Women’s Rights

No Information About Detained Women’s Rights Activist

(21 January 2010) Iranian judicial and prison authorities have refused to release any information about charges against women’s rights activist Somayeh Rashidi (24), who was arrested on 19 December 2009, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported today.

During the past two months, over a thousand people have been detained through the use of a blanket detention order, which is effectively a license for security and intelligence agents to arrest anyone at will. Hundreds of these detainees, similar to Somayeh Rashidi, have disappeared into Iranian prisons without any information available to their families or lawyers.

Update: Detained Mothers Shuffled Between Emergency Rooms and Detention Center

(10 January 2010) Authorities transferred nine of the 33 detained members of the Mourning Mothers to emergency rooms following their detention yesterday, and later took them to Vozara Detention Center in Tehran, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

The nine mothers suffer from various illnesses and were taken back to Vozara Detention Center from Sajjad and Firuzgar hospitals in Tehran.

30 Members of Mourning Mothers Detained

(9 January 2010) Security forces attacked and detained 30 members of Mourning Mothers in Laleh Park and surrounding streets in Tehran today at around 4 p.m. local time, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported. Mourning Mothers is a group of mothers whose children have been killed in recent events. More than a hundred police and plain clothes agents attacked today’s gathering and transferred the detainees to the Vozara Detention Center in Tehran.

“No culture permits such violence to be unleashed against mothers. How can this government, which claims to have moral and religious authority, treat mothers who have lost their children in such a way?,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson.

Widespread Arrests of Women’s Rights Activists, Female Journalists and Relatives

(5 January 2010) 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.

“Mourning Mothers” Arrested at Protest in Tehran

(5 December 2009) Security forces arrested fifteen women belonging to the Committee of Mourning Mothers in Tehran today, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported.

Mourning Mothers is formed by women whose children were killed during post-election protests and their supporters. Members of the group include the mothers of Neda Agha-Soltan and Sohrab Aarabi. They have been staging weekly protests at Laleh Park in Tehran, demanding accountability and prosecution of those responsible for murdering their children.

Targeting of Women’s Rights Campaigners Seen as Effort to Silence Them

(2 November 2009) The Iranian Judiciary should end its harassment of women rights activists, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. At least 11 Iranian women’s rights activists, who are members of the One Million Signatures Campaign, have been summoned to the Revolutionary Courts for questioning by Judiciary and security officials in the past several days.

The Change for Equality website reported that those summoned included, inter alia, Maryam Malek, Jelveh Javaheri, Kaveh Mozzafari, Parisa Kakaee, and Khadijeh Moghaddam.

Human Rights Defenders Prevented from Leaving Iran; Women’s Rights Advocates Arrested

(11 May 2009) The Iranian government is continuing to expand its repression of women’s rights activists ahead of the 12 June presidential elections, with a new wave of travel bans, detentions, and summons, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

The Campaign reported that Narges Mohammadi of the banned Iranian human rights group Defenders Human Rights Center, and Soraya Aziz Panah of the Center to Clean Mine Fields, were prevented from leaving Tehran on 7 May 2009.

Member of the One Million Signatures Campaign Arrested on Baseless Charges

(27 April 2009) Maryam Malek, a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign and a reporter on legal matters related to family courts, was arrested and transferred to Vozara Detention Center on 25 April 2009, after being summoned for interrogation and charged in the Revolutionary Courts, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

She is charged with “propaganda against the state,” and “membership in the One Million Signatures Campaign.”

Persecution of Women’s Rights Campaigners Intensifies

(16 April 2009) A new report by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran documents that the persecution of women’s rights advocates has intensified in the past year.

For the first time, a women’s rights advocate, Alieh Eghdamdoust, has been jailed for three years solely for participating in a peaceful demonstration on behalf of equal rights for women in 2006, in which 70 others were also arrested.

“Publicly expressing support for women’s rights has effectively been criminalized in Iran,” said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for the Campaign.

International Organizations Call on Iran to End Persecution and Prosecution of Women’s Rights Activists

In a letter to President Ahmadinejad the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, together with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, called on Iran to release Alieh Eghdamdoust and stop its increasing persecution and prosecution of women human rights defenders.

We, the undersigned members of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, submit this statement to express our deepest concerns…