IRAN: Iranians Protest Bill on Rights of Women

In what appeared to be the first burst of activism in months not related to the disputed presidential election, about 1,200 Iranians signed a statement against a bill that would further curb women's rights, the feminist Web site Change for Gender Equality reported.

In Iran, men can have several wives, but they are generally supposed to get permission from their current ones.

“We issued the statement because we are worried that various groups, including women, can lose civil rights under tense political times like now,” said Asieh Amini, a lawyer and women's rights advocate living in Oslo. “We have no doubt that democracy will not be implemented without taking women's rights into consideration.”

Women have played a major role in the protests since the election in June, which the opposition claims the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole. Many women have been jailed and at least several were killed in the government crackdown on street protests that followed the vote.

Women's rights in Iran have been curtailed since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, but in recent years, women have been displaying an increasing determination to achieve equal status in this conservative Muslim theocracy. Women are forced to cover their hair and they have consistently been subjected to intimidation in public over what they wear.

A group of advocates for women, including Ms. Amini and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, met with members of the legal committee of Parliament in late 2008 to try to persuade them not to pass the bill. Some advocates thought until last month that they had won the battle, but now they fear conservatives may be using political unrest to push for new restrictions on women.

Articles in the new bill allow a man to marry a new wife without the permission of a current one if she is absent for more than six months, including time served in prison, or has an incurable disease. The bill would also subject a woman's alimony to a reassessment, although it is vague on what that means. Alimony would, however, be taxed.

Also on Wednesday, an appeals court increased the punishment for Ghader Mohammadzadeh, a Kurdish activist, to death instead of 23 years in prison, a human rights Web site, Reporters and Human Rights Activists News Agency, reported. This is the second time an appeals court has increased the punishment from a prison term to death in recent months, and it appears to be part of a larger crackdown on dissent.

Another court sentenced Amir Reza Arefi, 21, to death on Monday on charges of waging war against God, the Web site reported. He was accused of being linked to royalist groups in exile.

Reporters and Human Rights Activists News Agency also reported Wednesday that Mahdieh Golroo, a student activist arrested in September, was in severe condition at the notorious Evin prison, where she was said to be have an intestinal infection.