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Iran: Arbitrary detention of "One Million Signatures" campaign members January 6, 2010

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources of the arbitrary detention of “One Million Signatures” Campaign members Ms. Atieh Youssefi, Ms. Parisa Kakaï, Ms. Samieh Rashidi, Ms. Maryam Zia and Ms. Mahsa Hekmat.

The Women of Iran’s One Million Signatures Campaign: The Activists

By Carla Power - Source: Glamour Magazine

They are Women of the Year because: “One Million Signatures seized every opportunity to show the world that they do not agree with the discriminatory laws in Iran.” —Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and 2008 Glamour Woman of the Year

Watching the thousands of women who joined their peers to defy bullets and police batons in the streets of Iran this June, you’d never guess that each one’s life was, legally speaking, worth only half a man’s. Via shaky cell phone images on TV, viewers around the world saw slender arms raised in the air and green scarves slipping back on the heads of female marchers as they stood alongside men to demand a recount of what they insist was a rigged presidential election. They risked their lives—and some made the ultimate sacrifice, like 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan, whose shooting rocked the Internet.

Starting at Home, Iran’s Women Fight for Rights

By Nazila Fathi - Source: NYTimes

TEHRAN — In a year of marriage, Razieh Qassemi, 19, says she was beaten repeatedly by her husband and his father. Her husband, she says, is addicted to methamphetamine and has threatened to marry another woman to “torture” her.

I Want to Present a Different View of the Women in My Country

BERKELEY, California, Jan 2 (IPS) - The U.S. government's calls for civil society to work for "regime change" in Iran has increased pressure on activists on the ground who are engaged in a peaceful process of improving their society and addressing social problems, according to Sussan Tahmasebi, a prominent women's right activist in Iran who has not been allowed to leave the country for the past two years.

Link to Full IPS Article

One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws

For years, the Western world has tried to paint a dark picture of Iranian society, especially, as it concerns Iranian women. Iran’s legal sanctioning of stoning and the execution of minors only serve to reinforce these negative images.

Iranian intellectuals have objected to portrayals of Iran that are primarily based on such markers and have pointed to the inherent biases of highlighting only the dark features of their society.

Moments

Women Day Protest, Tehran Iran - March 2006

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