HRW: Iran: Stop Undermining Women's Rights

On International Women's Rights Day, Iranian Activists to Open Campaign for Equality

(Beirut, March 7, 2010) - Iran should stop infringing on women's rights and take immediate steps to meet Iranian women's demands for full equality, Human Rights Watch said today. Iranian women's rights activists have issued a call for freedom and gender equality in Iran in connection with International Women's Rights Day on March 8.

Their campaign, Call for Solidarity: Freedom and Gender Equality in Iran, seeks an end to state-led violence and other forms of repression directed against both men and women. On January 10, 2010, for example, more than 30 women were beaten at a weekly vigil in Tehran. The women were seeking news of their sons and daughters who had been detained during the protests following the June 2009 presidential elections. This campaign calls on the authorities to immediately release all political detainees, including many women's rights activists.

"This initiative of Iranian women's rights activists is crucial to the overall struggle for democracy in Iran," said Nadya Khalife, women's rights researcher for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch. "It is also a tribute to the strength of women, who continue to demand their rights and support fellow citizens in the toughest of times."

For more than 30 years, the women's rights movement has been at the forefront in the struggle for human rights and gender equality in Iran, Human Rights Watch said. Iranian women have been subjected to a range of discriminatory laws and practices, often under the guise of enforcing Islamic law.

As an example, the Legal and Judicial Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of the Parliament is pressing for passage of a Family Support Bill, including an amendment that would legalize polygamy. Under the proposed measure, a husband could take a new wife if his wife is diagnosed with a terminal illness, is away from home for six months, or even if she is imprisoned for a bounced check.

"Iranian women have bravely sought over and over to end gender-based discrimination, only to be met with threats, arrests, and imprisonment of activists," Khalife said. "Human Rights Watch calls on the Iranian government to allow women's rights groups to operate freely, without harassment, or worse."

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Iranian Women Launch Campaign for Gender Equality

Written by Benjamin Joffe-Walt
Published Sunday, March 07, 2010

International Women's Rights Day campaign launched two months after beatings of the 'Mourning Mothers'

Iranian women's activists have launched a campaign for gender equality to mark International Women's Rights Day.

The campaign, Call for Solidarity: Freedom and Gender Equality in Iran, targets gender-based discrimination against women and what campaigners describe as state-led violence.

Launched on International Women's Rights Day (March 8), the campaign comes two months after 32 women known as the 'Mourning Mothers' were beaten and arrested at a weekly vigil for their sons and daughters who have been missing since protests began after the disputed June 2009 national elections.

One of the 32 women remains in detention and 6 female supporters of the 'Mourning Mothers' have since been arrested. The women are believed to be detained in the notorious Section 209 of Evin prison, which is administered by Iran's Intelligence Ministry. Rights groups say none of the women have been charged with any offense or granted access to lawyers hired by their families.

"There have been many infringement on women's rights since the elections," Nadya Khalife, the women's rights researcher for the Middle East at Human Rights Watch told The Media Line. "Women are being detained imprisoned and harassed just like anyone else, so this campaign is not looking only at gender discrimination but positioning the women's rights movement as a component of the larger protest movement."

“Iranian women have bravely sought over and over to end gender-based discrimination, only to be met with threats, arrests, and imprisonment of activists,” Khalife said. “Human Rights Watch calls on the Iranian government to allow women’s rights groups to operate freely, without harassment, or worse.”

"There have been various campaigns over the past few years and there may be some provisions which have improved women's rights along the way but there are still many that are discriminatory and there remains a lot more to be done," she added.

Dr Eldad Pardo, an expert in Iranian gender issues at the Harry Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, said that while conditions for women in Iran have improved, women's rights issues are increasingly prominent in mainstream Iranian political culture.

”Things have improved since the 1980s, when there was pretty extreme gender apartheid in Iran," he told The Media Line. "But the general picture is that the Islamic Shiite legal system is still extremely anti-women. Women are still discriminated against, harassed by police patrols, forced to give away their children when they divorce and you still have stonings of women."

"As a result, the status of women has become a symbol of oppression for the Iranian opposition," Dr Pardo said. "The plight of women has become a metaphor for the plight of the Iranian nation and as a result women will continue to present a problem for the regime, because large sections of the Iranian population, particularly in the cities, would like to see straightforward equality, including gender equality and everything else."

Women's rights have seen gradual improvements over recent years in Iran. Efforts are underway to reform gender-based compensation laws, in which a family of a woman who dies is awarded half the amount awarded to a dead man. Iranian parliamentarians have also discussed reforms to gender-based inheritance rights and introducing laws against the ability of Iranian men to marry many wives.

But President Ahmadinejad's administration began strengthening sex segregation laws in his first term, beginning with a ban on women being present in government ministry offices after working hours. This was followed by a program to replace male teachers in girls' high schools with female teachers. Shortly thereafter the country's Science Ministry launched a plan to create separate entrances for men and women at the country's universities and segregate some of the classes.

Only a portion of the segregation programs have been implemented, but symbols of unrest in Iranian gender relations were apparent early in the election campaigns last year, as presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi openly asserted the need for greater rights for women, an end to legalized gender discrimination, an increase in women's participation in Iranian workplaces and politics and a curb in the powers of religious police.

The candidate attacked the various barriers faced by women's rights activists and pledged to review "all discriminatory and unjust regulations against women's legal and judicial security", to devise "comprehensive plans for the promotion of women's rights at the country's social, economic, and political stage" and to work towards "eliminating violence against women by adopting legal supportive measures."

Moussavi also promised to repeal the expansive powers of Iran's religious police, which require women to wear loose-fitting clothing covering the entire body and something covering the hair. Some Iranian women completely cover their hair, but most do not.

To differing degrees, the other opposition candidates followed suit and for the first time since the Islamic revolution, women's rights entered public discourse and women have been at the forefront of Iran's burgeoning protest movement since the disputed elections.

Following Ahmadinejad's reelection, the government has made various moves to further segregate office buildings, hospitals, public parks and primary schools, and in the half year since the president was reelected a number of Iranian ministers and religious leaders have called for a more strict adherence to sex segregation in various aspects of public life.

Most notably, the former speaker of the Iranian parliament Haddad Adel, who is close to both President Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme religious figure Ayatollah Khamenei, called on the country's new science minister Kamran Daneshjoo to segregate Iranian universities.

"Islamization of universities is a long awaited task for the new minister of science and we hope to accomplish it soon with the help of theology centers around the country and the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution," Adel was quoted as saying.

Late last month the minister seemed to comply, stating that Iran "shall segregate students on sexual lines as the Islamic worldview requires."

The Legal and Judicial Commission of Iran's parliament has also been pushing a new Family Support Bill, which includes an amendment legalizing polygamy.

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Life inside EVIN

oudabeh Ardavan's prison drawings

Interview by Fariba Amini
September 26, 2002
The Iranian

Soudabeh Ardavan is from Tabriz, a former political prisoner now living in Sweden. She is in her early 40's. She spent eight years of her precious life in the Islamic regime's jail. She is also an artist who drew prison life while she was confined in a cell with other women.

Through these images, drawn from the time she became a prisoner in 1981 until she was released in 1989, Soudabeh tells a story of those horrible days. While in prison, her mother had a stroke because she had thought Soudabeh was among the many executed prisoners; she could not bear the thought of it. She died at age 57, a year after Soudabeh was released.

Soudabeh Ardavan speaks of those days. She and fellow inmates were kept in a small cell made for three people, but at times, the cell was shared with as many as 40 prisoners. Sanitary conditions were very poor. There was no proper clothing, and prisoners were given little food and minimum access to the shower. As punishment, prisoners were denied the use of toilets.

Prisoners would sleep on the floor, leaving enough space for the injured who had been severely tortured by guards to get confessions. Soudabeh had not confessed. She was considered a "sar mozei" -- a term used for those who had resisted torture. Those who had repented were called "tavaabin".

She tells her tale, enough to make you shiver. It makes you wonder if it is possible in this day and age, for a human being to be treated with such cruelty only because they were young and outspoken.

She was a university student interested in politics, books and publishing. She was studying architecture and interior design at Tehran's Polytechnic Institute. It was during the Cultural Revolution when the wide-scale crackdown began. The ruling revolutionaries wanted to get rid of "corrupt elements".

She was charged with participating in demonstrations against the Islamic Republic. At first, she was detained, interrogated, and finally, blindfolded on the floor, and sentenced to two years in jail. There was no judge nor a jury or a lawyer. "Islamic justice" did not take more than a few minutes.

It was the most despicable time in the history of the Islamic regime. Interrogation, torture, execution were the order of the day. For the next 8 years, she would be transferred, from Evin to Ghessel Hessar prison, back and forth, from one unit to another, spending time in between in solitary.

She remembers the first time she entered a cell. She thought she had entered a girls school. The prisoners were all young girls, in their teens. Sometimes, there were older women, as old as one's grandmother. They had apparently aided the prisoners or were family members.

Her three famous prison mates were Bijan Jazani's mother; Maryam Taleghani, the daughter of Ayatollah Taleghani, and writer Sharnoush Parsipour.

She tried to write her story through the many pictures she drew. First she hid them for fear of punishment. Then she would get rid of them. Later, she would keep her artwork and somehow smuggle them out. Other prisoners would help her find paper and pencils. She drew her cell mates, guards, life in prison, and cell conditions.

Excepts from my interview with Soudabeh:

I tried very hard, under excruciating conditions and fearing for my life as well as others in my cellblock, to capture moments, horrifying moments and sometimes beautiful ones. I drew pictures of the guards, their faces so cruel, without humanity. I drew pictures of cell mates who had become like sisters to me; their innocence, their youth, their fears.

I drew pictures of all of us cleaning the small area we lived in. Or the outside courtyard where we would exercise, when allowed. I drew pictures of the ugly, the unclean, the pure and the blue sky with white birds, hopinng to see freedom one day. I drew everything and anything.

First it was all black and white. I had no colors. Sometimes I would use the petal of a flower or tea to create color. Then someone threw a box of color magic markers through the cell. So I drew color pictures.

I tried to capture a time when evil had taken over all our lives. When the outside world was unaware of the crimes taking place in the jails of the Islamic regime. When revolutionary guards would come to our cells, beat us, flog us, torture us and then leave. And we would ask ourselves why? Why so much inhumanity? Are these people from the same land we have come from?

Most of the guards were extremely vicious and used foul language to humiliated us, and destroy us psychologically -- as they had attempted with physical torture. Most of us did not confess and kept our mouth shut. That would make them more furious. Then more floggings and beatings would begin.

From time to time, the head guard would come in. They were two women. They looked ugly and big and extremely rude. They were pros. I was told they were there from the Shah's era. Their names were Bakhtiari and Alizadeh. They would kick us real hard. The Bakhtiari woman wore a soldier's outfit and she would constantly curse us and beat us. She barked like a dog!

Most of the time, in our cell, we did not have to wear our scarves or the chador, only when the male guards would come in. There was the head of the prison, a man called Haji Rahmani. He was huge, quite a character, very vicious. We would be ordered to put our hejab and then he would come in and beat us. I believe he now holds a post in the Ministry of Intelligence.

Sometimes those who had repented -- tavaabin -- would spy on us and at other times they too would beat us. They were the ones who had asked for forgiveness and as a result of their "good behavior" they would be given a special task of making life even more miserable for other prisoners. Sometimes, they would even hold a gun in front of us to frighten us. We were very careful when they were around. We would not talk or say anything in front of them.

Out of the 8 years I was imprisoned, I remember only three months when I felt good. That's when we were taken to a prison block, which had a nice courtyard. There were flowers and trees. And no sign of tavaabin! We felt free, sort of speak. We could talk and walk and socialize without their presence. To some degree, we were not watched and I could breathe a little.

A few months later, when we were once again moved, we heard of the horror stories about the mass executions in prison. In the summer of 1988, right after the ceasefire between Iran and Iraq, there were many prisoners whose terms had ended but werenn't released.

Khomeini had personanlly ordered the male "infidel" prisoners be executed and the women lashed five times a day according to Islamic law. [Amnesty has reported close to 5000 prisoners were murdered in the prisons of the Islamic regime in 1988].

Death sentences were carried out against those who did not repent and beg for mercy. Twenty-five were taken from our cell alone. So many young men and women were amongst them. They were followers of the Mojahedin Khalgh or Fadaian, and many others. I was one of the lucky ones. I was released.

What can I say? The time I spent in prison will never be erased from my memory. So many lives were shattered. So many families lost loved ones. Many parents, facing the loss of their sons or daughters would eventually die from grief. Now, I am trying slowly to build a normal life.

I am studying Swedish and attend art school. I am also working on a book with two other former political prisoners. It is the first time we are telling our stories. A Swedish psychologist and a journalist have also collaborated on this book. My book containing more than 100 prison drawings, will be published by winter 2002.

I am hoping people will see these paintings and never forget the many innocent lives lost in those years, the many of us whose lives changed forever. The drawings tell a tale of the darkest history in our country.

As for the future, I hope to continue my life without feeling remorse. I am not vengeful. I do not want revenge from my captors. I only hope that one day, those who were directly involved in these crimes will be tried in a court of law and none would ever be able to hold political or governmental office. I do not believe in the death penalty. I want justice to be served but only under international law. And I truly believe that one-day; soon, justice will be served.

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Parvin Ardalan; Iranian women's Fight for Equality

Parvin Ardalan is a leading woman’s rights activist, writer and journalist from Iran. She was awarded the Olof Palme Prize in 2007 for her struggle for equal rights for men and women, but was denied to leave the country. One and a half year later she was finally able to go to Sweden to receive the prize. On the 6th of October she attended a conference about international solidarity within the feminist movement in Stockholm.

This is the speech she held:

It’s my pleasure to be here to explain about what women activists in Iran are
doing and to share our experiences in this way. Of course we learn from each
other, for instances in the One million Signatures Campaign we learned from our
sisters in Morocco. And then our siteres in Afghanistan learned from us, and so
this process it continues. I would like to start to talk about some methods used
by women activists in Iran: Horizontal working, decentralization of power, and
consciousness rising.
Horizontal working: In societies like Iran the
hierarchical way of working and dividing responsibilities is not limited to
political and governmental institutions. This character has a fundamental impact
even on personal relationships and sometimes even grassroots organizations that
intend to work differently.
Therefore, we in different women’s groups and organizations should frequently put our behaviors, thinking and practices to the test. For example in our different activities among women activists in Iran we observed how many of us were practicing what we were challenging. We took advantage of the different advantages we had. For instance one used her age and experiences, another used her education level, a third one used her urban and middle class position and so on. That is why we needed to develop workshops and group discussions in order to discuss these issues
constantly.
Decentralisation of power:

By avoiding accumulating (put together) all the information, important connections, experiences to one or few people, we had two intentions: 1.We help each other to grow and gain new skills

2. We will also reduce our weakness, because when everything is dependent on one
or a few people, everything will also disappear suddenly when that person disappear for any reason, especially in our unsecure society.
That is why overlapping of experiences and decentralization of power always come together.
By advocating for shared responsibilities we try to overlap our resources, knowledge and experiences.
Consciousness rising: Face to face meeting with women and men from different groups. A special kind of Street theaters to see how people interact. These methods show how we not only challenge the legal system, but also how we confront people and their cultural patriarchal values on a daily basis.
These three characteristics; challenging the hierarchical way
of working, meeting people face to face, and consciousness raising forced us not
only to demand equal treatment from the law or government, but also the fact
that we had to try to put them in practice ourselves.
And in this case with
documentation/writing/interviewing. In doing so we try to highlight women
activities and not let those experiences and actions get lost and become invisible as they always do.
Law or the legal system: Those were the methods used by women activists…now I would like to talk about one of the issues that
women activists dealt with; the law or the legal system and how we use these
methods.
Some of the injust laws that women rights activist dealt with are:
Family law: like divorce, marriage, inheritance, number of the partners.
Criminal law: like criminal age of criminal responsibility law hejab , Diyeh - Blood Money- Laws that support honor killings
Civil law : Citizenship Marriage - In our country, Iran, according to the existing Law, is to satisfy the "condition of the father’s consent".
Divorce: According to the law, divorce is the exclusive right of a man, and a man can divorce his wife whenever he pleases.
Number of partners: Among other cases of inequality in the present marriage law is the discussion of the number of partners. That is, multiple wives for men; in such a way that a man can have 4 aghdi (permanently married) wives and infinite sighehi (temporarily married) wives.
Age of criminal responsibility: The age of criminal responsibility for girls is 9 lunar
years (8 years and nine months) and for boys is 15 lunar years (14 years and 6
months). Thus if a 9-year-old girl committed a crime, she will be treated just
as an adult would be treated with all the penal laws (even execution) applicable
to her.
Citizenship: Citizenship is an important legal issue. According to the law of Iran, the citizenship of a woman does not transfer to her child.
Diyeh - Blood Money: In Iranian law a woman’s life is considered to be worth half that of a man. For example, if a brother and sister are hit by a car on the street, and both have both legs broken, the compensation that the brother receives, is double that of his sister.
Inheritance: According to civil law, after the death of the father and mother, sons receive 2 times as much in inheritance as daughters.
Laws that support honor killings: Among the discriminatory laws, one can note the law that gives a man permission to kill his wife whenever he sees her in bed with another man and the law will not punish this man. This law has allowed men to kill women.
Bearing Witness:
There are some crimes women can not testify to, these include sodomy,homosexuality, and prostitution.Other Discriminatory Laws: There are many other discriminatory laws in Iran’s legal system. In our constitution a woman is only recognised as a citizen once she is a mother (married), therefore she has no standing as an independent person in any law derived from our constitution.

1. The condition "Rajal-e siyaasi" - which has been interpreted as "man of politics" to date - appears in the conditions for becoming President. This means that a woman cannot become the country’s president.
2. Compulsory prescribed dress for women, regardless of their creed or beliefs. For example, Christian women whose religion does not require them to wear hijab will be
punished for not wearing it. If they choose to dress in a way different to how authorities deem fit, they can be jailed or fined.
3. Social Security laws. Even though women pay the same amount of money for insurance as men do, their children can not benefit from their retirement pension or health insurance. This means that a mother can not provide any sort of comfort for her children after her death.
4. Stoning is the frightening punishment prescribed by our law for people who commit adultery. This punishment is usually only performed on women, because according to the law, a man can have an infinite number of temporary marriages (sigheh) and therefore can claim that the woman who he had a relationship with (provided she was single) was his temporary wife.So what do we do in with these legal system? Different women organisations have dealt with the legal system in different ways during different time periods:
1. One type of the Governmental organisations put their effort only on educating women of the content of the law/ without any intention to criticise or attempt to
change the laws. For instance they never criticise violence against women / or
so called ’domestic violence’ and of course do not care about the extended public violence that women face everyday on the streets. Most of these groups are groups who will follow the law and are governmental organisation rather than being non-governmental. These groups are decreasing.
2.The second strategy that we started to use for almost the 2 end decade after revolution was based on educating and informing women on the content of the law in order to help each and every woman to develop individual backup plans. For instance lawyers like Shirin Ebadi, Mehrang Kar and others wrote many books about these issues. The purpose was for example to tell women "if the marriage is a contract you should enter to this contract with open eyes and be aware of the rights, obligatiosn
and limitations that you will have". We were advised to add some points to the
existing contract in order to disarm them. For example if I wanted to get marry
I add some points in regards to my right to work outside of home, or equal right at the time of divorce or custody of children in the contract.
3.The third strategy that started by one million signature was to ask for the change of the laws…so you see we move from individual tactics to ask for change in the very
legal system to pleural tactics. So to rap up this part and tie it to other
feminist methods around the world our activities contain three components/
characteristics:
A. to aim to prevent or support those who were victims of the law (for instance single poor mothers who didn’t have any financial or social support) support and prevent B. to inform and educate C. To resist and change the dominant structuresNow I want talk about the current movement and its link to women movement - In my point of view, women movement, students’ movement, ethnics and workers movement were those who opened the way for this movement. For people who have not followed what happening in Iran, this movement came from nowhere came or as our autrity but for us this is a result of what we have working on in years. Not that I was not positively surprised but I didn’t see that as a wonder.
The other issue that is raised is the presence or lack of presence of women and women issues in regards to current movement. First of all as many of you havealready seen in many you tube clips women have not only participated widely in the demonstration they also had a leading roles. The mourning mothers, the women who actively try to prevent violence and women who brought new and secular slogans into demonstration are just few examples.
One important issue regarding the physical presence of women in the demonstrations is that even in 1979 revolution women participated actively in the revolution and demonstration. But the big difference here is not only that now we had gender mixed demonstration (in contrast to 1979 that women and men were
separated) but also this time we didn’t only have women’s bodies out there,
women were out there with gender analysis and specific demands.And this once
again is a result of what women have done in the last 30 years. Iranian women
were not only the first victim of the Islamic revolution, they were also the
first struggler.
Aytollah Khomini issued a fatwa for compulsory veil two weeks after he returned to Iran. Women were the one who had the first demonstration against Aytollah Fatwa. That is what I consider women
not only the first victim of the Islamic revolution but also the first one who
resist and struggle.

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The Islamic Republic`s Fear of Women Activists

Shahrzad News:

The Islamic Republic has arrested a number of women`s rights activists, fearing they will be linked to the People`s Movement.

Despite the fact that these women are suffering from persecution, they are still determined to work toward achieving a civil society. Some of the names of the women who have been recently arrested include: Badralsadat Mofidi (secretary of the Union of Journalists), Bahareh Hedayat (member of the Central Council and Consolidation Unity of Students), Nasrin Vaziri (reporter of ILNA and Khabar Online), Shiva Nazar Ahari (journalist and human rights and women’s activist), Parisa Kakaee (human rights activist, journalist, and member of the One Million Signatures Campaign), Mansoureh Shojaei (researcher, member of the Women’s Cultural Centre and the One Million Signatures Campaign), Negin Derakhshan (member of the editorial team of the newspaper Tehran Today), and Atieh Yousefi (member of the One Million Signatures Campaign. Translators note: Atieh Yousefi was recently released on bail).

Also, among the arrested are women affiliated with Shirin Ebadi. Their names include: Jinoos Sobhani (secretary office of CDHR), Noushin Ebadi (sister of Shirin Ebadi and a dentistry professor), Forough Mirzaei (a colleague of Shirin Ebadi who holds a Masters in human rights), Maryam Zia (Shirin Ebadi’s friend and President of the Struggle for a World Deserving of Children).

Mothers for Peace members, Zohreh Tonekaboni and Mahin Fahimi, were also arested and sent to prison.

The names of the women listed are not the only ones who have been arrested in the social and political civil society arena.

The women detained in Evin prison and other prisons in the Islamic Republic who continue to resist the physical and psychological pressures inflicted on them include: Azar Mansouri (deputy head of Partcipation Front), Mahsa Hekmat (reporter), Somayeh Rashidi (member of the One Million Signatures Campaign), Mehrnoush Etemadi (member of the Online Campaign), Shabnam Madadzadeh (deputy secretary of the office of Strengthening Unity), and Atefeh Nabavi (member of the women’s and student movement).

Many other women in the civil movement who have been arrested and released on bail are waiting for their court hearing. Among the most recognized names include: Jila Baniyaghoob, Shadi Sadr, Hengameh Shahidi, Jelveh Javaheri, Somayeh Tohidloo, Faribah Pajooh, Mahsa Amrabadi, Farnaz Kamangir, and Zeinab Peyghambarzadeh.

The women who are listed [in this article] are only some of the names of those who were arrested and detained during post-election protests. These women have turned a new page in the civil movement.

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The Doctor Who Defied Tehran

By FARNAZ FASSIHI

At the height of Iran's bloody civil unrest this year, a young doctor named Ramin Pourandarjani defied his superiors. He refused to sign death certificates at a Tehran prison that he said were falsified to cover up murder.

He testified to a parliamentary committee that jailers were torturing and raping protesters, his family says. He told friends and family he feared for his life.

And on Nov. 10, the 26-year-old doctor was found dead in the military clinic where he lived and worked.

The family of Dr. Pourandarjani, who occasionally treated prisoners in fulfillment of Iran's obligatory military service, says he was killed for his refusal to participate in a coverup at the notorious Kahrizak detention center, widely criticized for its unsanitary conditions.

In a series of interviews over three weeks, Dr. Pourandarjani's family spoke in detail for the first time about their son's mysterious death.

Iranian officials first blamed the doctor's death on a car accident, then a heart attack, then suicide and then poisoning, according to family members and government statements.

The controversy over his fate is transforming the doctor into a martyr for the opposition movement challenging the legitimacy of Iran's rulers. In a sign of his mounting symbolic importance, on Dec. 8 Iran's national prosecutor, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, was pressed by local reporters at a news conference for answers. He said the case remains under investigation.

Mr. Mohseni-Ejei couldn't be reached for comment. A spokesman for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said the case is being probed and declined to answer questions.

"I sent off my young, healthy and beautiful son to military service, and I got his dead body back," says his mother, Ruhangiz Pourandarjani, who lives in the northwest city of Tabriz. "Anyone who says he committed suicide is lying and should be afraid of God."

In Iran, protestors now carry the doctor's picture in street marches and chant his name along with that of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman whose shooting death in June was captured on video and broadcast world-wide. A popular new slogan at some marches: "Our Neda is not dead, Our Ramin is not dead, it's the Supreme Leader who is dead," a reference to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mothers of individuals killed in Iran's antigovernment protests this year have formed a support group, Grieving Mothers, who march silently Sunday afternoons at Laleh Park in Tehran holding pictures of their dead children. This month, security officials arrested 15 members. They were freed a few days later when crowds gathered near the jail, demanding their release.

The opposition says more than 70 Iranians have been killed since June in a crackdown on the protests that erupted after the nation's disputed presidential election. The government says 17 people have died, including a dozen of its own security forces.

Iran denies allegations that jailed protesters were tortured or raped and blames the deaths in Kahrizak on a meningitis outbreak. The prison has been closed in the wake of torture allegations there.

An influential Iranian parliamentarian and former health minister, Masoud Pezeshkian, is pressing for a full investigation of Dr. Pourandarjani's death. The claim of a suicide by "someone who was a witness in Kahrizak, and has no background for mental illness, is suspicious," he told local news agencies. Mr. Pezeshkian couldn't be reached for comment.

This past Wednesday, the head of a parliamentary committee investigating the broader allegations of torture at Kahrizak prison said Dr. Pourandarjani's death didn't warrant examination. "As far as we are concerned, the death of the Kahrizak doctor is clear and doesn't need investigation," said the lawmaker, Farhad Tajari, according to the main parliamentary news service. Mr. Tajari couldn't be reached for comment.

Dr. Pourandarjani was born into a middle-class family in the ancient city of Tabriz, near a place that some researchers claim is a possible geographical location of the Garden of Eden. His mother is a retired elementary school teacher. His father, Ali-Qoli Pourandarjani, works in the city's traditional bazaar.

Ramin, the future doctor, was their first child.

They took his name from an epic poem, "Vis and Ramin," one of many legends of heroic battles against unjust rulers that help define Iranian culture and provide popular names for boys. "Vis and Ramin," the story of a prince who fights the king to free his lover, may also have inspired the story of Tristan and Isolde, some scholars say.

Dr. Pourandarjani's mother recalls that her son showed his intellect early. By the age of 1, she says, he was speaking full sentences in Farsi and Turkish. He could read and write by 3. Before entering first grade, Ramin was reading aloud from a children's newspaper aimed at 10-year-olds.

When he was 11, Ramin entered a school for gifted and talented children. At an age when most teenage boys were interested in playing videogames, his father says, Ramin read and wrote poetry. At 13 he won a national contest for young poets.

Relatives and friends described Dr. Pourandarjani as the family star. "I always told my son he should strive to be like Ramin. What can I say?" says his cousin, Sima, 44, reached by phone in Tabriz. "He was exceptional."

In Iran, students are placed in universities based on their performance on a national entrance exam. In 2001, Ramin Pourandarjani ranked 1,069 out of more than a half-million applicants. He won entrance to Tabriz Medical University, one of the top schools in the nation.

Ramin's younger brother, Amin, described his brother as a bookworm when it came to medical studies, but said he also loved watching French movies to practice his own French.

Last year, Dr. Pourandarjani graduated from medical school at the top of his class. A YouTube video shows him delivering the graduation speech in a new navy blue suit and a pink shirt and necktie. Although wearing neckties at public events and at universities is frowned upon by Iranian authorities as being too Western, Dr. Pourandarjani wanted to mark the occasion with special attire, his family recalls. Behind him, an Iranian flag fluttered in the breeze.

"Thank you to all our beloved families and distinguished professors for attending the celebration of the day we take flight and open our wings," Dr. Pourandarjani said. "If I could go back in time, I wouldn't change a thing."

Then he quoted some poetry. "The person whose heart is filled with love will never die," he said, citing a well-known Persian verse. "Our perseverance is recorded in the book of time."

Like all Iranian males, Dr. Pourandarjani was required to complete a 19-month military service. Doctors serve at government hospitals and clinics as part of their military obligation.

Luck of the draw placed Dr. Pourandarjani at a clinic in Tehran, a 75-minute flight from home in Tabriz. The clinic is in the district that oversees Kahrizak, a rundown detention center for drug addicts and dealers.

The job mostly amounted to routine medical work, until July 9. That day, some 140 young men and women were arrested at a particularly large protest in Tehran. Some detainees were brought to Kahrizak.

It marked the beginning of a prison scandal that shook Iran. Members of the opposition have made allegations of widespread violence and rape in the prison during this time.

Over a period of nearly three weeks, Dr. Pourandarjani was called to the prison four times to treat the wounds of the detainees, according to his parents and Iranian media reports.

At least three prisoners died during this time.

One of them was Mohsen Ruholamini, the 19-year-old son of a conservative politician, who died in late July.

The government publicly blamed Mr. Ruholamini's death on meningitis. Mr. Ruholamini's family immediately disputed that. In public statements at the time, his father, Abdol-Hossein Ruholamini, said his son suffered a broken jaw and died from torture in prison.

In the medical report, Dr. Pourandarjani described Mr. Ruholamini's cause of death as physical stress, multiple blows to the head and chest, and severe injuries, according to the doctor's family and local press reports.

The news of deaths at the prison sparked an unusual public fury, even among government allies. Particularly shocking to Iranians was the death of Mr. Ruholamini, the son of a conservative politician who openly supported the republic's leadership.

In a televised meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr. Ruholamini's father told Mr. Khamenei: "The fact that I support the Islamic regime does not mean that I will give up my rights. I demand justice."

Mr. Ruholamini couldn't be reached for comment.

Two influential conservative lawmakers called for prosecution of individuals responsible for Kahrizak. Parliament named a special committee to investigate. Some of the highest Shiite clergymen in the holy city of Qom issued statements condemning the government for its handling of Kahrizak.

In the face of the allegations, Mr. Khamenei ordered the prison shut in late July.

The chief commander of the Iranian police, Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, told state television in August that the detention center was closed "because the conditions inside were not very desirable. If some guards were a little rough with detainees, it was their bad judgment."

Over the next few months, security authorities called in Dr. Pourandarjani for interrogation, according to family members and reports in the Iranian media. They ordered him to revise the cause of death on medical reports from physical wounds to meningitis, his family members say. He refused.

When the parliamentary committee called him to testify, he told them what he had witnessed, his family says. Dr. Pourandarjani's statements to the committee aren't public record, and the committee has said it won't make its findings public.

In the fall, Dr. Pourandarjani was arrested.

According to his family and official Iranian media reports, he was detained in Tehran for a few days and interrogated by the police and medical officials. Family members say he was warned that if he continued to challenge the authorities, he could face medical malpractice charges and jail, as well as the loss of his medical license.

Iranian officials say in public statements that the doctor was questioned about whether he had given detainees appropriate medical care.

He was released on bail and continued working at the military health clinic, where he also lived in order to save money. He downloaded applications for medical schools in France and Germany and told friends he wanted to study abroad. His military service would end in April 2010. He asked his mother to look out for a nice young woman in Tabriz for him to marry.

In October, a few weeks before he died, both parents say Dr. Pourandarjani confided in them that he feared for his life because he refused to cover up what he had seen at the prison. He described threatening phone calls and said he was being followed.

His mother immediately phoned Abdol-Hossein Ruholamini, the conservative politician whose son had died in Kahrizak. She pleaded with him for help.

"My wife called the Ruholamini family and said, 'My son's life is in danger because he told the truth about the circumstances of your son's death. You must help him,'" Dr. Pourandarjani's father said in a telephone interview.

In early November -- the day before he died -- Dr. Pourandarjani took the unusual step of visiting the offices of Iran's parliament, his mother says, to ask for help because he felt his life was at risk.

That night, Dr. Pourandarjani phoned his parents to say he planned to come home to Tabriz for a family visit. He also emailed several friends that evening, according to an opposition Web site, Norooz, that obtained the email from the friends.

In the email, the doctor described the heavy pressure of the prison scandal but said he was looking forward to his trip home. He signed off by asking if his friends needed him to bring anything back from Tabriz, the friends said.

The next morning, Dr. Pourandarjani's father received a call from Tehran. His son had been in a car accident, he says he was told, and was unconscious with a broken leg. The caller asked him to travel to Tehran immediately.

When Mr. Pourandarjani arrived in Tehran, he was taken to a morgue. He says he was told his son had died from a heart attack.

He flew back to Tabriz with the body. Security authorities prohibited the family from viewing the body or opening the kafan, the traditional funeral shroud. The funeral took place under the supervision of several security agents, the family says.

Initially, authorities refused the family's request for an autopsy. This month, because of the public outcry, the government conducted an autopsy, indicating that his last meal, prepared and delivered by the clinic where Dr. Pourandarjani had lived, contained propranolol, a blood-pressure medication that can cause cardiac arrest at high dosages. The government cites the report as evidence of possible suicide, which the family dismisses.

Dr. Pourandarjani's parents are still in mourning. Mrs. Pourandarjani said she sometimes goes into Ramin's bedroom. "I want to turn on his computer to read his poetry and look at his pictures, but I can't bring myself," she said.

This Thursday, in keeping with Islamic tradition, the family held a memorial service at a local mosque on the 40th day after Dr. Pourandarjani's death. These are usually private affairs. But this ceremony attracted hundreds of strangers who came to pay their respects.

In an unexpected gesture, one of the strangers, a university student from Tabriz, stood up and read from a statement, the doctor's relatives said.

"We are all children of Iran," the student said. "And today we mourn our dear Ramin."

The crowd spilled into the streets. It included a heavy presence of plainclothes government security agents, according to several people in attendance


Photo:The funeral for Ramin Pourandarjani, a young doctor whose death is now a rallying point for the Iranian opposition.

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A Veiled Movement for Women's Rights Sweeps Iran

Nasim Novin
December 18,

Iran's Green Movement has embraced a new symbol of protest: the woman's veil. In an unprecedented show of support for women's rights, Iranian men have posted photos of themselves wearing the head covering typically worn by Muslim women. The images show hundreds of men clad in bright green headscarves posing mockingly for the camera.




This campaign was sparked by the government's attempt to humiliate leading student activist Majid Tavakoli. Authorities arrested Tavakoli after he delivered a fiery anti-government speech during Iran's Student Day demonstrations on December 7th. Following his detention, the semi-official Fars News Agency published photos of him wearing a woman's veil, claiming that he had been found trying to escape from campus using it as a disguise. Many members of the opposition believe the photos were fabricated to discredit and disgrace the young activist.
Once again, Iran's young and tech savvy opposition has cleverly utilized new media to bypass government censorship and laugh in the face of authority. The online campaign highlights the absurdity of the regime's attempts at character defamation. A similar strategy was used after the government subjected hundreds of reformers to show trials following the disputed June election. People posted YouTube videos of themselves confessing to the most ridiculous things in order to show how baseless and empty the government's forced confessions and accusations against its critics have become. By co-opting the government's own tools of repression, the opposition has rendered such tactics ineffectual.

Given the politically fraught history of the veil, this campaign is deeply symbolic. In 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi banned women from wearing a head covering in public in an attempt to move Iran away from what he considered religious backwardness and toward modernity. Prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, there was a revival of social traditionalism and women would don the veil to reaffirm their Iranian-Islamic identity against the perceived onslaught of Western influence. Today, young women flout Islamic dress codes by exposing their hair from under colorful headscarves in mass defiance of the Islamic Republic.

Now, men too have taken up the veil as a symbol of political protest. This campaign is not only a reaction against the mistreatment of political prisoners, but also against male chauvinism. From the government's perspective, it is insulting to be likened to a woman. This only highlights the divide between Iran's ruling clique and the mass of young, progressive students who have spearheaded the veil campaign. One Iranian blogger who calls himself Blondie writes:

"With great pride I will wear women's clothing, and I am proud to fashion myself as an Iranian women. Do you know why Dictator? Because they were the ones who demanded their rights from the very beginning...From now on, in a show of respect towards Iranian women and girls, I will take a veil with me as a symbol of protest to every demonstration I attend, whether in the streets or in the university."

The world was surprised to see women at the forefront of the Green Movement, going face to face with baton-wielding Basij militiamen. The truth is, Iranian women are fearless because they have withstood years of harassment by the morality police who try to enforce Islamic dress and comportment upon them. They have fought tirelessly for democratic reform because they have the most to gain from it. For the first time, Iranian men have also organized to promote gender equality. As an Iranian woman, I am both amused and heartened by their rather unconventional show of support. I would even venture to say that this campaign marks an important milestone in the struggle for women's rights in Iran.

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