January 7, 2008
Change for Equality: Maryam Hosseinkhah and Jelve Javaheri, Iranian women’s rights activists and members of the One Million Signatures campaign, were released from prison on January 2.
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Ms. Hosseinkhah spent six weeks in prison and Ms. Javaheri spent one month in prison due to their activities and writings in support of the campaign.
While in prison, the two women’s rights activists set up a fund to support female prisoners and contributed sixty books to the women’s library in Evin. They also wrote about the conditions in the female ward and the women who committed violent crimes because they had no other alternative.
To read Ms. Hosseinkhah and Ms. Javaheri’s articles about the women at Evin prison, please see below:
Women at Evin: Victims of Marriage at a Young Age by Maryam Hosseinkhah describes the stories of women she met in Evin prison who were forced into early marriages and reverted to crime because they were unable to divorce their husbands or obtain custody of their children.
The Sorrowful Tales of Women at Evin Prison by Jelve Javaheri speaks out about the lives of female prisoners who were forced into early marriages or coerced by their husbands into selling drugs or conducting other illegal activities. The stories are a testament to the problems with the current legal system which discriminates against women.
A year with the Campaign: Acquired Lessons from a Shift to a Horizontal Power Structure by Jelve Javaheri is a compelling article on the horizontal, or decentralized, power structure of the campaign. Activists chose to take this approach in order to rotate responsibilities, allow for the inclusion of a diversity of voices, and encourage individual participation. The reliance on individual dissemination of information and open dialogue encourages power sharing and increases the possibility to engage a wide range of activists.
