Iran: Police Attack Women's Day Celebration

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Iran: Police Attack Women's Day Celebration

(New York, March 9, 2006) - Iranian police and plainclothes agents yesterday charged a peaceful assembly of women's rights activists in Tehran and beat hundreds of women and men who had gathered to commemorate International Women's Day, Human Rights Watch said today.

The attack took place shortly after participants in the celebration assembled at Tehran's Daneshjoo Park at 4 P.M. on Wednesday, March 8.

"The Iranian authorities marked International Women's Day by attacking hundreds of people who had peacefully assembled to honor women's rights," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Once again, Iran's government has signaled that it is ready to use violence to suppress peaceful public assembly of any sort."

Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that plainclothes agents, anti-riot police and Revolutionary Guards surrounded the park where hundreds of activists gathered to mark International Women's Day.

"This was a completely peaceful gathering with no political overtones or slogans," one participant told Human Rights Watch. "We just held up signs in solidarity with the international women's rights movement."

Within minutes, after agents photographed and videotaped the gathering, the police told the crowd to disperse. In response, the participants staged a sit-in and started to sing the anthem of the women's rights movement, one participant told Human Rights Watch.

The security forces then dumped cans of garbage on the heads of women who were seated before charging into the group and beating them with batons to compel them to leave the park.

"As we started to run away and seek shelter, they followed us and continued to beat us. I was beaten several times on my arm, below the waist, and on my wrist," an activist said.

The commander of security forces at the scene, Ghodratollah Mahmoudi, told the Iranian Labor News Agency that "this gathering was held without an official permit. The response by the security forces prevented the gathering to take on a political dimension."

Among those present at the gathering was Simin Behbahani, a renowned Iranian poet. According to an eyewitness, "Behbahani was beaten with a baton, and when people protested that she is in her seventies and she can barely see, the security officer kicked her several times and continued to hit her with his baton."

The security forces also took several foreign journalists into custody and confiscated their photographic equipment and video footage before releasing them.

On the previous day, March 7, the Iranian interior ministry summoned several women's rights activists and warned them to cancel the gathering. The activists responded that the event is an annual celebration by many women's rights groups and that they were not organizing the event.

The attack on women's rights activists highlights the Iranian government's consistent policy of suppressing freedom of association and assembly, Human Rights Watch said.

Since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in August, security forces have repeatedly resorted to violence to suppress peaceful gatherings. In January, security forces in Tehran attacked and arrested hundreds of striking bus drivers who were protesting working conditions.

In February, security forces in the city of Qom used excessive force and tear gas to detain hundreds of Sufi followers who had gathered in front of their house of worship to prevent its destruction by the authorities.

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Hadi Ghaemi (English, Farsi):
+1-212-216-1231

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: MDE 13/024/2006 (Public)
10 March 2006

Iran: Amnesty International condemns violence against women demonstrators in Iran

Amnesty International condemns the violent action taken by Iranian police, Revolutionary Guards and others on 8 March to forcibly disperse about 1,000 women who had gathered peacefully in Tehran to commemorate International Women??Ts Day. Scores of women are reported to have been beaten by the police and those assisting them.

The women had gathered in Daneshjoo (Students) park, where they began a peaceful sit-in and displayed banners with slogans such as "discrimination against women is an abuse of human rights", "women demand their human rights", and "Iranian women demand peace". Initially, there were about 100 police present but as the protest continued busloads more police and also members of the plain clothes Basij militia, and special anti-riot forces belonging to the Revolutionary Guards, arrived at the park. They filmed and photographed the women protestors and then ordered them to disperse, on the grounds that the gathering had not been officially authorized.

However, the protestors did not do so and at 4.20pm, after one of them read out a statement calling for greater rights for women, the security forces charged them and began assaulting them. Many were beaten with batons, some by teams of security men. For example, Simin Behbehani, an elderly feminist poet with poor sight, was beaten with a baton and kicked repeatedly by security forces. Journalists present at the protest who had filmed the event were reportedly arrested, only released from custody after their film and photographs were confiscated.

Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian government to undertake an immediate investigation into this excessive use of force by police and other security forces and to ensure that those responsible for the assaults and violence against demonstrators are brought to justice promptly and fairly. The organization is also calling on the Iranian authorities to respect the right to freedom of assembly and expression, in accordance with Iran's obligations under international law.

The organization reminds the Iranian authorities of Article 12 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. This states that "Everyone has the right to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms." The Declaration requires states to take all necessary measures to ensure the protection against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.

Background information As reflected in the recent report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women Yakin Ertuk, women in Iran are discriminated against in law; by discriminatory provisions in the Civil and Penal Code; and by flaws in the administration of justice. Women are currently barred from running for Presidential office, they do not have equal rights to divorce, after divorce they can have custody of their children only up until the age of seven years, and blood money for a murdered woman is half that of a man. Under the previous parliament, women parliamentarians pushed for reform of discriminatory law, and introduced 33 bills, many of which were rejected by the Council of Guardians on the grounds that they were incompatible with Shari??Ta law, including a proposal to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Human rights defenders in Iran face severe limitations on their work. Iranian legislation severely restricts freedom of expression and association and human rights defenders often face reprisals for their work in the form of harassment, intimidation, attacks, detention, imprisonment and torture. Many are subject to travel bans that prevent them from leaving the country. The registration process for independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including human rights organizations such as the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights run by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, is complex and registration is frequently denied, leaving NGOs at risk of enforced closure.

For further information
please see Iran: New government fails to address dire human rights situation (AI Index MDE 13/010/2006, February 2006)

Peaceful Iranian women's rights gathering on 8th March, ends in violence Women Living Under muslim Laws

The peaceful gathering of women's rights activists, women's groups and human rights defenders in Park Daneshjoo was attacked and women were assaulted by plain clothes militia, special anti riot forces of the Revolutionary guards, soldiers and police. (Anonymous)

Approximately 1,000 women had gathered in Park Daneshjoo on the occasion of the International Women's Day to emphasize their stance in support of women's human rights and peace. The ceremony which started at 4:00 pm, and was scheduled to last one hour, was charged by security forces shortly after it began, who relentlessly beat the protesters, in an effort to disperse the group.

The sit-in, which was organized by independent women's groups and activists, was supposed to be carried out silently, with protesters holding signs reading some of the following statements and slogans: discrimination against women, is an abuse of their human rights; women demand their human rights; women oppose any form of forced aggression or war; Iranian women demand peace; injustice means discrimination against women, etc.

Ten minutes into the protest, after security forces had managed to fully film and photograph the protesters for follow-up and interrogations at a later time, the women were asked to disperse, on the grounds that their assembly was illegal and did not have a permit. At this point, the protesters started singing the anthem of the women's movement, which again calls for changes in their human rights status. At 4:20 the final statement of the sit in was read, during which the security forces dumped cans of garbage on the heads of women who were seated in an effort to prevent easy dispersal. The security forces then charged the group and began beating the protesters. Even after the protesters had dispersed many were followed by the security forces and beaten. Some of the female protesters were beaten repeatedly with batons, and some male protesters were beaten severely by security forces who administered the beatings in teams.

Ms. Simin Behbehani, feminist poet, who is elderly and has difficulty with her vision did not escape the wrath of the police either. She was beaten by a baton and then kicked repeatedly by security guards, amidst objection by women protesters. Female and male pedestrians passing by the protest also received beatings by the police.

Journalists, including several foreign correspondents, who had filmed and photographed the event, were rounded up, held in custody and released only after their films and photographs had been confiscated.

The security forces were estimated at over 100, with busloads being added during the course of the protest. All carried batons and the women were repeatedly told by the security forces as they administered beatings that they had orders to beat the protesters.

While the Iranian constitutions allows for peaceful gatherings without permit, the government requests a permit for public gatherings. Women's rights groups have been repeatedly denied requests to hold public gatherings, and so they have chosen to exercise their rights of assembly in organizing peaceful gatherings without obtaining permits.

Iranian women have in solidarity with their sisters internationally been publicly celebrating international women's day for several years. The pressure has increasingly grown on groups who which to commemorate this event. This latest development is part of a growing pressure on women's groups and women's rights activists as well as human rights defenders and civil society leaders in Iran. In June of 2005 thousands of women gathered in front of Tehran University asking for changes in the constitution with respect to women's rights. Many of the women involved in the protest were subsequently called in for questioning by security forces, interrogated, repeatedly harassed and some organizations were denied permits of operation due to their involvement in the Tehran university protest. Women's rights activists believe that interrogations, harassments, and pressure on their organizations, including closure and arrests will increase as a result of this latest event.

We hope that the international community, especially women's groups and human rights organizations will stand in solidarity with Iranian women, to condemn this violent attack of women's rights defenders in Iran. We especially urge women's groups in the region and from Islamic countries to protest the violent actions of the security forces against women's rights activists and defenders.