The battle against Iran’s One Million Signature Campaign (Against Gender Discrimination) continues unrelentlessly. This campaign is the most peaceful manner a citizenry can protest anything: i.e. request government agencies to review a number of laws through the existing legal framework. But despite this, judiciary officials are incredibly unrelentless in its efforts to summon, prosecute and punish the activists of this movement all of whom are young women with impeccable credentials in volunteerism.
Another outstanding feature in the battle against this campaign are the attempts to suppress the real reasons for battling this movement, which calls for nothing other than a change in the discriminatory laws of the country. In short, the judiciary makes every effort to hide the real and specific reason for creating dossiers against the movement’s activists. The charge that these activists face is “activities against national security.” Even judges do not seem to bother to clarify that how can women and young girls who are requesting the Majlis to review a number of laws within the current legal structure of the Islamic Republic of Iran be labeled to be acting against national security. This charge is normally used against those either take up arms against the state or are engaged in clear acts of espionage.
To demonstrate how the state responds to members of the One Million Signature Campaign the case of Maryam Hosseinkhah is a good example. She proudly defended the righteousness of her demands in the trials and who continues her commitment to fight for women’s rights even after incarceration by making available to the public the events that are going on in prison and the treatment that prisoners receive behind the bars. The court ordered the extremely heavy bail of 100 million Toman (about $120,000) for this activist. She couldn’t pay it, and so was sent to jail. It is interesting to note that even when the owner of a prominent newspaper volunteered to personally guarantee this activist's presence at trial, the court rejected his offer. And when her husband announced that neither he nor his wife could acquire that much money (which was published on some Internet news sites), some government authorities charged him with spreading propaganda against the judiciary.
This manner of confrontation is not an isolated example. It is routinely carried out against women’s rights activists. By what legal standards is a man’s mention that he cannot pay the bail of his wife considered propaganda against the judiciary? Or what about a woman who wishes to change the laws that allow her husband to take multiple wives and is accused of acting against national security? Really, one should say bravo to whoever advances such logic and arguments!
The reality is that this kind of logic not only does not help national security, it in fact undermines it. Those who present such arguments only demonstrate the weaknesses of the state and are shooting themselves in the foot. I wish they were not afraid to honestly mention what they are really scared off, which is not national security, but the security of the male-chauvinistic order which they are entrusted to protect.
Wouldn’t it be easier if the officials who are confronting the activities and members of the One Million Signature Campaign came forward and announced that what they are really afraid of is gender equality in Iran and thus label is to be illegal?
