http://www.learningpartnership.org/en/advocacy/alerts/iranwomenarrests0307

One Million Signatures campaign activist Jelveh Javaheri has been issued a six month prison sentence by Iran’s Revolutionary Courts for her participation in a peaceful protest on June 12, 2008. Ms. Javaheri has been targeted for arrest and harassment on numerous occasions as a result of her work as a women’s rights activist and journalist, most recently on May 1, 2009 for taking part in a demonstration marking International Workers Day, for which she spent over one month in prison, including sixteen days in solitary confinement. She was also issued a six month sentence in 2008 for “disturbing public opinion, propaganda against the state, publication of lies for writing for the site of the Campaign (Change for Equality).” This new sentence is based on charges that Ms. Javaheri “endangered state security” as she joined other women’s rights activists in commemoration of the National Day of Solidarity of Iranian Women. She had been awaiting a ruling based on that arrest for almost sixteen months.

WLP wishes to express our deep concern for the personal safety and security of women’s rights activists such as Ms. Javaheri, who has written an account of women imprisoned as a result of discriminatory laws. Journalists and human rights defenders must be allowed to speak out without threats of harassment, arrest, and torture. As government restrictions on free expression have tightened and reports of prisoner torture and rape have increased following this year’s presidential election, WLP calls upon the Iranian government to protect the rights of all detainees.