Women Protest to Eliminate Legal Discrimination in Iran - UPDATE
26 June 2006

As reported by CCD on June 9, a group of Iranian women activists held a peaceful rally June 12, demanding an end to all forms of legal discrimination against women in Iran. They were also calling for changes in several laws: banning of polygamy; equal marriage rights, including equal divorce and child custody rights for both spouses; increasing the legal age of children to 18 years of age; equal value placed on women's testimony in court; and eliminating temporary work contracts that negatively impact women.

Iranian police used batons and pepper gas to break up the demonstration, which was held in Tehran, as was anticipated by the protestors in their earlier appeal. Jamal Karimi Rad, Iranian Minister of the Judiciary, said seventy people were arrested, including more than forty women, because they took park in an “illegal demonstration.” Human rights groups, such as Women Living Under Muslim Laws and Amnesty International, believe the number of detainees could be much higher, including arrests made before and after the actual protest.

Some of the demonstrators have been released on bail; those still in custody are reportedly being held at Evin prison, which was built to house political dissidents but has become known as the site of thousands of political executions. One of the demonstrators still being detained is Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini, a long-time critic of the Iranian government’s human rights practices and head of the Alumni Association of Iran, a leading student rights group. Human Rights First is asking people to take action and demand Khoini’s release.

CCD was informed by the World Movement for Democracy of this demonstration and the threat the women leading it faced. Readers are asked to support, in any way possible, the right of these women to end legal discrimination against women in Iran.

Those concerned can visit Women Living Under Muslim Laws for more information. Click here to read our earlier article on the protest.