Nasrin Sotudeh, who represents the four women, told the ISNA news agency that they were interrogated on issues related to the campaign known as “one million signatures demanding changes to discriminatory laws.” The campaign was initiated earlier this year as a grassroots effort to educate the public and raise awareness of gender discrimination in Iran.

 

Earlier this spring intelligence officers arrested more than 60 activists who had attended a gathering to kick off the campaign. Some of those arrested, like Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini, spent five months in jail. Throughout this time, women’s activists were summoned repeatedly to security centers and were interrogated.

Some of the charges that these activists are accused of include undermining national security and cooperating with the enemy.

The recent attempts by Iran’s women’s rights activists have grabbed the attention of international women’s rights activists. For the first time, for instance, nine Nobel Peace laureates voiced their support of Iranian women in an open letter. Many international organizations also objected to the harsh treatment of women who gathered to protest gender discrimination earlier this summer.

It seems as if the regime’s security officials feel threatened by the campaign that these four women helped to launch, especially because a number of prominent religious scholars have also declared some of Iran’s gender laws unjust in the past few months.

 

The women’s campaign will continue until one million signatures are collected mandating a change in discriminatory gender laws. Given the number of organizers, this effort could last anywhere from one and up to two years.

On their website the campaign’s organizers write, “The demands of campaign are not in contradiction to Islamic Law: The demand to reform and change discriminatory laws is not in contradiction to Islamic law and is in line with Iran’s international commitments. Iran is a signatory to the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights and as such, is required to eliminate all forms of discrimination. Based on these commitments, the government of Iran needs to take specific action in reforming laws that promote discrimination.”