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Omid Memarian
o.memarian@roozonline.com

Ms Parvin Ardalan is a founding member of the One Million Signatures Campaign to Change ‎Discriminatory Laws. Ardalan has been summoned to court only a few days after being awarded ‎the prestigious Olaf Palme Prize for her work towards gender equality in Iran. In an exclusive ‎interview, Ardalan tells Rooz that the reason for her summons is not mentioned on her summons ‎papers. ‎

Ardalan refrains from guessing the reason behind her summons. She also says that she is not ‎able to predict whether she will be arrested upon appearing in court: "I really don't know ‎anything about this, because we won't know for certain what the issue is until I come out of the ‎court. After speaking with my attorneys Shirin Ebadi and Nasrin Sotoudeh I will decide what ‎day to go to court." ‎

In the past two years, 43 women activists have been tried or imprisoned. Some of them have ‎received their convictions, and some are awaiting their sentences. Parvin Ardalan says that, in ‎total, about 10 people have been arrested for gathering signatures for the One Million Signatures ‎Campaign. ‎

This woman activist and recipient of the Olaf Palme Prize has this to say about the effect of these ‎confrontations: "every time that they arrest people the possibility that the speed of gathering ‎signatures slows down is increased. Gathering signatures has been one of the main methods of ‎publicizing the campaign. Just the fact that the controversy over discriminatory laws has found ‎its way into the press and lawmakers in the Majlis are debating it can be consequence of the ‎campaign's activities. Right now legal principles such as the dia [blood money] and inheritance ‎rights are widely debated and criticized, and lawmakers in the Majlis are discussing these issues, ‎and this shows that women's legal rights are turning into a national discourse. Given this ‎success, in my opinion that campaign has been very effective and gathering signatures is also ‎important because of the one-on-one relationship it perpetuates. What is very important is to ‎publicize the campaign and I think that we have been successful in that task up to now." ‎

Nevertheless, Ardalan is hopeful that government confrontation will not be in insurmountable ‎obstacle for a grassroots campaign that is full of conviction: "A movement that has conviction in ‎practice, and shows this conviction in its actions, can overcome these obstacles. There have ‎always been obstacles in the path of movements, but when there is conviction a movement can ‎overcome all such obstacles. The women's movement and other social movements too, because ‎they are civil and nonviolent movements, will eventually reveal their nature to the people and ‎gradually erase negative perceptions. We will do our work. The important thing is to know that ‎what we do is right and to continue doing it." ‎