It has come to our knowledge that Alieh Eghdamdust who was previously sentenced to three years imprisonment for participating in the June 2006 demonstration of women in Tehran has been taken to prison early in February.
We know that in the course of last year alone tens of the activists of the women’s movement have been arrested. More than forty of them have been sentenced in the regime’s courts and later freed on heavy bail: a ploy to force them into silence. We know that Fatemeh Goftari, Hana Abdi, Runak Saffarzadeh, and Zeinab Bayazidi, the last three of them activists of the One Million Signature Campaign for the Abolition of Discriminatory Laws Against Women are still in jail, serving long term prison sentences. In addition to their activities in the Campaign, they carry the burden of being Kurds. The Iranian regime has shown no concern about international protests demanding their freedom.
Previous to the 1979 revolution, Alieh Eghdamdust was a high school teacher. She, along with many other teachers, was sacked for her disagreement with the educational curriculum designed and enforced by the new educational authorities. She was a political prisoner when, in an extensive wave of oppression, between 1984 and 1990 the Islamic Republic put thousands of Iranian citizens into prison. It is not unlikely that the regime would use her prison background to accuse her of new crimes and increase the pressure on her.
In addition to these disturbing facts, implementing Alieh Eghdadust’s prison sentence is a further step indicative if increasing pressure and suppression of the activists of the movement of Iranian women for equality. We call on international organisations to:
– Help set Alieh Eghdamdust free through widespread protests to her imprisonment.
– Defend the right of the Iranian women to struggle for equality, and prevent the regime from forcing them into silence.
– Support, as best they can, the women activists in Iran who continue their struggle under conditions of censorship and oppression.
International Solidarity Network with Iranian Women’s Movement
