Women’s Rights Activist Sentenced to Five Years

(21 June 2008) Hana Abdi, a student and women’s rights activist from Sanandaj in Kurdistan who has been in prison since 4 November 2007, was sentenced on 18 June 2008 by Judge Tayari in Branch Two of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court to a prison term of five years in exile in East Azerbaijan on charges of “gathering and collusion to threaten national security” under article 610 of the Islamic Penal Code.

Abdi had been volunteering in the framework of the One Million Signatures Campaign at the time of her arrest. The trial of her colleague, Ronak Safazadeh, who has also been in prison since November 2007, is pending.

Report Documents the Persecution of Women’s Rights Activists in Iran

(5 May 2008) Iranian authorities have systematically thwarted peaceful and legal civil society efforts to advocate for women’s rights in Iran, abusing the legal system and gravely violating internationally protected civil rights in the process. “Equal Rights Denied—The Systematic Repression of the Women’s Rights Movement In Iran,” published today by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, illustrates this process by providing concise but comprehensive documentation of the persecution of women’s rights defenders.