Campaign in defence of Equal Right & against the discriminatory laws

On 12nd of June 2006 different women organisation gathered in Haft e Tir square and as a result 70 women and men were arrested. Numbers of women’s right activists were summoned to court and were given long sentences and lashes.

In continuation of the first gathering 54 women’s right activists gathered on August 27 2006 to implement the resolution from the June 12nd and in conclusion the establishment of Campaign for One Million Signatures was formulated. The campaign was quickly recognised by Iranian women and men and many numbers of activists who believe in equal rights in Iran and outside joined and support the campaign.

The activists of this campaign began their peaceful canvassing by distributing our literature against the discriminatory laws and collecting signature in support of changes to those laws. Unfortunately many of the campaign activists are arrested from public places such as parks or writing for women’s web sites or even arrests for holding meetings or allowing meetings to take place in their own private homes and receive summons by courts.

Activists of this campaign and as a whole the women’s movement activists have chosen the most peaceful way possible to formulate their demands but they are constantly harassed and arrested and receive court rulings such as "threat against national security", or their web sites are filtered. All this, is not in conjunction with any existing law in Iran where it states that collection of signatures is against the law and the punishment is arrests and imprisonment.

Hence we call up on all Human Right organisations to issue letters of support and call for the release of arrested activists or condemn the action of suppressing Freedom of Expression by banning or filtering our web sites.

You can support our Campaign in Iran by:

• Sign petition for support of Campaign for One Million Signatures.

• Sign the petition (for release of Iranian women’s rights activists)

• For more information click here.

• Write direct to Islamic Republic such as Mahmood Hashemi Shahrodi chief of judiciary and Ali Larijani speaker of Islamic parliament as well as Islamic Republic’s embassies in your country.

Please send letters to:

Head of the Judiciary

His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Email: [email protected]

President:

His Excellency Dr. Mahmoud AhmadiNejad

address: Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Fax: +98 21 649 5880

E-mail: [email protected]

The leader of the Iranian Parliament Majles-e Shura-ye Eslami:
Ali Larijani

address: Imam Khomeini Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Fax: +98 21 646 1746

Email: [email protected]

• Send our statements to newspapers and other media outlets.
Translate news of arrests and print or place them in your web sites.

• Support us by publicizing our site and campaign

• Post our news and articles on your website:

• Our English site is updated regularly. You can link our site or post articles by our members .

• Share with us experiences of women’s movements in your countries addressing similar issues or utilizing similar strategies, so that we can learn from the experiences of women around the World.