Iran: Women on Trial for Peaceful Demonstration
Activists Arrested for Protesting Discriminatory Laws
(New York, February 27, 2007) – The Iranian Judiciary should immediately end its prosecution of several women’s rights advocates for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, Human Rights Watch said today.
On March
4, the Judiciary will hold a trial for five women charged with “acting against
national security by participating in an illegal gathering.” The women on trial
are: Nusheen Ahmadi Khorasani; Parvin Ardalan; Sussan Tahmasebi; Shahla Entesari; and Fariba Davoodi Mohajer. In addition, the
Judiciary has charged at least four other activists, Alieh
Eghdamdoost, Bahareh Hedayat, Delaram Ali and Azadeh Forghani, with the same
offense but has not set their court date.
“Iran is prosecuting women for peacefully protesting
laws that discriminate against them – and that violate Iranian and
international law,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North
Africa division at Human Rights Watch.
The Judiciary filed charges against the women’s rights activists following a
public demonstration to protest Iran’s discriminatory laws against women in Tehran on June 12, 2006. The security forces prevented peaceful
demonstrators from gathering and advocating for women’s rights. Police agents
beat the demonstrators with batons, sprayed them with pepper gas, marked them
with color spray, and took 70 people into custody. All the detainees have since
been released.
Freedom of assembly is guaranteed under international human rights law. Article
20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides everyone with the
right to peaceful assembly. Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, recognizes the right to
peaceful assembly, stating that “no restrictions may be placed on the exercise
of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are
necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or
public safety, public order, the protection of public health or morals or the
protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”
The Iranian constitution also ensures the right to peaceful assembly. Article
27 of the constitution stipulates that “public gatherings and marches may be
freely held, provided arms are not carried and that they are not detrimental to
the fundamental principles of Islam.”
Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is a lawyer for several of
the accused women, told Human Rights Watch that the June 12 gathering fulfilled
all of the conditions set forth by Article 27 of the constitution and the
Judiciary has no legal grounds for prosecuting the demonstrators.
On January
5, 2007, the Judiciary held a trial for Zhila Baniyaghoub, a journalist
who attended the June 12, 2006 demonstration. The authorities charged her with
“acting against national security by participating in an illegal gathering.”
Police agents arrested her during the demonstration and released her on bail
after one week of detention. During the trial, her lawyer, Farideh
Gheirat, argued that Baniyaghoub
was present at the demonstration as a journalist to cover the event. The
presiding judge subsequently dropped charges against Baniyaghoub
and acquitted her.
Human Rights Watch commends Baniyaghoub’s acquittal
and calls on the Judiciary to drop charges against all other defendants as
well.
In addition to prosecuting women’s rights activists, the government has also
increased its persecution of people who continue to call for reforms of Iran’s discriminatory laws against women. Women’s
rights activists launched a campaign, “Change for Equality,” to collect 1
million signatures to protest these laws. The authorities have targeted
campaign volunteers by harassing them and denying them the ability to advocate
for their cause in public spaces. They have also blocked access to the
campaign’s website by filtering it. During the past two weeks, campaign
organizers have moved their website to a new domain at least three times due to
filtering.
“By targeting peaceful advocates, the government is demonstrating its intolerance
for civil society actions,” Whitson said. “The authorities should listen to
women’s rights advocates and work with them to reform discriminatory laws,
instead of prosecuting them and perpetuating a system of discrimination.”