Photos of police attack to peaceful gathering of Iranian women. for more info read the previous article.
Photos are from Kosoof.com

Today women organizations were going to demonstrate in Tehran/Iran. They were going to start the gathering at 17 o'clock and police have knew about this. In recent days government was trying to threaten NGOs and activist by saing they will be arrested and organazations will be closed.


papers reads: we condemned any kind of discrimination



Women were there at 17:00 and the plan was sitting in a park and showing some mottos about their problems which includes:

HumanRightsFirst: The laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran continue to treat women as second-class citizens, and deem the value of the life of a woman as half that of a man's. Women are denied equal rights in many elements of family life, including marriage and divorce, child custody, and inheritance laws.

Police did not let people to sit on the park floor and while talking, started to beat women using batons and sprayed tearing gas and red ink(!) on them. They've even sprayed this red ink in peoples face. At this point passerbys stopped to watch the struggle and asked about the reason but police also attacked them and confrontation started ! Police attacked walking people and they answered. Police have arrested more than 60 persons including activists and ordinary people.

All the area was full of screams and fight sounds and batons. My wife has a baton sign on her arm but says everything is OK and she is proud living her ideals.

We have to wait for coming days to see the consequences. The most dangerous time is not demonstration itself, but the next days. We have to aware not letting our friends get arrested, support the arrested ones and defend our non governmental organizations. Oh ! we have to also think about our censored sites and weblogs.


here is our new concept: policewomen with Chador and Baton.
Pay special attention to her sign on her sleeves beacuse of not having shoulders !


At last police made all people to leave the place but you can not answer somebody who is looking for primary rights (as simple as monogamy) with batons forever.

I've got some news of todays womens demonstration. These women are gathering to ask for equal rights. Human rights firs says :

Iranian Women Demand Equal Legal Status

The laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran continue to treat women as second-class citizens, and deem the value of the life of a woman as half that of a man's. Women are denied equal rights in many elements of family life, including marriage and divorce, child custody, and inheritance laws.

On Monday, June 12, Iranian women will gather in Tehran to demand equal rights, including equality of women before the court and in family law, the banning of polygamy, an increase in the age of legal responsibility for girl and boy children to 18 years old, and the reform of employment laws which disadvantage female employees .

Activists campaigning for women's rights in Iran have asked Human Rights First to encourage our supporters to show solidarity with their peaceful demand for an end to all forms of legal discrimination against them.

Send a message to the Iranian authorities in support of the demonstrators and calling on the Iranian government to protect women exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression and assembly from all kinds of brutality and repression to which they have been subjected in the past.

In the previous gathering, police have attacked to women using batons and kicks. Government also have been called some activists and participating NGOs and said them not to participate or be ready for arrest and shutting down your organazations.

Latest news is in this post

Just an hour ago, three feminist sites are censored (Filtered) in Iran !

• www.Hastiandish.org is an feminist NGO which helds workshops and advocate for equal rights. Their previous site (www.hastia.org) was censored once and about one year ago, they've switched to this new site. Now this one is censored too.


• www.HerLandMag.com is also a website of a feminist group which is censored previousely. After their first site (www.IFTribune.com, a women news portal) was blocked, they've started this new site which is a weekly magazine.


• www.ParastooD.com is another famous weblogger in Iran. She is a feminist journalist. Her weblog is one of the most famous weblogs in Iran.
  

In one hand I have to say "I don't know why these site are blocked" but in the other hand I have to say "It is obvious why Ahmadinejad filters these sites". None of these sites ever wrote about violence or sexual contents. They were defending womens rights and asking for equal rights. These websites were among main websites who reflects todays events. Today is 12 June and all women groups and activist are going to demonstrate in streets demanding equal rights. Government have been called most of them and announced them "If you participate, we'll arrest you!" or "If this demonstration takes place, we'll shut down your organazation". This is ridiculus but is REAL.

Three months ago, police attacked women in 8th of march and beat them with battons. I wish health and security for every woman participating in this demonstration !

p.s. Around six months ago, ahmadi jenad announced that nobody is allowed to promote feministic, liberalistic and nihilistic ideas in Iran !

If I was the cartoonist, I'd add a mulla who says "We could start peace processs with USA (former unnegotiable "BIG SATAN") right now and nobody will notice."

Azadi (means Freedom) is the major soccer stadium in Tehran with the capacity of 100'000 MEN. No woman can enter it during a soccer match because religious leaders believes it's atmosphere is not good for Muslim women and being a soccer stadium and seeing naked legs of men perverts them ( But they can see it on T.V. !)

But there are around 40 women rights activists and some female soccer lovers who have organized a group of protest and in spite of anti-revolutionary police and their batons and jails, try to enter the stadium in national matches.

The last confrontation was yesterday when Iran national team had a friendly match with Bosnia. In the previous time, police have been attacked brutally and beaten women who wanted to enter stadium and even broke one of activists leg and broke and tore all placards so people wont know why these women are here.

This time, having the experience of previous times, women were armed with new placards: their scarfs ! In Iran wearing a scarf is obligatory and all women have to wear them and not wearing a scarf will sentenced by jail. So this time football lovers and women rights activists choosed to write their motto “Woman's share, is half of the Freedom” on their scarfs. A brilliant idea. Even women with Chador did this.



They all had a white scarf with the motto which says women must have the right to enter football stadium and also means “Why my rights is half of your rights” which resembles parts of Islam which says women rights are half of the mens.



They went to stadium by a rental bus with a brave driver because there were a high risk of police attack and arrest and even jails and beatings. They reviewed the map once more and rush out of the bus toward the stadium.



Police were there and knew about the protest. They made a circle around them fast and did not let anybody to shoot a photo or record a video. One of the activists tried to enter the stadium in spite of police forced but police attacked her and tried to arrest her but luckily with the intervention of other activists and their support, they released her.

There is no photos of this parts because Iranian police dose not let anybody (including reporters) to take any photo of their brutality.

Luckily nobody was arrested and in spite of some beatings and physical conflict everybody returned home by a shared bus safe and alive ;) In the way home, they have changed their scarfs and hanged white scarfs with freedom motto, out of bus's windows.



On of these brave women (Parastood) writes in her weblog: “Some people feel sympathy with us and some people say we are fun and brave! Lot's of people heard our voice and they have to. This is the way when we have no free media”.

And remember ! This girl can not enter stadiums anymore when she is two years older...



Photos: Maryam Ommi
Story+Photos in Farsi: Parastoo
Story+Photos in Farsi: Nasrin
Story in Farsi: Varesh

Special Thanks to www.parastood.com ! Where I've leeched the photos from ;)