Front Line is deeply concerned following reports that a summons has been issued to Parvin Ardalan to present herself at the Revolutionary Court branch no. 13 on 2 August 2008 on charges of acting against national security through propaganda against the government. These charges relate to her work with websites Change for Equality and Zanestan. Parvin Ardalan is a women's rights defender and one of the founding members of the One Million Signatures Campaign.

Further Information

Posted 29/05/2008 On 2 May 2008, Parvin Ardalan received a suspended sentence of two years' imprisonment and ten lashings for a period of three years on charges of “illegal gathering and collusion and refusal to obey the orders of the police with the intent of endangering national security”. If she is found guilty of any other crime during the term of her suspended sentence she will be imprisoned and receive the ten lashings. The charges against her are related to her organisation of a peaceful protest against discrimination against women in Hafte Tir Square on 12 June 2006.

On the morning of 3 March 2008, Parvin Ardalan was travelling from Tehran to Stockholm to be presented with the 2007 Olaf Palme Award. She was prevented from travelling and informed by security officials that she had been banned from leaving Iran. She had passed through passport control and had boarded her Air France flight when security officials prevented the flight from taking off until she had disembarked. Security officials then confiscated Parvin Ardalan's passport and issued her with a court order which requires her to report to the security department of the passport office within 72 hours.

Front Line believes that the recent summons as well as the suspended sentence and travel ban that have been issued against her are a direct result of Parvin Ardalan's human rights activities, in particular her work to defend women's rights in Iran.