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."
