Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

Head of the Judiciary

Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of

the Head of the Judiciary

Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave,

south of Serah-e Jomhouri

Tehran 1316814737

Islamic Republic of Iran

Your Excellency,

The Campaign for Equality, an Iranian women’s rights initiative launched in 2006, is committed to ending discrimination against women in Iranian law. Several activists have been arrested or tried for activities which are entirely legal, such as organizing peaceful gatherings, educational workshops, or petitioning for legislative change.

The authorities have blocked access to the Campaign’s main website from inside Iran at least 12 times. Frequently denied official permission to hold public meetings, activists usually hold their workshops in the homes of sympathizers, some of whom have then been summoned by security officials for interrogation.

Campaign for Equality activists have also been prevented from travelling abroad. In March 2008, Parvin Ardalan’s passport was confiscated for 72 hours. She was banned from travelling to collect the Olof Palme Human Rights Prize for her work on behalf of women in Iran.

Dozens of women's rights defenders are known to have been arrested, summoned for trial or tried since 2006. Most of them have been charged with vaguely worded security offences. Such charges are used by the authorities to limit the activists’ internationally recognized rights to freedom of expression and association as they seek to protect and promote women’s rights in Iran. Two members of the Campaign for Equality – Ronak Safarzadeh and Hana Abdi – are currently detained as prisoners of conscience, solely because of their work for women’s rights and the rights of Iran's Kurdish minority.

Your Excellency, I call for all charges to be dropped against Campaign for Equality activists that are connected to their peaceful campaigning for equal rights for women in Iran.

I furthermore call for an end to the arrests and harassment of supporters of the Campaign for Equality.

Finally, I call for a review of Iranian legislation with a view to ending all legalized discrimination against women.

Yours sincerely,

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