‎
Shirin Karimi

With the intensification of the confrontation with women activists and the prevention of ‎women’s activist Parvin Ardalan from leaving the country to participate in the Swedish ‎ceremony to receive her Olaf Palme award last week, security agents have now barred ‎another women’s movement activist Mansureh Shojayi who was on her way to Dubain ‎with attorney Nasrin Sotudeh to join a group of Iranian women to commemorate the ‎International Women’s Day.‎

Nasrin Sotudeh who is an attorney for the One Million Signature Campaign told a ‎reporter from the Kanoon’e Zanan (Women’s Center) website, “12 hours before our ‎flight, individuals who identified themselves as agents from Iran’s Ministry of ‎Intelligence called me and said that I could not take this trip.”‎

The caller also said, “We know that you are on your way to Dubai and to run a training ‎workshop or organize a ceremony for March 8th …, and so we wanted to tell you in ‎advance to forego this trip or this trip will considered a measure against the security of ‎the state.”‎

According to this report, in response to the statements by the caller, Nasrin Sotudeh ‎called the request “lacking legal basis” and told the caller that she would go on the trip. ‎Based on this, Nasrin Sotudeh and Mansureh Shojayi went to Imam Khomeini airport on ‎March 10 this week where they were prevented from boarding their plane.‎

With this latest ban, three members of the Markaze Farhangie Zanan (Women’s Cultural ‎Center) that includes Talaat Taghinia, Parvin Ardalan and Mansureh Shojayi are banned ‎from leaving the country. Last week, Parvin Ardalan was stopped from leaving the ‎country at the airport when she tried to board a plane to go to receive her Olaf Palme ‎award that she received recently. A month before that another member of the Center ‎Talaat Taghinia who was on her way to a vacation to Morocco learned that she was ‎banned from leaving the country. Her passport was confiscated at the airport and she was ‎given a note to follow up her ban.‎