Feminist Peace Network

Excerpted from  E-Zan from Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran
Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:31:02 -0400 (EDT)

“To our readers,   For three consecutive years, Iranian women have taken to streets of Tehran and other major cities in Iran to demand more rights and recognition. Making their political presence and voice louder and more internationally visible, women of Iran have called for their “inalienable rights” on International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8, of 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Many have been arrested, beaten by the anti-riot police, and are facing torture in various prisons throughout the country because of their courageous stand against fundamentalism in Iran. The truth is “fighting for equal gender rights is considered a subversive act threatening national security.”

On February 24th,the state’s news agency announced government’s plans to launch an intense crackdown targeting women. Tehran’s prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, announced the crackdown would start on March 6 and continue for a month to confront those “who spread prostitution and intentionally seek to disturb social and moral security by inappropriate clothing and behaviour will be firmly confronted.” Tehran’s fundamentalist regime was planning to preemptively create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation to discourage women to take part in this years’ IWD rally.

On March 4th, Tehran’s  Judiciary held a trial for five women charged with “acting against national security by participating in an illegal gathering” last year. Noushine, one of five arrested, wrote in her message to the fundamentalist regime, “Perhaps we will be imprisoned and become weary with the continuous summons to court. Perhaps we will not be able to continue along our path and educate our female counterparts about the existence of such discriminatory laws. But, what will you do with the countless women who come into contact with the court system - in fact, these very courts are the best educational facilities for women, through which they quickly learn that in fact they have no rights. Yes, perhaps with your security planning and your modern technology, you may be able to isolate and paralyze the current generation of Iranian women’s rights activists, and stop the progression of our campaign, but what will you do with the love that we plant in the hearts of our children?… what will you do with our dreams?”

For more than 5 days women staged protests in streets of Tehran to project their political demands and mark the International Women’s Day. They joined the Teacher’s Union Rally and those arrested staged hunger strike to further embarrass Tehran’s regime internationally. Their campaign was successful given the reaction by UN Human Rights Chief, US State Department, international NGO’s and human rights organization along with the numerous media coverage of their rally. However, their struggle continues. Those still in prison will undoubtedly face the harshest treatment. As many have said, “price of freedom is high, particularly for women.”

The path to democracy and peace in Iran is through women’s leadership and their organized resistance to the fundamentalist regime in Tehran. Iranian women began their journey more than two decades ago and they will not rest until the collapse of gender apartheid in their homeland. By politically, economically and diplomatically isolating Tehran’s regime, the international community can play an instrumental role in facilitating the change in Iran. Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran urges the democratic governments of the world, particularly  female leaders in the United States and Europe to come to the aid of Iranian women and declare their solidarity with their resistance movement.

E-Zan Featured Headlines

Agance France Presse - February 21, 2007 Iran is seeking to create a paradise for female tourists by turning an island on a northwestern lake into a male-free zone, the press reported on Wednesday. All public transport, restaurants and facilities on the island - on the gigantic Oroumiyeh lake close to the Turkish border - will be staffed only by women, officials said. “The island of Arezou (Wish), one of the 102 islands in the Oroumiyeh Lake, will be equipped especially for women,” a municipal official in the West Azerbaijan province, identified only as Aghai, was quoted as saying by the Tehran Emrouz newspaper. “There will be no men on the island,” he said. “It will also boost tourism in the area.” “The construction of hotels, small restaurants and medical centres under the management of women is one of the specifications for this island, which is the first such in the country,” Aghai said. The initiative has even been cleared by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s provincial representative, who declared that a women-only island is not against Islamic sharia law, the official said. Iran’s Islamic codes strictly prohibit exposure of unveiled women to men. Iran has already partitioned parts of its southern and northern beaches as women-only zones where women can legally remove their headscarves and overcoats in freedom.In some cities, there are also special “women parks”.

WFAFI News - February 23, 2007 Somayeh Beynat, the wife of Iranian political prisoner Ahmed Batebi, was abducted by the Iranian agents of Intelligence and Security in city of Gorgan on February 21, 2007. Mrs. Beynat was to meet a friend at 8:30 p.m. that evening, and as her car approached her friend’s, it was intercepted by government undercover cars. Two men showed her a paper and took her away in their own car. Mrs. Beynat’s family has contacted all official agencies to find their daughter’s whereabouts. After two days of search, the family received a phone call from women’s prison in Gorgan saying Mrs. Baynat is in their custody. Human Rights Watch has issued a statement and asked the Iranian regime for her unconditional release. It is not clear why Mrs. Beynat has been charged with, but news from Iran indicated that her arrest will be used to pressure her imprisoned husband.

The International NEWS - February 25, 2007 Iran’s judiciary is to launch a fresh clampdown on women it deems are inappropriately dressed and “spreading prostitution,” the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday. “The ones who spread prostitution and intentionally seek to disturb social and moral security by inappropriate clothing and behaviour will be firmly confronted,” Tehran’s hardline prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said. “It has been noticed that some people with an outrageous appearance in public hurt religious feelings and beliefs,” he said, adding the crackdown would start on March 6 and continue for a month. Mortazavi said the crackdown would also target what he described as “street women who get into cars as passengers and rob or extort the drivers.” Every post-pubescent woman is required to cover her hair and body in public in Iran. Crackdowns are common in summer when many women defy the Islamic dress code by wearing short bright coats, flimsy headscarves and capri pants.

Agance France Presse - March 4, 2007 An Iranian woman risks the death penalty for killing her father who she said raped her and made her pregnant, a newspaper report said on Sunday. Samira, 22, poisoned her father Nasrollah in December 2005 by putting cyanide in his juice for “raping her since the age of 19″, the Etemad-Melli newspaper said. The woman has been charged with murder by prosecutors while her grandmother and uncles, including one who also allegedly abused her, have exercised their right under Islamic law to demand that she is executed if found guilty. “I kept quiet fearing for my reputation, but when my father got me pregnant I could not take it any more and killed him with cyanide that I put in his fruit juice,” she was quoted as telling a hearing on Saturday. She is also accused of having an illegitimate relationship with a man who helped her buy the poison and who faces charges of being an accomplice to murder. Samira said her mother had been unaware of the abuse and helped her to carry out the abortion on the assumption she had been impregnated by a boyfriend. “I could not say a word to anyone. I told my mother and grandmother that I was scared of being home alone with my father,” she told the court, adding her father sought to keep her quiet by giving her a car, a computer and trips abroad.Under Islamic Sharia law a murder victim’s parents, siblings and children of legal age can ask for the death penalty while the spouse holds no such right. “One of my uncles who has asked for execution also (sexually) abused me,” she said. Nasrollah’s other children have forgiven Samira. The court has now adjourned ahead of a verdict. Her lawyer Abdolsamad Khoramshahi said: “My client believed the victim was Mahdur-od- Dam (one whose blood could be shed with impunity) and this murder was committed with a noble motive”. Several Iranian women who stood trial for murdering men who they said were seeking to sexually assault them have been acquitted in recent months.

Agence France Presse - March 5, 2007 Iranian security forces on Sunday arrested around 30 women’s rights activists rallying outside a Tehran court where a group of their fellow campaigners were on trial over a demonstration last year. “My clients and other women who had gathered in front of the court were arrested,” Nasrin Sotoodeh, the lawyer for the accused, was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. According to unofficial reports, around 30 people were detained, including some of the most prominent women’s rights activists in Iran.The protestors had gathered in front of the revolutionary court in solidarity with five women on trial over their roles in a demonstration which was broken up by police in June last year. Nushin Ahmadi Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan, Shahla Entesari, Susan Tahmasebi and Fariba Davudi Mohajer were standing trial for organising an “unauthorised” rally to ask for equal rights for women. It was not clear which of the accused were among those arrested. Sotoodeh later told AFP that the arrested activists had been transferred to the notorious Evin prison in northern Tehran. The families of those (arrested) who do not have a problem have been told to bring in property documents to bail them out,” the lawyer said. “But this does not apply to those who do have a problem.” Sotoodeh said that the authorities have still not officially said how many people were arrested and or released their names.  Seventy people, most of them women, were arrested at the protest last June when they called for improved rights and changes to laws discriminating against women.

AKI Italian News - March 5, 2007 The women arrested Sunday in Tehran for taking part in a rally in front of a court house have not been allowed to meet a lawyer or family members, an attorney for some of those arrested said Monday. The protesters were staging a demonstration in support of five women on trial for organising a rally last 12 June against laws they say discriminate against women. “When I went to the place where these women were brought [after the arrest] along with the five who were in court, I wasn’t able to learn anything about their situation, not even the charges against them,” their lawyer Nasrin Sotudeh told Adnkronos International (AKI).Meanwhile all students’ associations in Iran have been notified by university authorities that they will not be allowed to organize any rally or university meeting before 8 March on feminism or women’s rights. The five under trial organised a demonstration last 12 June which was violently broken up by the police and led to the arrest of 70 people, many of whom were reportedly innocent bystanders. The aim of the activists was to protest against Islamic laws on polygamy and child custody they say discriminate against women. When the five women on trial left the court building on Sunday they were reportedly arrested again, along with their lawyer.

Amnesty Internationl - March 5, 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. 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.”

Asia News - March 6, 2007  For years the Iranian regime has feared March, 8, International Women’s Day. It has handled the issue different ways. On its own initiative it began celebrating Iranian Women’s Day in late July on the anniversary of Muhammad’s daughter, Hazrat Fatimeh. This non controversial day is often used by the regime to claim that women’s rights are fully compatible with Islamic rules. International organisations like UNICEF have cooperated with Iranian authorities in cultural events and meetings on this occasion. Another approach has simply been repression. All elements, including the symbolic date, are there for a political show trial. The five women on trial were almost all activists for the full repeal (not just a moratorium) of lapidation, i.e. stoning, from Iran’s law books. They also demonstrated demanding equality between men and women. Under Iran’s Islamic law women are worth half of men so for example compensation for causing death is half in case the victim is a woman.The trial’s date also coincides with the arrival of spring. This year as in previous years, spring marks the start of the Iranian authorities’ ‘public morality’ campaign whose rules target especially women. Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power campaigns aimed at women in public spaces have become more aggressive and repression harder as police and basijis (the regime’s volunteers) cooperate more closely.  Similarly, snitching is used as tool of repression and self-censorship (by the press for example) is the regime’s best friend. The trial that began on Sunday thus promises to be exemplary

UN News Center - March 6, 2007 The United Nations human rights chief today expressed strong concern over Iran’s arrest of at least 31 women activists during a peaceful gathering in the capital Tehran at the weekend, and urged the authorities to adhere to all international rights agreements that the country is party to, including the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour stressed that these women were exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, her office said in a press release. They were demonstrating against the arrests of five women activists who were charged with criminal offences against public order and security for having organized a protest in the capital last June.Iran is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Covenant on Economic, Civil and Cultural Rights, and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Iran must adhere to the legal obligations undertaken under those treaties to respect all human rights without discrimination, Ms. Arbour was quoted as saying by a spokesperson at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The High Commissioner also encourages the Iranian Government to ratify other international human rights treaties, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol. In addition, Ms. Arbour highlighted that these arrests, which occurred on Sunday, took place just four days before the celebration of International Women’s Day on 8 March that this year is dedicated to the theme of “Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls.” She also noted that on the same day last year, Iranian security forces violently broke up a peaceful gathering of hundreds of women who were demonstrating for their rights in Tehran’s Daneshjoo Park.

BBC News - March 6, 2007 Thirty-three detained Iranian women activists have gone on hunger strike in prison, their relatives say. BBC News March 6, 2007 They say the women are protesting over the continued detention of some group members who were expected to be freed. The women were arrested on Sunday after staging a demonstration outside a courthouse in the capital, Tehran.

AKI Italian News - March 8, 2007 All but three of the 33 Iranian women’s rights activists jailed on Sunday were freed Wednesday night, on the eve of International Women’s Day, in exchange for a pledge not to demonstrate on 8 March. Nevertheless, many of them and other women’s rights activists said they would protest in front of parliament in Tehran on Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile also on Thursday, teachers staged their third strike in a week in front of parliament, demanding salary raises and that thousands of colleagues they say were fired for political reasons be reinstated to their jobs.  The women were arrested on Sunday for staging a demonstration in front of a courthouse in Tehran where five fellow women’s rights activists were on trial for staging a peaceful rally against sexual discrimination in Iranian legislation last 12 June. Two of the activists and their lawyer are still in Tehran’s Evin prison but the others arrested Sunday were reportedly freed in the middle of the night after their families were obliged to sign a document in which they promised the women would not stage rallies on International Women’s Day Thursday. Nevertheless after their release all the activists save for one said they would stage a rally Thursday afternoon in front of parliament. Meanwhile on Thursday morning teachers also gathered in front of parliament in their third protest in a week demanding raises and asking that colleagues fired for political reasons, as many as 1,500 only in Kurdistan, be given their jobs back. Thousands of teachers had already gathered in front of parliament last Saturday and then on Tuesday threatening to block mid-term exams and not to resume work in rallies called by 30 teachers’ unions.

The Los Angeles Times - March 8, 2007 Uncommonly high tensions between law enforcement officials and human rights activists ahead of today’s annual commemoration of International Women’s Day have led to dozens of arrests here in the capital. The commemoration of Women’s Day has been a perennial rallying point for those opposed to government policies viewed by human rights activists as sexist or discriminatory. This year, the hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad detained 33 women activists Sunday at a small protest outside the Revolutionary Court, where five women are on trial for taking part in a July 2006 demonstration against laws seen as discriminatory. Many observers and activists suspect that the latest arrests were meant to ward off gatherings anticipated today. The government has bolstered domestic security agencies in the face of perceived threats from the West, which opposes Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its support for militant Islamic groups. That has spelled trouble for the smattering of activists pushing for social and political changes. “They’re stronger, and they’ve coordinated their activities and mustered their power,” said one women’s rights activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They’re unified now. In previous years there was disunity among the security forces.” Several dozen students briefly faced off against riot and campus police officers Monday at the University of Tehran. Authorities also have clamped down on websites and blogs promoting the main demonstration, to be held today at Baharestan Square in front of parliament.  Another woman activist, speaking on condition of anonymity said “We expect a heavy crackdown.” Iranian officials have painted the activists as dupes of Western powers and the United States government, which has advocated “regime change” in Iran.

Reuters News Agency - March 8, 2007 Iranian police clashed on Thursday with scores of rights activists who gathered in front of parliament to celebrate International Women’s Day, one of the activists said. “Police attacked a gathering of some 700 women’s rights activists and hit them with batons,” the activist, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. Police cars and ranks of police blocked the roads to prevent the demonstrators from marching, the activist said. “Despite the pressure on the activists to abandon the protest, many of them took part in today’s gathering,” said the activist involved in Thursday’s gathering. Also on Thursday, a protest of some 4,000 teachers against poor working conditions and low pay in front of parliament ended peacefully, a Reuters witness said. Analysts say demonstrations are likely to be a source of embarrassment for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government, which vowed to improve living standards and to share out Iran’s oil wealth more fairly. Instead, critics say the government’s economic policies have fuelled inflation, which mostly hurts the worst off in society.

US State Department - March 8, 2007 The United States is deeply concerned by reports that Iranian authorities attacked peaceful women’s rights protestors in Tehran today at a gathering to mark International Women’s Day. These repressive actions by the regime highlight an alarming trend of intolerance toward the expression of independent views by the Iranian people. The regime’s actions today follow the beatings and arrests of more than 30 women earlier this week. Those brave women had gathered outside a courthouse in Tehran to show solidarity with five women on trial for organizing a June 2006 protest against gender-discrimination laws. The United States stands with the women of Iran, who courageously struggle for their universal rights and justice in their country. We continue to work with the international community through the United Nations, foreign governments, and international NGOs to focus attention on the Iranian regime’s abuse of its own citizens. We call on the Iranian government to improve its own human rights situation before more Iranians suffer for attempting to exercise their universal rights and freedoms.

The Washington Post Editorial - March 10, 2007 Here’s how International Women’s Day was celebrated Thursday in Tehran: Riot police swarmed over a few dozen women who bravely gathered near the parliament in an attempt to hold a peaceful demonstration. Some were beaten; some were arrested and taken away in vans. All mention of the demonstration was purged from state-controlled media, and independent papers and blogs were warned not to cover it, according to the Los Angeles Times. Repression of women is an everyday reality in Iran, but this week stood out. In addition to Thursday’s crackdown, more than 30 women were arrested in a protest last Sunday. The group, which included almost all of Iran’s leading female human rights activists, had gathered outside a courthouse in solidarity with five women who are on trial for organizing a protest in June. Three of those arrested were still being held on Friday, including Jila Baniyaghoob, a journalist, and Shadi Sadr, a lawyer. The women had been taken to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where legions of political prisoners have been held and many tortured. Government propaganda portrays these activists as tools of Western powers who want to overthrow the government. Actually, the movement has far more modest and specific goals. It is seeking equal rights for women in Iran’s penal and family codes, under which girls as young as 9 can be stoned to death on charges of adultery and a woman’s life is valued at only half that of a man’s. The activists are trying to collect a million signatures on a petition to parliament to end such discrimination. Their courageous struggle and the regime’s violent reaction to it are worth remembering at a time when the United States is edging toward opening a dialogue with the Iranian government. Today U.S. and Iranian officials will attend a regional conference in Baghdad. The implicit promise of such contacts, which we have supported, is a U.S.-Iranian rapprochement in which Tehran gives up its nuclear program and stops its support for militants in Iraq and around the Middle East in exchange for improved political and economic relations with the United States. Such an accord would be in the U.S. interest. But another vital interest must be continued support for those people and movements in Iran that fight for human rights and democracy. Unless they survive and grow stronger, U.S.-Iranian relations aren’t likely to progress very far.

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