Iran: Continued persecution of women human rights defenders

Iranian women human rights defenders, Mahboubeh Hossein Zadeh and Nahid Keshavarz arrested on 02 April 2007 whilst collecting signatures in support of a petition to reform Iranian laws will be freed as soon as their bails are ready, the spokesperson of the judiciary in Tehran announced today.

After refusing to sign an agreement to end their activities in support of women’s rights, the women were charged with “actions against national security” and transferred to Evin prison.

Mahboubeh Hossein Zadeh and Nahid Keshavarz are both active members of the One Million Signatures Campaign, which aims to educate women in Iran about their legal rights and promote reform of discriminatory laws. Three other members of the Campaign, Sara Imanian, Homayoun Nami and Saiedeh Amin, were also arrested but released the following day. These latest arrests are only the most recent incident of harassment by the Iranian authorities directed against peaceful women’s rights activists. On March 4, Iranian police arrested and jailed 33 women demonstrating peacefully in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran. Following international pressure, all of the women were released, the last two on March 19, but only on payment of high bail.