Statement by Iranian Women for International Women’s Day

The Feminist School /

Official statement by a group of Iranian women’s rights activists who participated in a Green gathering commemorating March 8th. The Feminist School - On the afternoon of March 7, 2010, a ceremony celebrating International Women’s Day took place in Tehran. Participants included Zahra Rahnavard, Minoo Mortazi, Shahla Lahiji, Fatemeh Rakei, Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, Mansoureh Shojaee, Farzaneh Taheri, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Farideh Mashini, Fatemeh Gavarayi, Shahla Foroozanfar, Parastou Sarmadi, Marzieh Azarafsa and a number of other women’s rights activists and families of prisoners. Every year in anticipation of International Women’s Day, there is a particularly refreshing feeling in the air. Several days before the celebration and a few days after, women’s groups and associations in Iran begin meeting, making decisions, and planning for events. The hustle and bustle associated with preparing for this day is a testament to the constant and ever lasting presence of women, regardless of the conditions; particularly when the conditions have been difficult and under pressure. Proof of this dynamic presence is the commemoration of International Women’s Day under the very difficult and critical conditions of the past four years. This year once again, despite the many pressures and constraints imposed, a number of programs and ceremonies were held both openly and behind closed doors by verious groups. One such ceremony and conference was “The Green gathering of women’s rights activists in Iran.”

The commemoration of International Women’s Day by influential female members of the Green movement was a spark of hope for all women’s rights activists who look to the Green movement for defending their identity and rights. Due to the current restrictions, the ceremony took place with the presence of only a limited number of women’s rights activists and families of those imprisoned during recent events. The groups that were present include Mothers for Peace, The Forward Thinking Religious Women’s Organization, The Women’s Participation Front, a number of members of the Committee Against Violence Toward Women, members of The Feminist School, The Association of Iranian Women, The National and Religious Women’s Association, The Committee of Women Supporting Female Prisoners, and a number of prominent female lawyers. Those present discussed the importance of collaboration between women with different political and intellectual view points within the women’s movement and the reciprocity between the women’s movement and the Green movement; emphasizing the continued support by both movements for the demands and concerns of women in Iran, particularly the importance of freedom of expression in honour of International Women’s Day. (Read more...)

We Will Stand by the People

Rooz Online English /

In a gathering to mark the International Women’s Day, Iranian women’s rights activists called for the “eradication of discrimination against women in all laws, the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, equal opportunities in politics and management, release of political and ideological prisoners and freedom of peaceful action for women.” They announced, “We will stand by the people and green movement activists while continuing the struggle for the achievement of our independent rights and demands. We will not stop until their full achievement because we are countless.” According to Rooz reporters, the gathering to mark the International Women’s Day was held despite the extreme amounts of pressure and intimidation imposed by the government, at Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s office. Zahra Rahnavard and many women’s rights activists attended the gathering, as many others have been arrested or forced to leave Iran since the June 12 election coup. In previous years also similar gatherings on the International Women’s Day were either prevented or turned violent because of police interference. In 1385 (2007), plain-clothes and special unit forces engaged in violent clashes with the women, dispersing them from the Baharestan square and arresting several activists. In 1382 (2004) the gathering ended before it began as plain-clothes agents surrendered the Laleh park, where the gathering was scheduled to be held, and beat the participants with batons.

Yesterday’s gathering was held while Simin Behbahani, who was scheduled to fly to Paris on an invitation from the Paris city government, was barred by security agents from leaving the country. The feminism school website quoted Simin Behbahani, “I was invited by the Paris city government for March 8, and I had prepared a text on feminism and a poem about women to read at the event and planned to return on Wednesday. Because of my old age and health issues I repeatedly thought about not going, but decided to participate in the event with my poem and text on feminism because of the kindness and persistence of inviters and my love and dedication for my country’s women and respect for this important day. After I passed through the customs gate and received the exit stamp on my passport, two agents called me, confiscated my passport and interrogated me until 5 am with a series of why and how questions, and then gave me a piece of paper asking me to go to the Revolutionary Court to get my passport back.” As such, Simin Behbahani joined the growing group of female civil society activists who have been barred from exiting the country throughout the past four years. Among them are Nasrin Sotoudeh, Mansoureh Shojaie, Narges Mohammadi, Talat Taghinia and Badrossadat Mofidi.

Iran's Women of War

The New York Review of Books (NYRblog)

Haleh Esfandiari - It is entirely appropriate that two women have become the iconic symbols of Iran's protest movement. Thanks to cell phones and the Internet, millions of people around the world saw footage of the blood-soaked face of the young Neda Agha Soltan, as she lay dying on a Tehran street, shot by security forces during a peaceful demonstration. But even before last June's rigged presidential election, Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi, had gained international renown as the first woman in Iranian history to campaign alongside her husband—making speeches of her own and taking a strong stand on controversial social issues. Ms. Rahnavard has caused a stir, but also set an example. An author and educator in her own right, she was the first female chancellor of any Iranian university—she directed Alzahra University in Tehran from 1998 until 2006—and has served as a political advisor to former president Mohammed Khatami. During the campaign, she was outspoken in calling for reform and also courageously endorsed the demands of the One Million Signatures campaign, a women’s rights movement whose leaders have been attacked and arrested by the Iranian authorities. Following her example, the wives of the other candidates began to appear on the campaign trail as well. Women were active in the campaigns of the two leading opposition presidential candidates; and when hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets after Ahmadinejad was, improbably, declared the winner, women marched alongside the men, braving assaults and intimidation from the riot police, paramilitary forces, and knife-, club- and chain-wielding goons the government sent after the demonstrators. As an activist friend wryly told me, “They treated us equally.

They beat, clubbed and arrested us just like the men.” (In a sign of the growing weight of the women’s vote, President Ahmadenijad—his legitimacy in serious doubt—sought to mollify this constituency by nominating three women to his cabinet, though parliament confirmed only one of them.) Women have in fact been at the forefront of resistance to an intrusive state ever since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. In the early years of the revolution, they resisted the new regime’s attempt to force them out of the workplace and universities. They found subtle ways—such as showing a bit of hair and wearing shorter robes in pastel colors—of challenging the restrictive dress code the government imposed on them in the name of Islam. They refused to stay segregated, whether in the university classroom or in taxis. Today, more women than men win admission to universities in competitive state-wide examinations, and this trend has so alarmed some members of parliament in recent years that there has been talk of legislation to impose quotas: affirmative action in the interest of men! In the mid-1990s, women flocked to support the reform-minded administration of President Mohammad Khatami, accounting for, in part, the large majorities by which he won his two terms in office. With the One Million Signatures campaign, launched in 2006 and aimed at collecting a million signatures for a petition protesting discriminatory legislation against women, the women’s movement entered a new phase, implicitly calling for a revision of laws rooted in the basic principles of Islam. Arrest, trial, heavy fines, and imprisonment have not deterred the leaders of this campaign, who come mostly from the broad middle class and have gone to small towns and villages as well as the large cities to collect signatures. (Read more...)

A Beautiful Angel in a Dark Prison / Azadeh Pourzand

The Feminist School

Azadeh Pourzand’s weblog:I go to sleep determined to dream about Mansoureh Shojaei. I resist all the nightmares of her in Evin Prison. Instead, I try to remember her beautiful smile… Growing up, I did not really know her. But as I was reaching those tough teenage years, she somehow magically appeared in my life just in time to remind me of the excitement of adventures and of being courageous. I vividly remember the first time I met her. She was sitting in our apartment’s lounge when I walked in, looked at my mother and shyly said hello to our guest. “Hello, welcome!” I said. I was a moody teenager and was really not interested in meeting my parents’ guests. This time, I simply wanted some pocket money from my mother to go out which is why I walked into the lounge to say hello and ask for money. Mansoureh looked at me kindly. She looked like a nice lady, but I really just wanted to get the money, get a cab and go to Tootfarangi(Strawberry); a café in Tehran that was trendy for its time.

Mansoureh looked at me and said, “Do you want a new friend or are you too busy with your own friends?” I gave her an annoyed—but polite—look and said, “sure!” Without any pause, she said, “Well, then, let’s hang out next weekend. Thoughts?” She was speaking with me like an adult and I liked her tone. She was probably the first family friend who did not pull my cheeks hard and who did not obnoxiously ask me, “What is your favorite subject in school?”. I responded to her invitation positively and she promised to pick me up on Friday to take me hiking. Mansoureh became more than my friend. She became the aunt and an older friend that I never had. Her small family became almost like my own family. Mansoureh once criticized me for being a bit too spoiled or cautious and told me, “Go for whatever there is that you want, girl! Even if there is a huge wall on your way, get on the road and think about the wall when you hit it. The wall will have to surrender. It might get your head broken at first. But who cares? You will somehow go beyond that wall.” She used to make fun of Bamdad, her son, and I for being lazy and slow in hiking. She would say, “when I was your age…” As soon as she would say this, Bamdad and I would pretend that we were not tired and start walking faster. (Read more...)

Urgent Appeal to Prevent Further Human Rights Abuses in Iran

The Feminist School

Human rights organisations are calling on governments across the globe to demand an immediate end to the flagrant violations of human rights being perpetrated by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Following demonstrations on the 27th December 2009 over 2,000 people have been arrested by the Iranian authorities. Those arrested were engaged in legitimate protest to the regime’s failure to acknowledge the defeat of Ahmadinejad, its preferred candidate, in the 12th June 2009 presidential election in Iran. However, as a consequence of exercising the freedom to assemble and protest, many people are being subject to the most inhumane treatment, with the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) contemplating the implementation of even more draconian measures to silence those opposed to the present government. CODIR (Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights) has learned that in recent days:- A bill drafted with the support of 36 conservative and ultra reactionary members of parliament is calling for the reduction of the period between someone being sentenced to death for political opposition and his or her execution, from 20 to just 5 days. The architect of the bill is Ruhullah Husseinian, a conservative clerical leader who has a history of opposition to the followers of reform in the country. Prisoners are being kept in harsh and inhumane conditions. They are denied blankets and proper clothes in the middle of a bitter winter. Shiva Nazar Ahari, a human rights activist and blogger, who was arrested on her way to attend the funeral of Ayatollah Montazeri in Qom, is denied blankets and has been restricted in her access to toilet facilities.

Since the 27th December demonstrations in Iran a large number of women activists have been arrested and arrests continue. They include Mansoureh Shojaei, Zohre Tonekaboni, Badrulsadat Mofidi, Mahin Fahimi, Leyla Tavassoli, Noushin Ebadi (sister of Shireen Ebadi), Nasrin Vaziri, Niloofar Hashemi Azar, Atieh Yousefi, Bahareh Hedayat, Nafiseh Asghari, Maryam Zeya, Mahsa Hekmat, Parisa Kakaei, Forough Mirzaei and Sara Tavauli. Women activists who were arrested at the protest demonstration on 27th December, including Azar Mansouri, Sommayyeh Rashidi, Zahra Jabbari, Kobra Zaghe Doust and Mehdieh Golrou, are still in prison. Reports indicate they are being treated with indescribable violence. There are persistent calls from the religious leaders aligned with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad for opponents of the regime and participants in the anti government demonstrations to be hanged. According to reports received from Iran on 3rd January 2010, a number of followers of the Bahai’ faith were arrested and incarcerated in the notorious Evin prison in North West Tehran. Amongst them is Zhinoos Sobhani, a well known human rights activist. Baha’is have been harassed and persecuted across Iran. This represents a worsening of repression of the already persecuted Baha’I faith. In the 1980s Bahai leaders and followers were arrested and many executed and adherents are still not allowed to work in public services and as civil servants. In response to the above new evidence of an increase in human rights abuses Jamshid Ahmadi, Assistant General Secretary of CODIR, expressed concern that the regime is trying to start a new wave of terror in order to regain control and force the protesters from the street. (Read more...)

Widespread Arrests of Women’s Rights Activists & Journalists

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

Numerous women’s rights campaigners, female journalists and relatives are being arrested and persecuted as authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran attempt to repress masses of Iranians from advocating for their civil rights in recent weeks, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. “It is evident that the authorities are singling out women’s rights activists and arbitrarily arresting them, as well as female journalists, in the context of recent public demonstrations,” stated Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign. Dr. Nooshin Ebadi, the sister of Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, was arbitrarily arrested on 28 December. Nooshin Ebadi has no record of political or human rights activism and her arrest is a blatant attempt to intimidate and silence Shirin Ebadi. “The arrest of Shirin Ebadi’s sister is an act of hostage-taking by the state and should be strongly condemned by the international community,” Rhodes said. Some activists have been threatened with execution, while others have disappeared, with no official record of their arrest or whereabouts provided. Atieh Yousefi, one of the most active members of the One Million Signatures Campaignin the city of Rasht, was arrested on the Shiite Holy day of Ashura (27 December). According to information provided to the Campaign, Yousefi was arrested while trying to assist a young man who had been severely injured by plain clothed agents who had beaten him. Still in detention, a judge has denied her family permission to visit her. On 2 January 2010, Parisa Kakaie, a member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, who had been summoned to the Intelligence Ministry and threatened in telephone calls, was arrested when she appeared at the Intelligence Office.

On 3 January, Kakaie called her home and said that she was in ward 209 of Evin prison. Previously, Kakaie was summoned to Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Court, along with other women’s rights activists, and was questioned at the Investigation Office of the Intelligence Ministry. Bahareh Hedayat, a women’s rights advocate and a leading student activist, was arrested on 30 December 2009, by intelligence agents who presented a written order to detain her. Her home was searched and many of her personal belongings, including her computer and books, were confiscated. Zohre Tonkaboni, 62, a former teacher and member of Mothers for Peace, was arrested on 28 December. Mahin Fahimi, another member of Mothers for Peace, was arrested on 8 December 2009, along with her son, Omid Montazeri. Fahimi’s husband was executed in 1988 while he was a political prisoner. On 20 December 2009, Shiva Nazarahari, a leading member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, was arrested on a bus en route to Qom for Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s funeral, when the bus was stopped by Security Forces in Enqelab Square in Tehran. Nazarahari went on a dry hunger strike after she was arrested, and was transferred to the health clinic of Evin prison’s ward 209 on 1 January, where she was warned that she would be executed if she continued her hunger strike. Previously, on 14 June 2009, Nazarahari had been arrested at her office but was released after 100 days on bail of $200,000, and is waiting for her trial. Before these detentions, she had been arrested in August 2004, in a gathering of political prisoners’ families in front of the UN building, and was sentenced to a one-year suspended prison term. (Read more...)

Iranian Women’s News in the Past Weeks

Feminist School

A women’s rights activist and a member of campaign for one million signatures, in Isfahan was arrested from her home. Her lawyer confirms that: Mehrnoush Etemadi was arrested illegally and without a summons or arrest warrant. There is no clear information as to what she is charged with, but according to the intelligence officials, her activities for the campaign is the reason of her arrest and it has to be noted that her personal belongings were confiscated by the officials. An activist, who had been arrested on November 4th in Isfahan, was released on bail by the amount of $50,000 after being arrest for 3 weeks, his physical and mental situation are described as well. November 17th- Neda Eskandari , studing political science and Khadijeh Ghahramani , studying agriculture who had gone to the disciplinary committee to follow up on their charges, they were arrested by intelligence officials and were both band from attending two semesters and also from using any of the facilities or services. It has to be noted strongly about the cooperation of Shiraz University and intelligence services. There is no information about their situation or their whereabouts. Some more students from Shiraz University were summoned or arrested on November 4th demonstration. Shabnam the imprisoned students for the last 20 days has been having palpitations and her mental health is a cause for concern. She is very young and according to her family, she has no record of such illnesses. Shabnam has been to the prison hospital a few times and she has been told that their X-ray machine for angiogram is faulty.

One of the women prison wardens known as Ghafari has told Shabnam: We did not bring you here to save you; we brought you here to torture you to death! The reports from prisons states that, since women political prisoners have been moved to the general ward all of them have been having heart problems or cases such Mahsa Naderi who has began to have migraines. Most women prisoners have been banned from having visitors in comparison to the normal and dangerous prisoners have weekly visits. Mahdiyeh Minavi , Ashkan Mojallali and Iman Mirabzadeh were released. Ashkan Mojallali , member of youth’s branch of participation front and Mahdiyeh Minavi , member of women’s branch of Participation front and Iman Mirabzadeh were released. They were all arrested in the Komeil praying ceremony. Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh two Christian prisoners were released on 18th of November, after being in prison for 259 days. The two women were arrested in their home on March 6th 2009 and then transferred to Evin prison. Their court case was held on August 9th while the public prosecutor recommended the charge of "apostate" in the court session the judge asked them to deny their beliefs in writing and verbally. Sima Didar, and her husband Alireza Farshi were sentenced at the branch no. 3 of Tabriz revolutionary court in Tabriz, to one year of imprisonment, the court accused them of propaganda against the state by shouting slogans in the demonstrations which happened on May 22nd and sending news to websites. Alireza Farshi, university professor and a civil activist in Azerbaijan, was arrested during a demonstration in Tabriz with his wife protesting for the right to practice Azeri language. (Read more...)

Green Movement and the Myth of Shame of the Middle Class

Feminist School

A new movement called the “Green Movement” has recently been born in our country. This newborn movement has its own specific demands, its known representatives and ideological leadership, and a vast and specific network of executive forces and activists. It also has certain technological and digital capabilities and its specific mechanisms to connect its members and mobilize them. Considering the creativity and potential of this civil movement in creating “composite characters”, and since its demands are “more general” than other movements such as the women’s, students’, labour and teachers movement, and ethnic minorities, it certainly has the capacity to mobilize a more general public. Because the civil demands of this movement revolve around the direct relationship between the citizens and the government, in the long run it has this weakness (or potential) to turn violent as a result of injecting or changing its body with revolutionary “objectives”. Although the reality of its structure and nature of its demands, and in particular its anti violence stance taken by its activists, show that this movement, like women’s movement, is a reform movement because it pursues the “civil demands” of broad sections of the population (different layers of the middle class) to have the right to participate in deciding on the ruling administration within the frame work of lawful and civil struggles.

This movement took shape by publicizing these demands through the use of peaceful methods and imposing its demands on the government. Therefore, the foundation of this movement and its components make it one of the reform movements, just like the women’s movement. However, this movement is under threat from two sides; first, it is threatened by radical and extremist groups (right wing extremists) within the ruling circle that are trying to instigate more violence and shut down all breathing windows – by claiming the theory of velvet revolution – and push the Green Movement towards a “revolutionary/overthrowing attitude” which would provide the perfect ammunition for a “total and historical elimination” of the reform movement in the country. The second threat or danger is from another group who would like to impose revolutionary manners on the Green Movement. This group lies outside the ruling circle and incidentally is part of the opposition. The conscious part of this opposition group is a force that, despite the failure of radical revolutions and the costly and violent consequences of the governments that came to power through revolution, still believes that “radical revolution” holds the key to solving the problems in Iran and the entire world. Certainly my remarks are not aimed at this group who is conscious of its objectives. (Read more...) ...by Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani.

A Humble Request for All Iranian Women

Feminist School

The women in our country are again witnessing crisis at a large scale. It is the women that are at the end of the limitless violence of recent times, directly or indirectly, through witnessing violence against their loved ones. Our society is witnessing the large scope of raw violence, as large as Iran, violence that has its roots in our socio political and cultural relationship. We have to admit that this violence did not appear over night, it has been an ongoing process for years that has been responded by silence. At this juncture the whole society is questioning and is presenting a challenge, by asking, why and what is the cause and justification for such violence to be received by our boys and girls, why they have lost their lives or are imprisoned? It is claimed that “the second generation of Iranian immigrants” more than any other time will be proud of its nation and nationality and will keep their heads high in front of other nations but us women know very well, that with recent violence, no one can be proud, because this violence did not come from outer space but it came from within our society. The women of our country ask in amazement on the causes of such raw and violent reaction, as to where it fits within our countries history that has been known for its humane interactions. Without a doubt that such a tragedy will lay on the door step of those responsible but are we, the people, without any faults? Is it partly because of our silence against such violence and inhumane reactions? We are a nation that in the past have remained passive against violence, are we not the nation that in the past have justified by silence to any kind of power struggle or conflict or war by calling them (war of civilizations, war of ancestors, and war of ideologies). We are a nation that have been against our enemies or competitors (foreigners, governments and opposition) to the extent of physical elimination and have used hierarchy as the means to justify our aims and have disguised it under our own ideology or our own specific way of doing things or our tradition?

We are a nation, when, violence against our own in our houses was covered by keeping it in the family, must have known that one day all these will happen in the streets and we should not have kept quiet then, we should have known that the hierarchy which considers itself the owner of the country and our children will with ease turn violent against its citizens and will consider it lawful. We are the nation that aimed to end injustice of any kind by the revolution, and with our passivity, if not guilty but an accessory to what goes on. But we women of this country all these years have, either as a mother, a daughter or a sister or a wife, have felt and experienced the violence, are also sensing and feeling the grave disaster that might be on the its way, that would leave its deep scares on the generations to come. Hence as a result we believe that the violence in its vulgar form, physical and verbal violence should be discussed and examined, and have a political position against, hence because of this we have decided to be the voice to air against violence in its purest form, we have learned from our sisters in the world, a society that learns and stops violence against women, no doubt will rein on different form of violence. It is clear and obvious that the first step is to unite for the release all prisoners that have recently been imprisoned, so we must form the women’s coalition that will come out strongly against violence. Perhaps this “Women’s Power” can guide and create that forum to assist in the reparation of our society. The recent incidents proved to us that how much peaceful protest has a place, for this great and lawful nation to demand its rights and be treated with such violence, it is outside the remits of the law’s of behavior.

Women Who Fight for Freedom

guardian.co.uk

When I first read Anna Politkovskaya, I was almost startled by her no-nonsense prose, her preoccupation with facts, whether they were about Russia's crimes in Chechnya or Vladimir Putin and corruption in the prime minister's regime, brutality and boorishness against Russian citizens or even the shortcomings of the Russian people whose rights she so ardently defended. She spared no one, not even her allies. The poetry of her prose was matched by her passion for truth. Her facts were lovingly gathered and made to march, leading us to the terrible truth of the realities she revealed. And it was that single-minded commitment to truth, and her demand for justice, that made her so dangerous to the tyrants in her country and inconvenient to leaders of western democracies. This love for truth links her to the former recipients of the Raw in War Anna Politkovskaya award, Natalia Estermirova, and Malalai Joya, and this year's recipient – to be announced this evening – they come from different backgrounds and nationalities and speak different languages, yet they share a universal language that is the basis of both freedom and justice. Once we know of atrocities we cannot remain silent, and knowledge inevitably leads to an urge to protect the innocent. These women have recognised that their own fight for freedom would be meaningless without empathy for others and that the best guarantee of their security and freedom lies in a guarantee of security and freedom of others.

The award is given each year in the spirit of that common humanity, one for which Politkovskaya and the first recipient of the award in her name, Estermirova, gave their lives, and in celebrating those lives while mourning their untimely deaths we have to acknowledge both their love of truth and their empathy for others. Women in the country of my birth, Iran, are great examples of the universality of this urge. For more than 30 years the Islamic regime and its apologists have tried to dismiss women's struggle in Iran as part of a western ploy. They claim that the repressive laws against Iranian women are part of their Islamic and Iranian heritage. Thus the regime has deprived Iranian women not just of their present rights, but also of their history and their past. The regime's victims are not only atheists, secularists, or people of other religions and faiths, but also Muslims, those whose interpretation of their religion is based on different principles, those who disagree with the Islamic Republic's views have been punished and deprived of their most basic rights. Those in the west who dismiss the repressiveness of laws against women in countries like Iran, no matter how benign their intentions, present a condescending view not just of the religion but also of women living in Muslim majority countries, as if the desire for choice and happiness is the monopoly of women in the west. (Read more...)

Never Mind Women Ministers, Where are the Women’s Votes?

The Feminist School

During the campaign of the 10th presidential election (women’s coalition for women’s demands in the election) tried to contact Mr Ahmadinejad as one of the 4 candidates, so we could put our questions and concerns on women’s issues, but according to his schedule the meeting did not take place. His lack of response (unlike the other 3 candidates), is indicative of his attempt to avoid facing women interviewers- something that did not escape them. Of course women’s movement has not forgotten how in the election campaign for the ninth presidential election, he supported women’s entry to sports gymnasium, played down the adherence to the Islamic dress code for young girls and women, so as to paint a different image of itself among women and to add to his votes. But his action on women’s issues which has the support of the minority neo-conservatives makes a different story. Smaller university quotas for female students, mobilisations of moral police and arrests and imprisonment of thousands of women and girls, reversal of social, political, cultural and economical steps taken by the reformist government, harassment of women activists so much so that many of them are either in the prisons or the unending court sessions.

Early retirement and change of full time work to part time for women, practically destroying all that women had struggled to achieve during the past 30 years after the revolution. With the arrival of the 10th presidential election women and the rest of the society hoped that we would have a government in line with the social movement, which would bring about a forward looking or different outlook than what existed, but this was not the case. Currently this government has no political legitimacy and any agenda it sets has no legitimacy in the eyes of the women’s movement. Perhaps if the events after the election had not unfolded the way they did, we might have written now of the breaking down of the taboo of preventing women from entering higher echelons of political hierarchy (that is if it can avoid the fate that befell the regime’s claim of support for women’ entry in to universities), or we might have discussed the abilities of the women nominated for ministerial posts, or the very present conditions, we must ask how it is that a government that has resorted to the most undemocratic means before the eyes of millions of Iranians and foreign witnesses- to remain in power and one that has itself turned into an obstacle in the way of democratisation in Iran, has now changed position with regard to women’s rights and has considered women’s participation in government at the level of ministries. (Read more...)

Woman's case reflects prisoners' treatment in Iran

The Associated Press

The interrogator politely apologized for grilling the prisoner about her role in the mass protests over Iran's disputed presidential election. Then the prisoner was made to sit facing a wall in the courtyard of Iran's Evin Prison, blindfolded, handcuffed and covered in an all-enveloping chador for four and a half hours under the blazing sun.

"America is our enemy," the interrogator told her. "Why are you so naive and can't see this? It's exploiting the situation here and wants to ransack the country. They don't have your interest at heart. The ordeal of Nazy, a 29-year-old university student who worked with the campaign of defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, gives a rare glimpse of what is happening to detained protesters. Nazy spoke to The Associated Press by telephone from Tehran after her release on the condition that only her first name be used, to protect herself and her family.

Thousands have been arrested since incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner, despite cries of fraud. The opposition claims detainees were savagely raped by their jailers and at least 69 people were killed, including some from beatings in prison. (Read more...)

News from the Prisons

Feminist School

According to The Green Wave of Freedom website’s report Fariba Pajouh, a reformist journalist, has been arrested this week. Fariba who has worked for ILNA news agency and Etemad-e-Melli newspaper is kept in Evin prison.

Shiva Nazarahari

Shiva Nazar Ahari, human rights activist, was arrested in the first days after presidential election in her office and transferred to Evin prison. She has spent 35 days in solitary confinement and her name was not among detainees name for a while.

Shiva has been imprisoned for more than 75 days in ward No.209 of Evin prison. Her mother has been told she is allowed to make enquires next week from the judiciary.

Hengameh Shahidi

Hengameh Shahidi , journalist and member of Etemed-e-Melli party, was arrested on June 30. She was transferred to ward No.209 of Evin prison. In objection to interrogators behaviour she is in hunger strike.

She was kept around 50 days in solitary confinement and then transferred to another cell. She told her family at her last call on Saturday that she has been transferred to two person cell. Her family said: "Her voice was tired and weak, it shows she in under pressure", they are worried for her because she suffers from heart diseases and blood pressure.

Roshanak Siyasi and Zahra Tohidlou

Some reports said, Roshanak Siyasi, member of Kargozaran Party, and Zahra Tohidlou, starred student, were also arrested during the recent events in Iran and there is not any information about their release.

Iranian women activists not fooled by Ahmadinejad

The Associated Press

Women's rights activists say they aren't fooled by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nomination of the first female Cabinet ministers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, calling it a ploy to improve his popularity that will actually hurt the cause of women.

With the nominations of three women for his new government, the hard-line president appears to be seeking to burnish his image at a time when he is under siege from the pro-reform opposition, which claims he won the June presidential election by fraud.

Since coming to power in 2005, Ahmadinejad has cracked down hard on women activists, arresting many involved in a campaign to overturn laws seen as discriminatory to women. Still, he has touted himself as a new, more modern-thinking leader within Iran's hard-line, religiously conservative camp, one that promotes women's rights in an "Islamic context." (Read more...)