of these women who could have been at home with their children right now, if only the law were slightly more just. Women who bear no resemblance to our clichés about woman inmates; some of these women could not cope with the unequal laws and took the law into their own hands and are now considered law-breakers by our legislators.

Some are locked up as a result of a lack of education and poverty that has always plagued women; some others, like Leila, are here because they asked the court for their nafagheh1. It’s hard to believe this; Leila is 47 and for the past twenty years she has been trying to get some financial support from her husband who left her and their two children one of whom was born with Down syndrome. No court has helped her yet. Leila gazes at the floor with eyes filled with tears.

“Less than two years after we married I found out that my husband had another wife before me. When my second child was born with Down syndrome, he left us. I was alone with two young children one of whom was disabled and I had to pay for her medical expenses. My husband has a house, a car, and money. I only wanted enough to pay for these two poor children. But he wouldn’t pay and no court would declare him responsible and make him pay."

When I ask her, “why didn’t you get a divorce?”, she replies “I’m still hopeful that maybe the law will side with me and I can get the financial support for my children.” She says, “I’d be happy with only $10,000 for those 20 years, but he won’t even give us that.” Two days ago in court, Leila’s husband declared that he will not pay for them and attacked and beat Leila and the kids. For disturbing the peace in his courtroom, the judge sent both Leila, who was beaten, and her husband, who had done the beating, to jail; and not just to any jail! The Evin prison! Her husband posted bail that night and was immediately released. But Leila is here with teary eyes and a gaze full of disbelief, waiting so maybe someone will come and post bail and free her…

Every time we talk about lack of women’s rights, they throw mehrieh and nafagheh in our face. We are only too familiar with the sentence “you have all of this, what else do you want?” But Leila and others like Leila neither have a mehrieh2 to live on nor a nafagheh. Leila’s experience tells us if a man so wishes, he can withhold nafagheh and no law or court can make him pay. Mehrieh or nafagheh—which are sometimes impossible to collect—shouldn’t be used as a pretext to neglect undeniable rights like equality in dieh3, inheritance, testimony, divorce, etc.

Leila is one of hundreds of women whose lives are ruined because of the unequal laws and all she is left with is the sight of a metal ceiling and never-ending walls. As I’m writing these words, a few steps away from me a young woman whose body is completely bruised is weeping. It’s more like a scream. She bangs her head against the wall, and shouts. She tries to suffocate herself with a scarf she has tied around her neck. Maybe it is the complete loss of faith in law and justice that has brought her so close to death.

A few nights ago, when I was being threatened with arrest, I thought about what I can do to survive in prison. But now I feel I might run out of time and not be able to speak to all of these women each of whose stories is a clear example of inequality.

1. Nafagheh: The money that a man is obligated to pay his wife and children for their expenses.

2. Mehrieh: The amount of money that the woman is entitled to when entering a marriage contract.

3. Dieh: The amount of money paid as compensation for a physical injury or death. A women’s dieh is half of a man’s.

*Note: This article was written by Maryam Hosseinkhah from Evin Prison. Maryam Hosseinkhah was called to court on November 17 in relation to her activities and writings in defense of equal rights for women. On the 18th, a very high bail order was issued in her case. Because of her inability to post this high bail, an arrest warrant was issued and she was transferred to Evin Prison, Ward 3, which is general ward for non-violent offenders. Read updates about the case of Maryam and others currently in detention for their activities in support of the Campaign, namely Ronak Safarzadeh and Hand Abdi in Kurdistan, in the Campaigners section of this website

Clear Examples of Inequality
Friday 23 November 2007

By: Maryam Hosseinkhah*

Translated by: Roja bandari

This is prison; the women’s ward of Evin prison. This is not my first time here; not the first time I’ve come to Evin. The first time, I came here as a journalist. Alongside the warden, I walked from cell to cell to listen to the stories of women who were here on charges of addiction, prostitution and murder. I heard only a few words from each woman, only what the presence of the warden allowed. That day all the inmates spoke highly of prison conditions in front of the officials and said they had no problems but as I was leaving they slipped a crumpled piece of paper in my pocket that read: "Help us! No one thinks about us here.”

The second time I too was a prisoner. Just like everyone else in the ward. While I was in the general ward, thirty other women’s rights activists were in solitary confinement. I was concerned and disoriented, lost between the uncertain fate of my friends and the misery of the inmates I used to write about. That day I was merely a guest who would soon be able to leave.

This time, the third time, however, everything is different. This time because of a $100,000 bail [which I can not afford], I’m just like one of them; one of the hundreds of women shut up inside the high walls of Evin with no-one to help them. The law doesn’t protect them; neither do their families, nor does anyone else in the world. It is exactly here that you can truly understand the meaning of powerlessness: in the eyes of these women who could have been at home with their children right now, if only the law were slightly more just. Women who bear no resemblance to our clichés about woman inmates; some of these women could not cope with the unequal laws and took the law into their own hands and are now considered law-breakers by our legislators.

Some are locked up as a result of a lack of education and poverty that has always plagued women; some others, like Leila, are here because they asked the court for their nafagheh1. It’s hard to believe this; Leila is 47 and for the past twenty years she has been trying to get some financial support from her husband who left her and their two children one of whom was born with Down syndrome. No court has helped her yet. Leila gazes at the floor with eyes filled with tears.

“Less than two years after we married I found out that my husband had another wife before me. When my second child was born with Down syndrome, he left us. I was alone with two young children one of whom was disabled and I had to pay for her medical expenses. My husband has a house, a car, and money. I only wanted enough to pay for these two poor children. But he wouldn’t pay and no court would declare him responsible and make him pay."

When I ask her, “why didn’t you get a divorce?”, she replies “I’m still hopeful that maybe the law will side with me and I can get the financial support for my children.” She says, “I’d be happy with only $10,000 for those 20 years, but he won’t even give us that.” Two days ago in court, Leila’s husband declared that he will not pay for them and attacked and beat Leila and the kids. For disturbing the peace in his courtroom, the judge sent both Leila, who was beaten, and her husband, who had done the beating, to jail; and not just to any jail! The Evin prison! Her husband posted bail that night and was immediately released. But Leila is here with teary eyes and a gaze full of disbelief, waiting so maybe someone will come and post bail and free her…

Every time we talk about lack of women’s rights, they throw mehrieh and nafagheh in our face. We are only too familiar with the sentence “you have all of this, what else do you want?” But Leila and others like Leila neither have a mehrieh2 to live on nor a nafagheh. Leila’s experience tells us if a man so wishes, he can withhold nafagheh and no law or court can make him pay. Mehrieh or nafagheh—which are sometimes impossible to collect—shouldn’t be used as a pretext to neglect undeniable rights like equality in dieh3, inheritance, testimony, divorce, etc.

Leila is one of hundreds of women whose lives are ruined because of the unequal laws and all she is left with is the sight of a metal ceiling and never-ending walls. As I’m writing these words, a few steps away from me a young woman whose body is completely bruised is weeping. It’s more like a scream. She bangs her head against the wall, and shouts. She tries to suffocate herself with a scarf she has tied around her neck. Maybe it is the complete loss of faith in law and justice that has brought her so close to death.

A few nights ago, when I was being threatened with arrest, I thought about what I can do to survive in prison. But now I feel I might run out of time and not be able to speak to all of these women each of whose stories is a clear example of inequality.

1. Nafagheh: The money that a man is obligated to pay his wife and children for their expenses.

2. Mehrieh: The amount of money that the woman is entitled to when entering a marriage contract.

3. Dieh: The amount of money paid as compensation for a physical injury or death. A women’s dieh is half of a man’s.

*Note: This article was written by Maryam Hosseinkhah from Evin Prison. Maryam Hosseinkhah was called to court on November 17 in relation to her activities and writings in defense of equal rights for women. On the 18th, a very high bail order was issued in her case. Because of her inability to post this high bail, an arrest warrant was issued and she was transferred to Evin Prison, Ward 3, which is general ward for non-violent offenders. Read updates about the case of Maryam and others currently in detention for their activities in support of the Campaign, namely Ronak Safarzadeh and Hand Abdi in Kurdistan, in the Campaigners section of this website

Change for Equality

The TV host speaks of homes which should be filled with happiness and warmth, while I think of my own home from my prison cell. I think of the small home we have built, each brick standing on the principles of equality. I think of the walls, half of which are the color of earth and the other the color of the sky. And I think of my husband, which signed our marriage certificate with a commitment to equality, so that our family is not held together with my sacrifice, rather with our mutual happiness and satisfaction. But it seems that the destiny of some women is doomed from the start.

As a result of some of these laws, some women may be condemned for years to pace up and down the hallways of court houses, so that perhaps they could succeed in divorcing the husband who has their life unbearable, or to acquire the custody of their children. Perhaps on occasion, because of the laws which allow for the marriage of 13 year old girls, women become trapped by undesirable and forced marriages, and as a result resort to crimes such as stealing or prostitution. On occasion poverty and lack of knowledge which befall women more often than men, force them into financial difficulties which leads eventually to prison.

But when they arrested me, they didn’t understand where they were sending me. They didn’t understand that my presence in the midst of these women, will forever deprive me of my peace of mind. They didn’t understand that by bearing witness to the realities of these women’s lives—victims of the law, some of whom I believe deserve a different fate—I would never again be able to dismiss my sense of responsibility when confronted by this heavy burden. They didn’t understand that by seeing these women in Evin, I will be armed with a multitude of examples justifying each of my demands. Here there are endless examples of women who have been forced to sacrifice their youth, their lives, even their families and children. They didn’t understand that in this place I would see women whose fathers had forced them to marry at the age of 14 and 15—women who in the end accepted their lot and came to build a life with a man they did not choose, raised children and even grew to love their husbands, only to eventually witness his infidelity.

So what has resulted from the advantage provided men under the laws? In some cases, women who were forcibly married off at age 14, never having had the opportunity to learn a new skill or to acquire education or to be trained for employment, were forced into prostitution or robbery or addiction or a thousand other crimes. As a result of anger and their own powerlessness some of these women have resorted to murdering their husbands and are now living under fear of imminent execution themselves.

Evin is full of women who have been married off as children and have been forced to turn to a thousand different types of crimes. I wish our laws did not allow for Mina and Zahra and Setareh and Leila to be married off in their teenage years and had allowed them more time to become empowered so that at the difficult impasses in their lives they would not have turned to crime as a means to solve their problems. Perhaps if things were different, 25 year old Mina who is the mother of 2 children aged 11 and 5 years old, would not have given birth to her third child in prison. Or perhaps if the law did not allow teenage girls to be married, Raheleh would not be saying that she was 14 when she was forcibly married and her husband could not have forced her to use drugs along with him. Or Mahsa would not have allowed her husband to force her into a life of crime.

Now I am in the midst of a group of women, whose nightmares will never leave me.

Change for Equality

Change for Equality: The One Million Signature Campaign was launched a year and a half ago. During this time, thanks to the efforts of campaigners for equal rights in Tehran, the provinces, and abroad, the Campaign has spread its activities even outside of Iran. These relentless efforts continue despite official persecution and prosecution of campaigners including interrogations, detentions, and prison terms. At every encounter, Campaign members pull out their literature to discuss the impact of laws on women’s lives and ask ordinary people to sign the Campaign’s petition against discriminatory laws. Their goal is to use the public and urban space, a space that belongs to women, too, for initiating dialogues with the general public, men and women, and to gather their signatures.

The cost of pushing this social movement forward has been the issuance of temporary detention warrants for 43 Campaign activists (ranging from one day to five months), and the issuance of suspended prison sentences ( a total of 18 months). Acts of harassment and persecution happen during signature collection in public, following educational workshops, after small or large gatherings in Tehran and the provinces, and sometimes due to dissemination of news about the Campaign through its website. Here are the details of such instances:

December 15, 2006: First Detention— Collecting Signatures inside the Metro; Zeinab Peyghambarzadeh

The Campaign’s first meeting, marking its four month anniversary, was held in a member’s garage at their private house. Present at the meeting were activists involved with the Campaign. We hadn’t reached our homes yet when the news of Zeinab Peyghambarzadeh’s detention arrived. She had been discussing the campaign and discriminatory laws with people on the metro, asking them to sign up, when she was detained.

After 5 days of detention at Gisha and Vozara detention centers, she was charged with “acting against national security.” After being interrogated at Branch 14 of the Revolutionary Court, she was released on December 19.

January 10, 2007: Collecting Signatures inside the Metro; Nasim Sarabandi and Fatemeh Dehdashti

Less than a month later, Nasim Sarabandi and Fatemeh Dehdashti were arrested while collecting signatures inside the metro, because of their reliance on peaceful methods for seeking their legal rights. Nasim and Fatemeh were held in Gisha detention center for one day before being released. As they had committed no criminal offense, it appeared their judicial case would be closed. However, these two female students received a summons in April 2007, demonstrating a change of course in the judicial inquiry.

Nasim and Fatemeh, both studying at Tehran University, said: “We were first called by the University security office (Herasat) who informed us of a summons by the Security Police. On April 18, 2007, we went to the branch of Security Police in Eshrat-Abad. We were interrogated again and from there they transferred us to the Security Branch of the Revolutionary Court, where we were interrogated yet again. There, the authorities charged us with “acting against national security through propaganda against the state.” In our defense, we rejected these accusations.”

After posting bail, Fatemeh Dahdashti and Nasim Sarabandi were released. Their trial took place on August 12, 2007. The judge sentenced them to six- month suspended prison sentences, for a period of two years.

April 2, 2007: Collecting Signatures in Laleh Park; Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh and Nahid Keshavarz

The last day of the New Year Celebrations (Sizdah-be dar) saw the detention of five campaign activists on April 2, 2007. At first it appeared like an April Fool’s Day joke, since there were many people at Laleh Park, spreading their lunch picnics, which is not deemed illegal under any laws. Inviting people to sign a petition asking for reform of discriminatory laws, addressed to the Parliament, is not a crime under the law.

Regardless of these facts, the authorities arrested five campaigners: Saeedeh Amin, Sara Imanian, Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh, Nahid Keshavarz, and Homayoun Nami . Security forces turned over the detainees to the office of Amaken (in charge of monitoring immoral behavior in public places) at Niloufar Square. After spending hours being questioned there, the detainees were transferred to the Vozara detention center where they spent the night.

The next day, three of the deatinees (Sara Imanian, Saeedeh Amin, and Homayoun Nami) were freed on their personal guarantees. Nahid Keshavarz and Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh were transferred to Evin prison. Their transfer to Evin took place even though during their appearance in the Revolutionary Court they were told that they would be freed after posting bail.

Many lawyers told the Change for Equality website, that: “No laws in the Islamic Republic of Iran and its penal code consider collection of signatures to be a crime. These women have not committed any crimes under the law.” Nonetheless, Mahboubeh and Nahid remained under detention for 13 days. They were eventually released on April 15, with a third party guarantee in the amount of 20 million tomans (US $22,222), paid only if they flee. Before leaving Evin prison, the authorities told them they were charged with “acting against national security through propaganda against the Order.”

June 10, 2007: Collecting Signatures; Ehteram Shadfar (62 years old, a mother and a campaigner) and her neighbor

Two days before the anniversary of a public protest (June 12, 2006) by women’s rights activists, two other campaigners were detained. This time the harsh harassment targeted not young women campaigners, but their mothers.

The doorbell of Zeinab Ehteram Shadfar’s house rang at one o’clock p.m. on the afternoon of June 10, 2007. One of her neighbors, who is also active in the Campaign, asked Ehteram to answer the door. The neighbor, 50 years old, had earlier been detained for a short time while collecting signatures. The security forces took her campaign literature and sign-up sheets.

The agents at the door detained Ehteram and the neighbor without producing a warrant. When their families protested and expressed concern, the agents told them: “The assistant to the public prosecutor has ordered us to take them for some explanation and they will return in a few hours. Don’t worry and do not come looking for them, they will return on their own.”

The families subsequently found out that the detainees were first taken to the Police Station (Amaken office) at Niloufar Square where a detention order for 24 hours was issued for them. Subsequently they were transferred to the Vozara detention center. At the security branch of the Revolutionary Court, Ehteram and her neighbor were released with their own personal guarantees. The neighbor’s judicial case was declared closed, but eight months later, on February 19, 2007, Ehteram was sentenced to six months suspended prison sentence for the period of two years.

July 11, 2007: Male campaigner for equality jailed; Amir Yaghoob-ali

The Campaign is still going on, accumulating valuable experiences. New members are joining every day. The number of signatures is increasing and thus, detentions continue.

The authorities have announced that collecting signatures is the reason for detentions, but the trend of detentions is not always the same. After detaining mothers belonging to the campaign, it is now the turn of male campaigners for equal rights to face harassment.

Amir Yaghoobali, a male campaigner, was detained in Tehran’s Andisheh Park while collecting signatures. He was transferred to solitary confinement in Evin prison’s ward 209. When Amir’s mother asked the judge what the charges against her son were, the judge told her: “Amir is a man. Why is he involved in women’s issues? He should pay attention to his studies.”

Amir’s detention became lengthy and the judicial authorities did not provide details about his case. Members of the Mothers’ Committee of the Campaign wrote a letter to the respected head of the Judiciary branch, protesting Amir’s detention as well as Bahareh Hedayat’s detention (Bahareh, a university student and campaigner, had at this time been detained in relation to her student-related activism). The mothers demanded proper judicial processes in these cases. A group of mothers delivered the letter to the office of the Judiciary head on July 25. After 28 days of solitary confinement, Amir was released upon posting bail in the amount of 20 million Toman (US$22,222) on August 8.

September 14, 2007: Detention of 25 participants during an educational workshop in Khorramabad

There has been a diversity of campaigners detained. This diversity also applies to methods and situations of detention. Police attacked an educational workshop arranged by the Campaign in the private home of a volunteer in the city of Khorramabad. The police beat and detained the 25 participants.

Only a few minutes into the start of the workshop, 10 armed policemen, both uniformed and in plain-clothes, accompanied by three female police officers, broke into the house violently. From the moment of their entrance, they attacked the host, severely beating him with their gun barrels and kicking him.

The police officers searched the house, insulted the participants, confiscated personal items, and detained all the participants. The men were taken out of the house in handcuffs; the women screamed in protest, refusing to be handcuffed. Upon being taken outside, the participants to their amazement encountered a crowd who had gathered to watch their arrest. The police had told the crowd that the participants were arrested for participating in a gathering which promoted debauchery!!

Twenty local participants, along with the five campaigners from Tehran, (Nafiseh Azad, Zara Amjadian, Jelveh Javaheri, Mansoureh Shojaii, and Nazli Farrakhi) who conducted the workshop, were released after a period of twelve hours, along with most other participants. Reza Dowlatshah, Bahman Azadi, and Khosrow Nasimpour, three local social activists from Khorramabad, however, were held for three days. They were released on the evening of September 16.

October 9, 2007: Detentions reach Kurdistan Province; Ronak Safazadeh

Security forces detained Ronak Safazadeh, a women’s rights activist in Sanandaj, at her home. According to her family, Ronak, along with her friend Hana Abdi, participated in a celebration on the occasion of Children’s Day for children at Horaz Institute in Sanandaj. They had made 500 copies of the Campaign’s literature, to collect signatures during the celebration. As they engaged in signature collection, a security agent took the sign-up sheet away from Ronak. The next morning security forces went to Ronak’s and Hana’s homes at 7 o’clock in the morning. They couldn’t find Hana, but detained Ronak as she was walking to work. Then they entered her house, searching it, confiscating some of Ronak’s personal belongings.

According to Ronak’s family, she was transferred to the local branch of the Intelligence ministry in Sanandaj and agents took Campaign petitions as well as 5000 copies of the Campaign’s educational literature from Ronak’s house. After 18 days of no news on her case, the authorities told Ronak’s family that a one month temporary detention order had been issued for Ronak.

More than four months have passed since Ronak’s detention. Reportedly, she is now in the public ward of Sanandaj prison. Ronak, 21 years old, is a graphic artist, active in local women’s organizations, and a member of the Azarmehr Women’s Association in Kurdistan.

November 4, 2007: Detentions continue in Kurdistan Province; Hana Abdi

A month after of Ronak’s detention, Hana Abdi, another women’s right activist, was detained on November 4, 2007. Hana had been collecting signatures together with Ronak on October 8. According to her family, intelligence agents detained Hana at her grandfather’s home in Sanandaj. After detaining her, the agents went to her house, confiscating her computer and Campaign literature.

Hana is 21 years old and studies psychology at Payam Noor University in Birjand. She has been active collecting signatures for the Campaign. On February 11, Ronak and Hana met with their lawyer, Mohammad Sharif. While their judicial cases are in the investigation phase, persons close to intelligence circles—not judicial officials— accused these two women of crimes relating to national security. Their families insist their daughters were detained in connection with their work collecting signatures for the Campaign.

After much effort, their lawyer, Mohammad Sharif, finally was able to meet with them. Sharif is concerned about heavy sentences that may be issued based on confessions obtained from his clients while in detention and against the law. He said: “Unfortunately these two young women were interrogated while being held in solitary confinement using illegal methods and accused of very serious charges. According to the law, in my opinion these confessions are not valid and cannot be used in the court as credible evidence. Thus my first act was to request from the judge that their temporary detention orders be converted to bail orders. I hope the court will agree with this request, and will release them soon, while they await a trial. After their release, a trial according to legal standards must be held.”

November 18, 2007: An Internet blogger and journalist is detained; Maryam Hosseinkhah

Until this date, the authorities justified all the detentions as a response to signature collection by campaigners. Maryam Hosseinkhah’s detention broke this trend.

She received a summons to appear at the security branch of the Revolutionary Court on November 15, 2004. During her interrogation sessions on November 17, she was charged with acting against national security, publication of lies, and disturbing public opinion by writing for the Campaign’s website (Change for Equality) and the Zanestan website (belonging to the Women’s Cultural Center). She returned the next day for more interrogations but a bail was set in the amount of 100 million tomans (US $ 111,000), which her family could not afford. She was transferred to Evin prison’s general ward on November 18.

She was in detention for 45 days as her family made it clear they could not afford such heavily bail. She was eventually released when her bail amount was reduced to a bank guarantee in the amount of 5 million toman (US$5,555).

December 1, 2007: detention of another blogger and campaigner; Jelveh Javaheri

Two weeks after Mayam Hosseinkhah was detained due t o her writings for the Campaign’s website, another campaigner and writer for the site was detained. She was summoned to the security branch number one of the Revolutionary Court. After interrogations, she was charged with “disturbing public opinion, propaganda against the state, publication of lies for writing for the site of the Campaign (Change for Equality).” Her bail was set at 50 million toman (US$ 55,555), which her family was unable to post. After 30 days in prison, she was eventually released when her bail amount was reduced to a bank guarantee in the amount of 5 million toman (US$5,555).

February 14, 2008: Another two detentions for collecting signatures; Raheleh Asgarizadeh and Nasim Khosravi

A street play about polygamy was scheduled for February 14 during the international Fajr film festival. A number of Campaign activists, intending to prepare a report, went to Daneshjoo park, where the play was to be performed. After the play ended they engaged the audience on the issue of polygamy, asking them to sign the Campaign’s petition. Security forces detained two of the activists, Raheleh Asgarizadeh and Nasim Khosravi. They are charged with “propaganda against the state.”

The security forces first took the detainees to the local police station branch 129 (Jami), then to the Security Police No. 8 where they were interrogated. They were subsequently transferred to Vozara detention center, where they spent 2 nights in detention.

On February 16, the Revolutionary Court set a bail in the amount of 20 million tomans (US$22,222) for these two young women’s rights activists. Not being able to meet such heavy bail, they were transferred to Evin prison’s public ward where they remain as of this writing.

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The majority of the activists detained for collecting signatures have been charged with “acting against national security.” Farideh Gheirat, a member of the National Lawyers Association, believes collecting signatures for a petition asking for changes to discriminatory laws is not an offense consistent with the charge of “acting against national security” and has no bearing on such a crime.

According to her, the entire Campaign and its goals cannot be considered a criminal act. The Campaign’s goals are clear as elaborated in its petition. Anyone familiar with the law can note that the Campaign’s goal is to address legal gender discrimination. This is the sole purpose of the Campaign, not changing the political system or actions that can be considered as security threats.

We asked Shirin Ebadi, who represents many of the detained Campaigners, what should be done when campaigners collecting signatures are accused of endangering national security. Shall we be resigned to the fact that such civil and legal action, the peaceful collection of signatures, is considered illegal? “Anyone who would reason that collecting signatures endangers national security is indeed insulting the Islamic Republic’s system, because he is declaring the Islamic Republic so weak that its security is endangered by collecting signatures. In my opinion people who bring such charges and issue sentences and promote this line of reasoning, are they themselves guilty of disruption of public opinion. Because through such actions they are telling the people that there is no security in the country and the level of security is so low that collecting signatures [for a petition aimed at the legislator] would endanger it. Therefore such judicial sentences are in themselves an act of which qualifies as disruption of public opinion.”

Other cases of illegal harassment in Tehran and the Provinces Interrogation and detention of campaigners based on a variety of excuses is another form of harassment that members of the Campaign have endured. In addition to continuous summons to court and interrogation issued for Campaign members, threats intent on forcing Campaign activists to cancel meetings which they hold in their private residences, and security forces preventing members entering campaign meetings are some of the examples of obstacles faced by this social and civil movement that pursues its goals the most peaceful of means. In Tehran, the security police has summoned and interrogated Nafiseh Azad, Parastoo Allahyari, Najmeh Zare, Behnaz Shekaryar, Nasrin Farhoumand, and Khadijeh Moghadam for holding meetings at their private homes, or attending meetings of the Campaign.

Shirin Ebadi considers these actions extra-judicial and says: “Unfortunately, a novel method of violating human rights recently has become common. As such the extent of social freedoms as guaranteed by the constitution is becoming more and more limited each day. These limitations on social freedoms are a sign of disregard for the constitution.”

According to reports from the provinces, campaign members have also been interrogated in other cities, including in Isfahan, Shiraz, Kermanshah, Anzali, Rasht, and Hamedan.

In conclusion, according to the available information, 43 members of the campaign have been detained, 15 of whom were arrested while collecting signatures. Other detentions relate to the campaign-related activities. The charges brought against all detainees are acting against national security and propaganda against the State. Additionally, six campaign members have been summoned and interrogated.