They are being supported by five Nobel Peace Prize winners: Shirin Ebadi of Iran, Jody Williams from the United States, Betty Williams from Ireland, Wangari Maathai of Kenya, and Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala.
"We, the undersigned, would like to express our support for Iranian women in their continued struggle to gain equal rights under the civil and penal codes of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Specifically, we support Iranian women in their peaceful protest scheduled for June 12, 2006," said the letter from the "Nobel Women’s Initiative".
Challenging these laws takes great courage since a critique of the constitution is perceived by the clerical establishment as a criticism of Islam and its ayatollahs.
The demonstrators, which include both women and men, are demanding an end to all forms of legal discrimination based on gender, as well changes to Islamic laws that protect men at the expense of women, in areas like polygamy, divorce, child custody, employment rights, travel restrictions, the definition of adulthood, and the value of women in legal cases brought before the courts.
Under current law, women are assigned half the value of a man. For example, four women must appear in court to fulfill the requirement of two witnesses.
Women cannot travel outside
In addition, men are permitted to have more than one wife, women cannot file for divorce, and when a divorce is granted, the husband usually gets full custody of the children. Outside the home, wives are still under the thumb of their husbands — they cannot work if their husband opposes the place of employment and they cannot travel outside the country without written permission from their husbands.
Even a woman’s age is defined in terms favourable to men: girls are considered adults at age nine, at which time they can be married off. Activists would like to raise the legal age of adulthood to 18 years.
Two thousand Iranian women and men have courageously signed their names to a statement calling for dramatic changes in Islamic law. More than 15 international organisations, 100 Iranian blogs, and feminists from around the world have joined in support.
The statement, which cannot be published in any of Iran’s newspapers, does appear in blogs and will be read out loud at the demonstration.
"For the past 100 years, since the constitutional period, Iranian women have worked toward achieving their human rights and equal status under the legal system. Despite these efforts, women’s most basic rights have been ignored within Iranian civil and penal codes. Needless to say lack of legal guarantees and equality under the law has imposed severe obstacles and consequences on the lives of Iranian women," it says.
Peaceful event
Last year’s peaceful protest turned violent when police resorted to the use of force to break up the demonstration. Officials warned that a formal license was required. The demonstrators, mostly women, referred to Article 27 of the constitution which states that peaceful protest is legal and does not require a license. The 2005 protest was the largest since 1980, when tens of thousands demonstrated against compulsory use of the hejab, chador, scarf and mantua.
"Women’s organisations have not asked for permission for this peaceful event, which is not political at all. Out right to protest peacefully has been recognised by the constitution," one of the organisers of Monday’s rally told IPS.
Feminists who organised the event will form a follow-up committee, in hopes that the larger civil society will continue to bring pressure on the government. So far, none of Iran’s 12 conservative women MPs have acknowledged the Jun. 12 protest. No group has taken responsibility for this event, because of security fears. Last year, the organisers of a similar event were threatened by unknown security forces.
"One of the security entities has summoned some of the women activists. They have not pointed out any reason," an Iranian woman activist told IPS on condition of anonymity. "They probably asked them to cancel the protest," she added.
Prior to last year’s protest, the Ministry of Interior summoned several women leaders and asked them to cancel the event. Police surrounded the crowd who gathered in front of Tehran University and forced them to leave.
Secular politics
Six years ago, a peaceful protest by students in Tehran was stopped by police and plainclothes forces. Many students were injured, one was killed and a student dormitory was destroyed. This violent episode received wide international news coverage.
Since then, police forces and intelligence services, which are controlled by the conservatives, are opposed to any kind of protest.
The police believe that peaceful protest inevitably leads to political protest. In Iran, where secular politics are intertwined with Islamic law, such a protest is seen as direct criticism of the Islamic government, and a threat to the image of unity that it has worked so hard to achieve.
Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to office last year, he has used the Islamic regime’s social base to promote his agenda and has acted against labour, student and women rights movements.
Of all the pressing issues in Iran, women’s issues are among the most critical. Any change to the constitution that would improve women’s rights requires not only a change in Islamic law but a confirmation by high-ranking ayatollahs.
However, just last month, leading clerics objected to women’s request to watch football games. Since the Islamic revolution, women have been barred from attending stadium sports events because they are forbidden to watch semi-naked men, as that might arouse inappropriate sexual feelings.
On Mar. 8, the Iranian authorities marked International Women’s Day by attacking hundreds of people who had peacefully assembled to honour women’s rights. Iranian police and plainclothes agents charged the gathering in Tehran, beating hundreds of women and men.
But even as reformists, secular intellectuals and writers are suppressed by the conservative government, women activists are playing an increasingly significant role. In calling for a change to those laws that adversely affect the day-to-day lives of women, a multilateral coalition of Iranian women and civil society organisations are quietly demanding no less than a fundamental change to Islamic law.