The Iranian hard line regime arrested 33 women, who were peacefully protesting in front of a courthouse in tehran, on 4th of March.
They were protesting the capture of five of their colleagues who had been arrested during another women rights demonstration last June.
“These arrests are illegal since the constitution authorizes demonstrations. they had no logical justification because the women were just taking part in a gathering,” Iranian human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told reporters.
“Based on Article 27 of the Iranian Constitution, demonstrations and gatherings are free if arms are not carried by demonstrators, said Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer.
The Worldwide Press Freedom Organization said: “These women have not broken any law. They simply exercised their right to demonstrate peacefully.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that “About 50 peaceful protestors were quickly confronted and overwhelmed by riot police, including dozens of young female officers wearing bright green uniforms with red stripes.”
Most of the detainees were released on International Women’s Day, on bails ranging from $11,000 to $55,000, the Associated Press reports.
Before their release, the arrested women had started a hunger strike, and at least one woman was held in solitary confinement, according to Human Rights Watch.
The families of two activists were visited by Iranian officials and asked to sign pledges that the women would also avoid the International Women’s Day demonstration, the BBC reports.
As usual, the ultra conservatives accused the women’s rights activists of having been bribed and motivated by the anti revolutionary agents who want to promote curroption in the society.
The Keyhan newspaper, Iran’s most hard line publication, said that “Women’s rights activists of being sponsored by what the paper called executives of American plans for soft overthrow of the Islamic Republic.”
A former member of parliament’s national security committee, Elahe Koulaie, said that “These authorities are very pessimistic about the intentions of foreigners, and assign this kind of protest to external factors.”
Dr. Ebadi and Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan have issued a joint statement on Wednesday, calling for an end to all discrimination against women in Iran. “We know there is a direct relationship between peace, justice, and respect for human rights. As long as women are denied human rights, anywhere in the world, there can be no justice and no peace. Recognizing women’s equal rights, therefore, is an essential requirement for the creation of strong, sustainable, and stable societies and ensuring that women enjoy equality with men in all areas of life are key steps to making human rights a universal reality,” Ebadi and Khan stated.
Once again, the Europeans reacted to the Iranian hard line regime’s brutal suppression of the human rights supporters, by issuing an statement condemning the recent arrests. But isn’t it yet time to act, instead of passing useless papers around?
“The activists were exercising their established right to freedom of assembly and opinion, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations,” the presidency of the European Union said in an statement.
“The presidency of the European Union calls for the immediate and unconditional release of those still being detained and the cessation of proceedings against those already released,” the statement added.
The human rights activists have always been suppressed since the Islamic revolution, even in the 8 year period of the reformist government led by Mohammad Khatami. But the issue has recently gotten so worse that has made many of the former (reformist) and current (utlra conservative) governmental agents to publicly complain about it.
“Today is no longer a day for someone to be jailed for thinking and expressing their views,” said parliament deputy Soheila Jelodarzadeh, speaking at a women's conference.
Isa Saharkhiz, a former editor and reformist said: “They are afraid of the women’s movement, because there are some links between them and journalists, and they cooperate with the foreign NGOs.”
The US government was among the very first foreign organizations which officially reacted to suppression of the women’s movement in Iran. But do they really care about practice of the human rights in the Middle East, or is it just another silly excuse for Mr. Bush’s government to attack the Iranioan regime? It perhaps is the latter one, I guess.
The US State Department said on Thursday that, “it was deeply disturbed by the reports.”
“These repressive actions by the regime highlight an alarming trend of intolerance toward the expression of independent views by the Iranian people,” spokesman Sean McCormack said.
For years, many human rights activists and organizations have kept calling for justice and freedom for the Iranian people in the international assemblies, however, it does not seem to have had any practical changes on the Iranian people’s quite miserable lifestyles.
Hadi Ghaemi, Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch said: “Iranian women are at the cutting edge of social activism in Iran, although they are visible and extremely successful in every social, economic and cultural domain. Iranian law treats them as second class citizens, and discriminates against them. During the past year, the Iranian government has substantially stepped up its persecution and prosecution of peaceful women’s rights advocates.”
Director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch, Sarah Leah Whitson, said that,“These arrests raise Iran’s repression of peaceful activists to a new level. There are absolutely no legal grounds for arresting these women, under international or Iranian law.”
“The government of President Ahmadinejad is trying to roll back even the modest freedoms won by Iranian civil society over the last decade,” Whitson said.
Many people, a lot of them inside Iran, think as soon as some political detainee/arrestee is released, everything is over and they can go back to their normal personal and professional lives. But the truth is far from that.
Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, a prominent Iranian campaigner for women’s rights asked: “Are we supposed to be happy that all the other women were released? “Meanwhile, there are open cases before the court for all these women. And at any moment, they might be detained again.”
“For the first time, five women were accused on charges of working against national security, undermining the basis of government and advertising against the government by speaking with foreign media,” she said.
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