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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Doug Green
Leadership Council Decries Arrest of Prominent Iranian Women’s Rights Activists
The Leadership Council for Human Rights joins the international human rights community in calling for the immediate release of 33 of Iran’s most respected women’s rights activists, who were detained Sunday in Tehran during a peaceful demonstration and are currently being held in a high-surveillance prison. The arrests violate the right to peaceful assembly enshrined in the Iranian Constitution and demonstrate that the Iranian government is willing to take extreme measures to suppress dissent.
The activists were staging a demonstration outside the Tehran Revolutionary Court in support of five women who were being brought to trial inside for supposedly undermining national security by protesting legalized discrimination last June. Witnesses reported that authorities used excessive force to disband the demonstration and rearrested four of the women on trial after they exited the courthouse and were caught up in the turmoil.
The arrests, made the day before the U.S. State Department issued its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, are seen by many as a tactical move by the Iranian government designed to intimidate – and possibly keep behind bars – activists preparing to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8. Hadi Ghaemi of Human Rights Watch told The Washington Post, “Practically the entire top layer of the women’s movement in Iran, except for Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, who happens to be in Italy, is in jail.”
LCHR President Kathryn Cameron Porter condemned the arrests. “We call on the international community to pressure the Iranian government to free these innocent women. They are simply acting within the limited range of options available to them to improve their lives and the lives of their children,” Ms. Porter said. “Women in the U.S. and around the world should show solidarity with these courageous activists. We ask in particular that U.S. Congresswomen show their support and that Members of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus hold a briefing to investigate this crackdown.”
For more information of the arrests, as reported by The Washington Post, click here.
For Amnesty International’s press release on the arrests, click here. |
