Some News about Women Activists in Recent Weeks

Feministschool: Although Negin Sheykholeslami and Fatemeh Goftari were released, Zeinab Bayazidi, Ronak Safarzadeh and Hana Abdi are still in prison in Kurdestan and also Shahnaz Gholami is in prison in Tabriz.

Shahnaz Gholami, Azerbaijani’s Activist ,has been transferred to Tabriz prison

Shahnaz Gholami ,Azerbaijani’s activist and women’s rights defender,who was arrested on November 9,2008 at her house in Tabriz,has been transferred to Tabriz prison according to the reports Shahnaz has been transferred to the women’s ward of Tabriz prison on November 18,2008 Prior to this she had been in jail for five years (1989-1993)in Tabriz prison and also for one month on July 2009 for participating in the first anniversary of demonstration in Azerbaijan cities .Shahnaz Gholami is the manager of Azar zan’s weblog and a member of women journalist association.

Faranak Farid was summoned to Tabriz intelligence office

Faranak Farid ,Azerbaijani’s women rights activist and a member of campaign for one million signatures in Tabriz,was summoned to the Tabriz intelligence office and also she wasn’t allowed to participate in the women’s rights conference in Turkey. she was invited to speak in the conference from November 28 2008 for three days about women rights condition in Iran,Turkey and Azerbaijan

Sites of the One Million Signatures Campaign have been Filtered Again

Feminist School web site was filtered for the 7th time and also Change for Equality was blocked for the 17th time, along with several other sites reporting on the Campaign from the provinces and other countries.

Other sites related to the Campaign which were blocked in this sweeping move of censorship include sites of the Campaign operating from: Hamedan, Azarbaijan, Zahedan, Shiraz, Mashad, Zabol, Amol, Ilam, Kermanshah, Rasht, Arak, California, Kuwait, Germany, Cyprus , Sweden and Karaj along with the weblog of the men’s committee, the weblog of the working group on equal inheritance, and the photoblog of the Campaign.

Additionally women’s sites such as the Women’s Solidarity Network, and weblogs addressing women’s issues, such as Parandeh Kharzar, Zananeha, Havva, and Free Keyboard were blocked through this mass effort at censorship.

Negin Sheykholeslami was released on bail in the amount of 50,000$

Negin Sheykholeslami was released on bail in the amount of 50,000$ .All in all Negin remained imprisoned for 50 days in Evin prison and in the end one of the revolutionary court branches in Tehran decided that until the court hearing Negin be freed.Three other Kurds activists , Zeynab Bayazidi Ronak Safarzadeh and Hana Abdi,are still in prison .

Tehran Police shut down NGO supporting street children

Police shut-down the Society for Defense of Street and Working Children on November 22, 2008,a nongovernmental organization based in Tehran, The society was founded in 2003 to "empower street and working children [and] to familiarize society with their dilemmas."

Tehran’s police last year warned the NGO that its work permit had expired and that it would be required to reapply for a new permit due to its decision to convene "mixed-gender classes and to register [illegal] immigrant children for class attendance."

The education committee of the society provided classroom instruction up to the seventh grade for 160 children between the ages of 7 and 18.

But Colonel Hamdollah of the Law Enforcement Force’s Immigration and Aliens Office ordered the society to shutdown and end its activities.