Mansoureh Shojaei, a women’s rights activists and co-founder of the One Million ‎Signatures to Change Discriminatory Laws Campaign, has spoken with Rooz on the third ‎anniversary of the campaign, the text of which is below.‎

Rooz (R): What plans do you have for the third year of the campaign? ‎

Mansoureh Shojaei (MS): The campaign has become a movement. I can somewhat say ‎that it is a significant part of the Iranian women’s movement. No single event has taken ‎place this year to mark the anniversary. Every person and every group, such as the ‎Change4Equality website, which is the campaign’s official website, will have a program, ‎and we will also cover the issue on the website, in both English and Farsi-language ‎sections. Other groups too will be and are orchestrating various events based on their ‎ability. ‎

R: With the campaign entering its third year, what issues would be your focus? ‎

MS: The campaign has advanced three parallel aims: gathering signatures, face-to-face ‎communication and holding educational workshops. This trend shows that small ‎institutions are forming. With the arrival of the campaign’s third anniversary, we have ‎reached the conclusion that planning committees in the campaign should undertake ‎independent activities. This shows that the experience of the past two years has made ‎them so independent that they have become institutions which follow the campaign’s ‎aims. ‎

R: Are you specially focused on the Family Protection bill being discussed in the Majlis ‎right now? Including issues raised regarding multiple marriages? ‎

MS: Opposing this bill is only one of the campaign’s demands. It is not one or two laws ‎that cause inequality in Iran. All discriminatory laws must change. We cannot focus ‎simply on the Family bill and be satisfied with several changes in that bill and forget ‎about the larger aims of the campaign. All these must be advanced in conjunction with ‎one another. However, it is natural that we spend more time on the bill because it is ‎currently discussed in Majlis and has priority. ‎

R: Do the campaign’s strategies predict discussions with government officials? From ‎Majlis representatives to experts in various governmental organizations and even ‎religious figures? ‎

MS: When you enter a legal movement, your target audience, colleagues and people you ‎engage in dialogue are different. In a legal movement, you are dealing with law-making ‎institutions, because you are criticizing the law, and focusing on changing the law. ‎Therefore, Majlis representatives are part of our target audience to effect change. You ‎see that activist women target activist representatives in letters that are published on ‎various websites. ‎

R: Do you lobby the Majlis? ‎

MS: If you mean what is technically referred to as lobbying, no, such a thing has not ‎happened. But open letters have been written to Majlis representatives. However, when ‎talking about the campaign you are not talking about a particular organization. All ‎Iranian women who are critical of the law are members of this campaign. Therefore, ‎anyone is able to undertake an independent task, and that is fine. Everyone is looking for ‎solutions to advance the campaign’s goals. You know that discussions have taken place ‎with grand ayatollahs such as Ayatollah Sanei.‎

R: Where do you hope to see the campaign next year? ‎

MS: The dream that we can have for next year is to have a civil environment, where we ‎can, relying on public support and increasing activism of campaign’s members and legal ‎support, move forward the campaign’s education and informative aspects in an ‎environment free of oppression, threat and terror. We hope to convince lawmakers that ‎present laws are appropriate for primitive societies and not in the class of Iranian women. ‎One hundred years after the arrival of modernity to Iran, it is not the time to speak of ‎multiple wives. ‎