Iran: Baluchi Sunni Woman Elected Mayor

From al-monitor:

Samiyeh Balochzehi, 26, was elected mayor of Kalat in Sistan-Baluchistan, an unprecedented event in one of Iran's most conservative provinces.

The election of the first Baluchi woman last week as the mayor of Kalat, a city in the south of Iran, was an unprecedented event in one of the most underprivileged and conservative provinces in Iran. It is a significant step which local experts believe that can inspire Baluchi women to work for more rights and break boundaries that have been created by both the state and society.

Electing a female mayor is by itself a very rare event in Iran. Female mayors who are Shiite and come from the majority Persian ethnicity are extremely rare, but electing a female mayor from two distinct minority sets in Iran, the Baluchi and the Sunnis, is unprecedented.

Iran: Four Women Stoned To Death

Varying reports are surfacing that four Iranian women have been stoned to death.

Read More Here -: MFS - The Other News:

Based on reports received by the Melli-Mazhabi  (Religious-Nationalist) website (English translation can be read here), security agents from the Iranian Judiciary transferred the bodies of four women who had been stoned to death to the Tehran forensic medicine department. The bodies are currently in freezers at this department.

The stoning executions occurred two days after the Chair of Judicial and Legal Committee of the Iranian Parliament announced that the act of stoning had been replaced by alternative forms of punishment. According to Allahyar Malekshahi, conditions of adultery, the burden of proof, and the punishment for the offence were discussed in the Committee. According to Mr. Malekshahi, “In Iran’s [Islamic Penal] Code, adultery is punishable by death, but conditions on how to prove the act of adultery has taken place are not mentioned. In order to clarify the law, a separate section was added to distinguish the conditions under which a relationship is qualified as adultery.

See also: Iran Human Rights

Warning: the above links contain images many will find distressing.

Iran: Women Banned From University Programs

From Ynet News:

Universities in Iran have announced that dozens of academic programs in the coming year will be "single-gender," which effectively means they will be exclusively offered to men, the Telegraph reported Monday.

Iran's most celebrated human rights campaigner, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, has urged the UN to probe the reform, claiming that the real agenda was to reduce the proportion of female students to below 50% – from around 65% at present – thereby weakening the Iranian feminist movement in its campaign against discriminatory Islamic laws.

Historical Fiction With Mansoureh Mir-fatah

From the Iran Book News Agency:

Talking about history novels, researcher of Iran's history Mansoureh Mir-fatah said:" The novel's historical figures shouldn’t turn into legends and myths, although Iran enjoys folklores and it is famed as the land of legends but historical figures shouldn’t turn into legends and myths.

IBNA: Talking about history novels, Mansoureh Mir-fatah told IBNA that during the previous year while I was researching for my book "Women in Iran", I had to go through some history books either research ones or novels.

She added:" During my studies and research I learned that several books were released about ancient Iranian women particularly women who lived during the Achaemenid era which encompassed imaginary pictures and hyperbole. For instance history novels hold many exaggerations about Pantea, a woman who lived during Cyrus while she had precious thoughts which could flourish throughout the history."

Anousheh Ansar - First Female Private Space Explorer

From Huffington Post:

“On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari captured headlines around the world as the first female private space explorer. Anousheh earned a place in history as the fourth private explorer to visit space and the first astronaut of Iranian descent. Anousheh is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder and chairman of Prodea Systems, a company that will unleash the power of the Internet to all consumers and dramatically alter and simplify consumer’s digital living experience. Prior to founding Prodea Systems, Anousheh served as co-founder, CEO and chairman of Telecom Technologies, Inc. The company successfully merged with Sonus Networks, Inc., in 2000.

Anousheh immigrated to the United States as a teenager who did not speak English. She earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics and computer engineering from George Mason University, followed by a master’s degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University. She has an honorary doctorate from the International Space University. She is currently working toward a master’s degree in astronomy from Swinburne University.

She believes the key to a better future for humankind is in the hands of our young generation, and it is up to us to provide them with the right tools through education and as good role models.” - Anoushehansari.com 

Women's Status & Life In Iran

Article in the Kurdish Globe by Sara Saye:

Iran has thousands years of civilization, and the country played a great role in social, political and economic transformation until the rise of Islam and Arab occupation.

Ancient Iran was one of the most powerful political entities and an empire with a multi-ethnic society. At times its borders extended from China to Egypt and from Yemen to central Asia. In analyzing the past traditions and norms of this society we find that beside the great male political and social figures of this land, the role of women was also remarkable. For example, a top admiral of the Persian Empire's navy 2,300 years ago was a woman and before that, women played an important role in building and leading the political establishment.

Many historical documents indicated that in the various dynasties of ancient Iran, with its multi-ethnic structure, the social status of woman was respected. Therefore, it is reasonable to argue that the relatively liberal atmosphere and economic strength of those regimes resulted in some progress and improvements for both men and women.

Interview: Laureate in Exile

From National Review Online:

Ebadi was born in 1947, the daughter of an expert on commercial law (Mohammad Ali Ebadi). According to most accounts, she became the first female judge in the entire history of Iran. An amazing distinction, given the age of the country. But when the Khomeinists seized power, she had to quit being a judge. They said that Islam forbade women to serve as judges — for one thing, they were too emotional. So, Ebadi devoted herself to work as a human-rights lawyer.

She has been living in exile since 2009, when Iran experienced a great amount of turmoil. It is my understanding that she still has family in Iran. (I did not ask this in my time with her, which was a generous amount of time, but not unlimited.) One question has been, How free is Shirin Ebadi to speak her mind, given what the regime can do to her loved ones?

Over the years, she has spouted her fair share of anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric (or rhetoric that can be interpreted that way). Some Iranians have suspected that she does this in order to buy a little protection from the regime — to keep it from her own and others’ throats.

Qajar Women

Women's World in Qajar Iran:

Explore the lives of women during the Qajar era (1796-1925) through a wide array of materials from private family holdings and participating institutions. Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran provides bilingual access to thousands of personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, publications, everyday objects, works of art and audio materials, making it a unique online resource for social and cultural histories of the Qajar world.

Iran: "Temporary Wife" Hanged

From Yahoo 7 News:

Iran on Wednesday hanged a former soccer player's mistress who was convicted of murdering her love rival, the player's wife, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Shahla Jahed was hanged after spending more than eight years in jail, IRNA said, in a case that has captivated the Iranian public for several years.

Jahed had become what is known as a "temporary wife" of former soccer star Nasser Mohammad Khani. She was charged in 2002 with stabbing to death Laleh Saharkhizan, the player's wife, and convicted of murder in 2004 and again in 2009, after her appeal was denied.

Contracts with "temporary wives" are a legal way for Iranian men to have mistresses outside marriage, with the agreements lasting from between several hours to a few years.

Wednesday's death sentence was based on the Islamic law of "qisas" - or eye for an eye retribution.

International human rights groups, including Amnesty International, had campaigned for Jahed's punishment to be halted.

Reconstructed: Burnt City Woman

From Press TV:

The reconstructed version of the 5,000-year-old skeleton was unveiled during a ceremony attended by head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization Hamid Baqaei and Iran's ambassador to Italy Seyyed Mohammad-Ali Hosseini.

The woman, whose face has been reconstructed by a group of Iranian and Italian researchers, is famous for carrying the first prosthesis to have been used by man, ISNA reported.

This is a great scientific achievement which shows that Persians used innovative medical equipment 5,000 years ago, Baqaei said during the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

The unique discovery was the result of excavations in the Burnt City in 2006, when archaeologists found an artificial eyeball on a 1.82-meter- tall female skeleton, much taller than ordinary women of her time, and dated back to between 2900 and 2800 BCE.

Nazar Ahari - Fighting For Women's Rights In Iran

From the Guardian:

The charges against Nazar Ahari are among the most serious that can be levelled in Iran: muharebeh (enmity against God), a crime, in theory punishable by death, originally intended to be used against armed gangs and pirates, not dissidents.

Nazar Ahari is also charged with assembly and collusion aiming to commit a crime, propagating against the regime and disrupting public order. But perhaps most dangerous among the allegations – strongly denied both by her family and her organisation, the Committee for Human Rights Reporters – is of "relations" with the banned Mojahedin e-Khalq group, which is accused by the Iranian regime of terrorist activities. Her family says that she deplores the organisation.

Arrested twice since the disputed Iranian elections in June 2009 and held in the notorious Evin prison, in north-west Tehran, Nazar Ahari has been kept largely incommunicado since December, when she was arrested with several other women activists on her way to the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in the city of Qom. Also detained was Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, another prominent women's rights activist and film-maker, who has since left Iran and was sentenced in absentia to two-and-a-half-years in jail and 30 lashes for her part in a 2007 protest.

Fight to Save Sakineh

From Associated Press:

About 300 people from rights organizations have demonstrated in Paris to urge Iran to lift its death sentence on an Iranian woman convicted of adultery.

The protesters carried banners reading "Let's Save Sakineh," in honor of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

After international protests, Iran lifted the stoning sentence last month, but she could still face execution by hanging.

Iran-born women's rights activist Anna Pak told Saturday's Paris crowd that Iran must "stop killing men and women" after alleged forced confessions.

Sihem Habchi, of a noted French group representing downtrodden minority women, said Ashtiani symbolizes the "right to be a woman."

Brazil: Asylum For Iranian Women

From Eurasia Review:

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazilian President urged Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to allow his country to offer asylum to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to stoning in Iran.

Reuters reports Lula da Silva stated that his offer of asylum to Mohammadi Ashtiani was in consideration of his esteem for his friendship with the Iranian president and an attempt at resolving a matter that could be a problematic issue for Iran.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is an Iranian woman whose stoning sentence in Iran for the charge of adultery has stirred international outrage.

While the media reports that her stoning sentence has been stopped, Iranian authorities claim that her execution sentence stands.

Brazil has enjoyed closer relationship with Iran following its attempt along with Turkey to broker a nuclear deal with Iran and their refusal to vote for the UN resolution against Iran in June.

Lula da Silva responded to a campaign in support of Sakineh Mohammadi last week saying that he cannot ask the leader of a country to disregard their country’s laws.

UPDATE: Iran Won't Stone Woman To Death

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Iran has announced that a woman will not be stoned to death after being convicted of adultery following an international outcry, according to British news reports.

The Islamic republic's London embassy issued a statement, saying "according to information from the relevant judicial authorities in Iran [Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani] will not be executed by stoning", according to Britain's The Times newspaper.

But the statement did not say whether the 43-year-old would be spared or executed by hanging instead, the paper added.

Human rights group Amnesty International has said she was convicted in 2006 or 2007 and has previously received a flogging of 99 lashes.

The United States and Britain have led global condemnation of the planned stoning execution.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Thursday labelled the punishment "medieval", saying it would "disgust and appal" the rest of the world.

"I'm appalled by reports of the imminent execution," he said. "I think that stoning is a medieval punishment that has no place in the modern world and the continued use of such a punishment in Iran demonstrates in our view a blatant disregard for human rights."

"I think if this punishment were carried out, it would disgust and appal the watching world," he added.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said: "Stoning as a means of execution is tantamount to torture. It's barbaric and an abhorrent act."

"We condemn in the strongest terms the use of the practice of stoning anywhere it occurs as a form of legalised death by torture," he said.

A host of prominent names from the worlds of politics and arts signed an open letter condemning the planned stoning on Friday in the Times, which has been running a campaign to halt the execution, Signatories included former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, three former British foreign ministers, and Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timorese president and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

American actors Robert De Niro and Robert Redford also signed, as did French actress Juliette Binoche and French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.

"On top of what she has already endured, Ms Ashtiani faces a gruesome and agonising death," the letter said.

"We urge the Iranian government to overturn this unjust sentence and reconsider Ms Ashtiani's case."

Iran: Woman to be stoned to death

From Entertainment Biz:

The political authorities of Iran are being constantly fuzzed by the religious who’s who of the country. Now, a woman is on the verge of being stoned to death as she is suspected to have committed adultery.

43 year old Sakineh Mohammadi was held guilty of having carnal relations with two men simultaneously and with those incumbents who were responsible for her husband’s death in 2005.

Sakineh hails from the Irania city of Tabriz, located in the north-western part of the country. Sakineh was first lashed 99 times for her involvement in infidelity and then she was transferred to the jail. Unfaithfulness is punished with imprisonment all over the world, but in Iran, it seems to be the revisit to the medieval times. Sakineh’s sons have long been endorsing a human rights movement to reach out to the Amnesty to save her life.

Iran: Warning to "badly veiled" women

From AFP:

Iranian police have issued warnings to 62,000 women who were "badly veiled" in the Shiite holy province of Qom as part of a clampdown on dress and behaviour, a newspaper said on Monday.

Around "62,000 women were warned for being badly veiled" in the province of Qom, Tehran Emrouz newspaper quoted provincial police chief Colonel Mehdi Khorasani as saying.

It was unclear whether all the women issued with warnings were from Qom or the tally included travellers passing through the province.

Khorasani said police had also confiscated around 100 cars for carrying improperly dressed women, adding that "encouraging such relaxations are among the objectives of the enemy."

Women in Iran

From the Christian Examiner:

Fourteen months after being arrested for their Christian faith, two young Iranian women were acquitted on apostasy charges.

Maryam Rostampour, 28, and Marzieh Amirizadeh, 31, who spent more than 250 days in jail for their faith, were acquitted by the Iranian judicial authorities and warned that any future Christian activity in Iran would be meant with serious consequences.

The young women were arrested in March 2009 and faced apostasy charges and possible death sentences for converting to Christianity and for reportedly engaging in evangelistic activities and Bible distribution.

Rostampour and Amirizadeh endured repeated interrogations, weeks in solitary confinement, and unhealthy prison conditions in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. According to Elam Ministries, both women became seriously sick during their imprisonment and did not receive the treatment they needed, which greatly increased their suffering.

A deputy prosecutor who told them to renounce their faith questioned the women at one point. According to Farsi Christian News Network Rostampour and Amirizadeh stood firm and replied, “We will not deny our faith.”

And from Reuters:

Iran's second biggest city has massively increased the amount it fines for women who fail to observe the Islamic dress code and don't cover their hair properly, media reported.

Morality police around Iran are beginning their annual spring crackdown on women wearing too much makeup, daring to show their hair or dressing in a way that shows their body contours too clearly.

In the holy city of Masshad, the public prosecutor has increased the fine to 1.3 million tomans, roughly $1,300 -- a hefty sum in a country where a teacher's monthly salary is around $500.

"In the past the penalty for not observing the Islamic dress code was 50,000 tomans along with two months' imprisonment," Mashhad's public and revolutionary prosecutor Mahmoud Zoghi told the semi-official Fars news agency.

Iran: No Single Women In Oil & Gas

From AFP:

Iran has barred single women from working for a state firm that operates a huge gas field and petrochemical plants on the shores of the Gulf, the Fars news agency reported on Monday.

"Oil Minister (Masoud Mirkazemi) has emphasised that single women should not be present in Assalouyeh," the deputy director of the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Company, Pirouz Mousavi, said.

Mousavi did not elaborate on whether any women had yet been laid off as a result of the order.

More than 18 months ago, Iranian newspapers carried an instruction by the company requiring that "single employees start creating a family."

"As being married is one of the criteria of employment, we are announcing for the last time that all female and male colleagues have until September 21 to go ahead with this important and moral religious duty," the instruction said.

Iran: Courage Award for Women

From Reuters:

A group of women who are risking imprisonment to collect one million signatures on a petition demanding greater women's rights in Iran were presented on Tuesday with the Anna Politkovskaya award for courage.

The annual prize, presented in memory of the campaigning Russian journalist who was murdered three years ago in Moscow, is awarded by Reach All Women (RAW) in War, a human rights group which focuses on stopping violence against women in conflict situations.

"We gave them the award because they are an extremely brave and courageous group of women and they are really changing the society in Iran, which is extremely difficult," RAW in War founder Mariana Katzarova told Reuters.

"They live a life of courage in the face of grave danger, just as Anna did," added Katzarova, a Bulgarian who created the award after spending 15 years working in Bosnia, Kosovo and Chechnya.

The One Million Signatures campaign, launched in 2006, aims to petition the Iranian parliament asking for the revision and reform of current laws which discriminate against women in Iran.

RAW in War says some campaign members have been imprisoned for acting against national security in Iran and disrupting public order, while others have been given suspended prison sentences.

Activists say women in Iran, while able to vote, drive cars and hold most jobs, are subject to discrimination that makes them second-class citizens in divorce, inheritance, child custody, legal matters and other areas of life.

Iranian Women Honoured

From Khaleej Times:

Three Iranian women human rights campaigners Monday received the Lech Walesa Prize.

Shadi Sadr, Ladan Boroumand and Roya Boroumand were honoured for their promotion of “human rights, freedom of expression and democracy in Iran”, the Lech Walesa Foundation said in a statement.

Sadr, a legal expert and journalist, is a leading figure in the campaign against stoning as a punishment in Muslim countries, the foundation noted.

The Boroumands, meanwhile, are in charge of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, which on its website logs human rights violations, and campaigns in particular against racism.

The 100,000-euro (147,000-dollar) prize was created in 2008 to “reward those who work for understanding and cooperation among nations in the name of freedom and the values of Solidarity,” the trade union which Walesa headed in the 1980s to combat Poland’s then communist regime.

Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for his non-violent struggle. He became post-war Poland’s first democratically-elected president in 1990, a year after the collapse of communist rule.

Besides Walesa, the prize committee includes former anti-communist Czech dissident and ex-president Vaclav Havel, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and former Polish foreign minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski.

The inaugural prize last year went to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah for his contribution towards inter-faith dialogue, as well as charity work including sponsoring an operation to separate conjoined twin girls from Poland.