Iran jails male backer of feminism petition: report

TEHRAN (AFP) — A male defender of the feminist cause in Iran has been sentenced to a year in prison, the moderate Kargozaran newspaper reported on Monday without providing further details.

Amir Yaqoubali is a supporter of the "One Million Signatures" petition campaign launched in June 2006. According to a feminist website he was arrested as he collected signatures.

The campaign seeks to change the Islamic republic's laws on marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody by collecting signatures both online and in person.

In recent months four feminists -- Rezvan Moghadam, Nahid Jafari, Nasrin Afzali and Marzieh Mortazi Langueroudi -- were handed down suspended sentences of six months in prison and 10 lashes by Tehran Revolutionary Court for disorderly conduct in public.

They took part in March 2007 in a rally outside the same court to protest against the arrest of five feminists the previous June.

The authorities have also arrested several feminism activists, some of whom are still in jail.