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, who received summonses by telephone and demanded written documentation before they would comply. Reportedly some of the other activists have been notified through written summonses.

“The arbitrary use of legal mechanisms to harass women’s rights activists can be interpreted as an effort to silence them in the context of mass political unrest in Iran,” said Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign.

The One Million Signatures Campaign is a national civil society movement aimed at changing discriminatory laws. Although the movement has scrupulously adhered to legal and peaceful methods, numerous members have been harassed, beaten, and detained, usually on charges of threatening national security.  A number of members of the group have been banned from leaving the country when their passports have been confiscated.