Do Signature Campaign Activists Belong on Trial?

2006 protest sign - "We Condemn Any Kind of Discrimination"

September 2007

Due to his presence at the June 12, 2006 demonstration, Bahman Ahmadi Amou’I, a journalist, was sentenced to six months’ prison term, suspended for two years.

September 15, 2007

Reza Dowlatshah and 24 other people were arrested during a raid on his home where he was hosting an educational workshop for the One Million Signature Campaign. He was beaten, held for three days, and finally released.

November 18, 2007

Maryam Hosseinkhah was arrested for her involvement with the Campaign’s website. She was released on January 2, 2008 along with Jelveh Javaheri, who had been arrested on December 1, 2007. Both women were released on bail in the form of a bank check guarantee in the amount of approximately $5,500.

January 2008

Ronak Safarzadeh and Hana Abdi were arrested in October and November of 2007. As of February 2008, they continue to be imprisoned without charges or trial. As of January 2008, the One Million Signature Campaign’s website had been blocked by the authorities at least seven times. Official permission to hold public meetings has frequently been denied.

February 2008

Zanan, Iran’s premier women’s magazine, was shut down by Iranian authorities. President Ahmadinejad said that Zanan showed Iranian women in a “black light” and was a threat to the psychological well being of Iranian society.

February 14, 2008

Raheleh Asgarizadeh and Nasim Khosravi were arrested and charged with “propaganda against the state” for collecting signatures at Daneshjoo Park, following a street play about polygamy, which was performed as part of the International Fajr film festival. They were initially detained at Vozara Detention Center, with bail set at $22,222, which they were not able to pay. They were then transferred to Evin prison’s public ward, and after 13 days in captivity, the bail was reduced to $11,000 and they were released on February 26, 2008 on a third party guaranty.

February 20, 2008

Ehteram Shadfar, a member of the Mothers Committee of the One Million Signatures Campaign, is sentenced to 6 months suspended prison term for collecting signatures.

February 24, 2008

The One Million Signature Campaign was launched a year and a half ago. Since the launch, the cost of pushing this social movement forward has been the issuance of temporary detention warrants for 43 Campaign activists (ranging from one day to five months), and the issuance of suspended prison sentences (a total of 18 months). Acts of harassment and persecution happen during signature collection in public, following educational workshops, after small or large gatherings in Tehran and the provinces, and sometimes due to dissemination of news about the Campaign through its website.

March 3, 2008

Journalist and campaign organizer Parvin Ardalan is removed from a flight at Tehran International Airport, just as she is about to travel to Stockholm, Sweden to be awarded the 2007 Olaf Palme Prize for her work on gender equality. The authorities seized her passport and served her with a summons to appear in court.

April 19, 2008

The Sixteenth branch of the Revolutionary Courts issued a suspended sentence of two years in the case of Zeinab Payghambarzadeh, who was among the March 4, 2007 arrestees. Payghambarzadeh was found guilty of illegal gathering and collusion intended to disrupt national security.

April 23, 2008

The Thirteenth Branch of the Revolutionary Courts issued a suspended sentence of 6 months and 10 lashings in the case of Nahid Jafari, women’s rights activist and member of the One Million Signatures Campaign, also among the 33 women arrested on March 4, 2007. Jafari was found guilty of illegal gathering and collusion intended to disrupt national security. During her arrest, Jafari was beaten, and lodged a complaint against arresting officers, for excessive use of force. Jafari, along with her lawyer, Zohreh Arzani, intends to appeal her sentence.

April 30, 2008

The Thirteenth Branch of the Revolutionary Courts issued a 3 year suspended sentence of 6 months and 10 lashings in the case of Rezvan Moghaddam, another of the March 4 arrestees and active member of the One Million Signatures Campaign. Moghaddam was found guilty of illegal gathering and collusion intended to disrupt national security. She intends to appeal the sentence, which is suspended for the period of 3 years.

May 13, 2008

Maryam Hosseinkhah, woman’s rights activist and a founding member the Campaign was summoned to the Revolutionary Courts. Hosseinkhah, who had also participated in the March 4, 2007 protest, was initially to appear before the courts in November of 2007. At the time, however, she could not appear in court, as she was being held on security charges related to her activities with the Campaign’s website, Change for Equality, as well as the site Zanestan (the webzine of the Women’s Cultural Center).

May 17, 2008

Jelveh Javaheri, women’s rights activist and member of the Campaign, who had previously been arrested on December 1, 2007 and spent a month in prison before her release on bail, was summoned by the 13th branch of the Revolutionary Courts. Her trial is scheduled for August 2, 2008.

May 25, 2008

The Tehran Revolutionary Court sentences Amir Yaghoub-Ali, a student and a member of the One Million Signatures Petition Campaign, to one year of imprisonment for “endangering national security”. Mr. Amir Yaghoub-Ali had been arrested on July 11, 2007 as he was collecting signatures for the Campaign in a park. On July 15, he had been transferred to the Section 209 of Evin Prison, in Tehran. He remained in custody for 29 days and was then freed on bail on August 8, 2007. Eleven charges were pending against him, though no information has been obtained on the other charges. Mr. Yaghoub-Ali intends to appeal this decision.

May 26, 2008

Activist Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh was summoned to court for trial on May 26, 2008. Hosseinzadeh was arrested on March 4, 2007 along with 32 other women’s rights activists, during a protest held before the Revolutionary Courts. Both Hosseinzadeh and her lawyer, Abdulfateh Soltani appeared in court on May 26 for the scheduled trial, but the trial was rescheduled due to the fact that the prosecutor was unable to appear in court. A court date in relation to this case has been scheduled for Hosseinzadeh for Tuesday July 1, 2008.

June 12, 2008

Women’s rights activists plan to commemorate the second anniversary of the June 12 2006 demonstration. The gathering is threatened by security forces and 9 women who had arrived at the event anyway were arrested. The women, Nafiseh Azad, Jila Baniyaghoob, Alieh Eghdamdoost, Farideh Ghaeb, Jelveh Javaheri, Sarah Loghmani, Nahid Mirhaj, Aida Saadat, and Nasrin Sotoudeh, were taken to the Vozara Detention Center, and released 8 hours later, after third parties signed for their release.

June 13, 2008

Mahboubeh Karami, a member of the Campaign was arrested in Tehran, near Mellat Park.

June 18, 2008

Judge Tayari in Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj sentences Hana Abdi, a 21 year-old student and women’s rights activist to a prison term of five years in exile in West Azerbaijan province, on charges of “gathering and colluding to threaten national security” under article 610 of the Islamic Penal Code. According to Abdi’s lawyer, Mohammad Sharif, Abdi who had been in prison since around November 4, 2007, was interrogated by Intelligence Ministry officials during her incarceration. Abdi spent two months of her imprisonment in solitary confinement. Sharif was refused access to his client during the interrogation process, which formed the basis of her conviction. Abdi’s attorney plans to appeal the decision.

June 25, 2008

Mahboubeh Karami informs her family, via telephone, that she has been transferred to the women’s ward of Evin Prison.

June 28, 2008

Campaign members Raheleh Asgarizadeh and Nasim Khosravi, have been summoned to the Revolutionary Courts. According to the summons they have to appear in the 13th branch of the Revolutionary Courts on the 20th of July, 2008. The two were arrested while collecting signatures on February 14, 2008, and have been released on bail since February 26, 2008. The July court date is in relation to charges pending against them since that arrest.

July 9, 2008

Zeinab Bayzeydi, a women’s rights activist and member of the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan and active with the One Million Signatures Campaign in the city of Mahabad in Kurdistan Province is arrested. According to Bayzeydi’s family, Zeinab was first interrogated on Saturday July 5th for several hours, and was released. She was summoned again on July 9, and when she appeared, she was transferred to a detention center in Mahabad.

July 12, 2008

Two prominent human rights defenders, Nasrin Sotoudeh and Mansoureh Shojaee, receive summons to appear within 3 days. Sotoodeh is an attorney who has represented many of the activists involved with the Signatures Campaign and has also been active on the issue of juvenile executions. Shojaee, a member of the Signatures Campaign, is also a member of a women’s cultural center and sits on the editorial board of the website “Feminist School.” Reportedly, the summons they have received does not provide any information on the charges against them. Human rights defender and Nobel peace prize recipient Shirin Ebadi will be representing the two women.

July 12, 2008

The attorney representing Mahboubeh Karami, Houshang Poorbaaba’i reports that he referred to Branch 2 of security courts and discovered that his client’s bail has been set at 100 million tomans (in excess of $100,000) – an amount her family is unable to pay. Karami, was arrested on June 13th and while detained in the women’s ward at Evin prison, participated in a hunger strike with 9 other detainees to protest their detention and detention conditions.

July 13, 2008

Bahareh Hedayat and Mohammad Hashemi, two members of a reformist student organization (the “Office to Foster Unity”) are arrested and taken to Evin prison. The two reportedly stand accused of having relationships with “illegal and anti-revolutionary groups outside the country.” In addition to being involved in the student movement, Hedayat had been among the activists put on trial for her participation in the June 12 2006 demonstration. In that case, she had been charged with “acting against national security, “disturbing public order,” and “propaganda against the state.” For her participation in the protest, Hedayat was sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence in effect for five years.

July 14, 2008

Nasrin Sotoudeh and Mansoureh Shojaee appear before the Revolutionary Court with their attorney, Shirin Ebadi. The two are charged with taking actions against Iran’s “national security” by having unauthorized relations with “Iranians outside the country.”
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