Ms. Mahboobeh Abbasgholizadeh was arrested on November 1, 2004 on the orders of Tehran 's General Prosecutor, Saeid Mortazavi (who ordered the arrest of the Canadian woman journalist who died in prison). This seems to be part of an escalating campaign to repress civil society groups and human rights activists in Iran .

It seems that Mahboobeh was arrested and interrogated about her presentations at international meetings, including her address to the Asia Pacific Women's Watch Beijing+10 NGO Forum in July 2004 and her linkages with international women's rights activists. Mahboobeh, a leading activist in Iran 's growing civil society organizations, is the Editor of Farzaneh (the first women's studies journal in Iran ). She is also the Director of the NGO Training Centre that facilitates Iranian NGOs to get registered, builds their capacity to function effectively, and promotes a human rights perspective.

Mahboobeh's arrest follows a wave of other arrests of web-log writers and closure of on-line journals. Amongst those arrested is another woman journalist, Fereshteh Ghazi, writing on women's issues for the daily newspaper Etemad, who is still kept under arrest.