Women’s Rights

“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…

UPDATE: Khadijeh Moghadam Released after Fourteen Days of Detention

(8 April 2009) Prominent women’s rights activist Khadijeh Moghadam, who has been in detention since 26 March 2009, was released from Tehran’s Evin Prison on bail at 8:15 pm, local time.

Moghadam and eleven other members of Mothers for Peace and the One Million Signatures Campaign were detained on 26 March 2009 as they sat in their cars at a street corner in Tehran. They were planning to make New Year visits to families of prisoners of conscience. Ten activists were released on bail on 29 March, but Moghadam and Mahboubeh Karami were kept in prison without any explanation.

Women’s Rights Activists Remain in Prison without Justification

(6 April 2009) Two women’s rights activists, imprisoned since 26 March 2009 after being arrested on the street as they embarked on making New Year visits, are being held without any legal justification and despite promises by judicial officials that they will be released.

Khadijeh Moghadam and Mahboubeh Karami are held in Tehran’s Evin Prison without having been arraigned. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called on the Judiciary head, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, to order their immediate release and put an end to illegal actions by his subordinates.

(UPDATE) Women’s Rights Activists Arbitrarily Detained, Preventing New Year Visits

(26 March 2009) Iranian authorities should immediately release a dozen women’s rights activists detained arbitrarily in Tehran today, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said.

Security forces detained 12 members of the One Million Signatures Campaign and Mothers for Peace at a street corner as the group met to make private New Year visits to families of several prisoners of conscience. With the Persian New Year holidays underway, it is customary for families and friends to visit each other.

Unprecedented Three-Year Sentence for Women’s Rights Activist Implemented

(3 February 2009) The Iranian Judiciary should immediately release imprisoned women’s rights activist, Alieh Eghdamdoust, and end its prosecution of all women’s rights activists. The authorities arrested Eghdamdoust on 31 January 2009 in her hometown of Foman, north of Iran, to begin serving a 3-year prison sentence.

Neither she nor her lawyers were informed about the results of her appeal, which was decided nearly a year ago in contravention of Iranian laws, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said.