Free Women Right Defenders in Iran

We, the undersigned, express our deep concern about presecutuoions and arrests of women's right activists in Iran. And call for the immediate and unconditional release of all of those more than thirty of women's rights movement activists and defenders on March 4th 2007 were arrested during a peaceful gathering in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

The women held banners reading, "Article 27 of the constitution guarantees the right to peaceful protests" and "We, too, participated in the previous peaceful protest on 22 Khordad" to express their protests about the trial of five women's rights activists (Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, Shahla Entesari, Noushin Ahmadi Khorassani, Parvin Ardalan and Sussan Tahmasebi) in Branch 6 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran on charges of "Propaganda against the system", "Acting against national security" and "Participating in an illegal demonstration", in connection with a peaceful demonstration on 12 June 2006 demanding equal rights in law for women in Iran. The demonstration was forcibly broken up by security forces, who arrested at least 70 people.

The gathering on March 4th too was attacked by security forces, who used violence to scatter the crowd. Thirt-three of the protesters were arrested, of whom five were released after two days by bail. According to the report published by Zanestan and Advar News, the list of those 24 women still sitting in arrest is as follows:

Nooshin Amhadi-Khorasani,
Parvin Ardalan,
Shahla Entesari,
Susan Tahmasebi,
Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh,
Nasrin Afzali,
Asieh Amini,
Zara Amjadian,
Elnaz Ansari,
Jila Bani-Yaghoub,
Somayeh Farid,
Azadeh Forghani,
Fatemeh Govarayee,
Mariam Hossein-Khah,
Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh,
Sara Imanian,
Nahid Jafari,
Jelveh Javaheri,
Nahid Keshavarz,
Sarah Loghmani,
Maryam Mirza,
Mahnaaz Mohammadi,
Minoo Mortezayee-Langroodi,
Rezan Moghaddam,
Zeinab Peyghambarzadeh,
Shadi Sadr.

The first four of names above -Nooshin Amhadi Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan, Shahla Entesari and Susan Tahmasebi- who had to attend their court hearing left the court session in support of their fellow activists. They, too, got arrested upon their departure from the court. Further, one of these women, Shahla Entesari, has been held in solitary confinement since her arrest following the protest at the court on Sunday.

The 24 women who are still in section 209 of Evin Prison have started a hunger strike in protest to their illegal confinement. They suspect that they would not be released soon.

Health conditions of three of arrested women Fatemeh Govarayi, Mahnaz Mohammadi and Parvin Ardalan (who suffers from Macular Sclerosis) has severely deteriorated because the authorities refuse to bring in a physician.

Three other of the women in arrest Nasrin Afzali, Maryam Hossienkhah and Zara Amjadian had expressed concerns for their friends' health and objected the authorities' negligence in providing health care. The three women who objected were violently beaten and taken to the criminal's ward of Evin Priosn.

So far the illness of the three women who had prior health problems have escalated and Rezvan Moghaddam is now suffering from a painful skin condition which has been described as shingles, although in the absence of a healthcare professional diagnosis is impossible.