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RIGHTS-IRAN: Anti-Stoning Women Activists Held Indefinitely

Kimia Sanati

TEHRAN, Mar 15 2007 (IPS) - The indefinite detentions of the prominent lawyer Shadi Sadr and Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, a leading campaigner against the award of stoning sentences for adultery, are being seen here as part of increasing pressure on women’s rights activists by the Islamic republic.

Sadr and Abbasgholizadeh were among 33 people arrested on Mar. 4 for staging a peaceful protest rally in front of a ‘revolutionary court’ that was hearing the cases of five women arrested at a Jul. 12 demonstration demanding change in laws that discriminate against women.

While the others were released on bail over several days, Sadr and Abbasgholizadeh were charged with being a ‘’threat to national security’’ on Mar. 11 and had their detentions extended. Sadr was present at the Mar. 4 rally not only as a women’s rights activist but also as counsel for one of the women on trial.

Ironically, Sadr is also representing Abbasgholizadeh in another case dating back to November 2005 which is still in process. A prominent lawyer, Sadr is known for successfully overturning the convictions of several women sentenced to death.

"Women&#39s rights advocates and activists have been facing increasing pressure since a year ago. The women&#39s movement demanding changes in laws has gained enough momentum to frighten the religious and political establishment. Women&#39s rights advocates and activists are viewed as a threat to Islam in spite of the fact that many of the laws that they oppose are not fundamental Islamic tenets and can be modified with no harm done to religious tenets," a women&#39s rights activist asking not to be named told IPS.

"What frightens them most is that now more and more women are becoming aware of their rights. Men are also joining their voices with women and asking for change in laws that they consider as inhuman and derogatory to women and to themselves. As long as the movement was restricted to intellectual circles, they didn&#39t mind that much but now that the ideas are getting out and hitting the public, they will try to put out the fire in any way they can before it spreads. I see the recent arrests as a means to terrorise activists and send them back to their closed circles again," she said.

At the Jul. 12 rally a total of 70 women and men, including a former reformist parliament member, Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini, were assaulted and arrested by police and security forces even before they raised their placards. All were charged and released within days, but Khoini was held in jail on temporary detention for four months.

Under Iran’s criminal procedure laws, the investigator is authorised to issue a remand and extend the temporary detention until the date of the trial. If the prosecutor agrees with the detention – which is often the case – it is almost impossible for prisoners to appeal.

The temporary detention order issued for Sadr and Abbasgholizade means their cases would be subject to further review and that more charges are likely to be brought against them as their interrogation proceeds. The two activists have already been charged on five counts including acting against national security, holding illegal assembly and confrontation with security forces.

"The rally was pre-planned and illegal but there will be lenience towards them," Alireza Jamshidi, judiciary spokesman, was quoted by Iranian Labour News Agency as saying at a press conference. "It is illegal that a group support (defendants) not (to) attend court hearings. This is not acceptable anywhere in the world. Charges against individuals must be reviewed in relevant authorised courts with defendants&#39 attorneys attending," he said.

Women&#39s rights advocates had issued a call to a peaceful protest in front of the courthouse three days ahead of the trial of the five women. The two detained activists have reportedly accepted the responsibility for the call to protest.

Article 27 of the Iranian Constitution allows the holding rallies and marches provided that they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam and the protestors do not carry arms.

Since her arrest Sadr made two short telephone calls to her husband. But Abbasgholizadeh has been kept incommunicado. Both women are reportedly kept in solitary confinement and neither has been given access to their attorneys according to press releases by women&#39s rights advocates cited in Meydaan (Women’s Field), a website dedicated to women&#39s rights.

Both are being held in Tehran&#39s notorious Evin prison where defendants charged with acting against national security are usually held and interrogated by the intelligence ministry.

The long silence of Abbasgholizadeh has greatly alarmed her family. "She contacted us when she was arrested and jailed two years ago even though she was in solitary confinement for some twenty days," Abbasgholizadeh&#39s daughter told ‘Rooz’, a foreign-based news portal.

"This long silence is very suspicious and disturbing," she said and added that memories of the tragic death of Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian journalist who died in detention allegedly as a result of injuries inflicted by beatings, haunted her.