[GRACE] Iranian women beaten during protest

[Jennifer Radloff]

BBC News, Tehran: 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5073328.stm

Images of the violence unleashed against women activists:
http://www.kosoof.com/archive/2006/Jun/12/425.php

Sign on to support Iranian women 
http://herlandmag.com/news/06,06,07,12,33,14/

-----------------------------
Iran police beat women activists

Police in Iran have beaten a small group of women activists
trying to hold a protest for greater legal rights in the biggest
square of the capital.

Several people were arrested by the security forces who moved in
almost as soon as activists started gathering.

About 20 women sat on the grass in Haft-e Tir Square in central
Teheran and began to sing a feminist song.

They were calling for equal divorce and custody rights and a ban
on polygamy.

The police who massively outnumbered the protestors, almost
immediately started beating the women to disperse them.

The viciousness of the police attack caused men who were passing
by in the street to protest, our correspondent says.

"These are our sisters, how can you do this?" passers-by shouted
at police.

The women then gathered again on the other side of the square,
but the police used pepper spray against them and onlookers.

As the police started making arrests members of the public who
had nothing to do with the protest repeatedly shouted: "Leave
them alone."

One man screamed at the police, saying: "Why do you take money
from the government to beat women like this?"

The women activists had advertised their action in advance on
the internet where they said they were calling for an end to
Islamic laws they believe are discriminatory.


The demonstration had been called to support a petition for
women's rights.  The petition text reads as follows:

We, the undersigned, would like to express our support for
Iranian women in their continued struggle to gain equal rights
under the civil and penal codes of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Specifically, we support Iranian women in their peaceful protest
scheduled for June 12, 2006 demanding the end to all forms of
legal discrimination and changes to the following laws:
* Banning of polygamy;
* Equal divorce rights;
* Equal child custody rights for mothers and fathers;
* Equal rights in marriage (like women's right to choose her own
employment, travel freely, etc);
* Increase in the legal age of children to 18 years of age
(currently girls are viewed as adults at 9 years of age and boys
at 15 years of age, making them eligible to be tried as adults);

* Equal value placed on women's testimony in court; and
* Elimination of temporary work contracts which
disproportionately and negatively impact women.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Sign on at http://herlandmag.com/news/06,06,07,12,33,14/

BACKGROUND

22nd of Khordad: Iranian Women's Protest Against Sexist Laws

For the past 100 years, since the constitutional period, Iranian
women have worked toward achieving their human rights and equal
status under the legal system. Despite these efforts, women's
most basic rights have been ignored within the Iranian civil and
penal codes. Needless to say lack of legal guarantees and
equality under the law has imposed severe obstacles and
consequences on the lives of Iranian women.

Last year, on the 22nd of Khordad (12th of June, 2005) Iranian
women voiced their unanimous objection to all discriminatory
laws which violated their human rights. Our voices and demands,
however, have been left unanswered. This year, in follow-up to
their demands, Iranian women will come together in protest on
June 12 th, 2006 to once again ask for their rights. Our demands
include:
1. Banning of polygamy;
2. Equal right to divorce;
3. Equal child custody rights for mothers and fathers;
4. Equal rights in marriage (like women's right to choose her
own employment, travel freely, etc);
5. Increase in the legal age of children to 18 years of age
(currently girls are viewed as adults at 9 years of age and boys
at 15 years of age, making them eligible to be tried as adults);

6. Equal value placed on women's testimony in court; and
7. Elimination of temporary work contracts which
disproportionately and negatively impact women.
We ask all individuals who object to the legal violations of
women's rights to join this gathering on Monday, 22nd of
Khordad, 5-6pm, Haft-e-Tir Square.

http://www.wluml.org/english/actionsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[156]=i-156
-538333

(Peaceful Iranian women's rights gathering on 8th March ends in
violence http://www.quicktopic.com/19/H/nV4WDtdd6iMqf/m1298)


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