International Women’s Rights Day campaign launched two months after beatings of the ‘Mourning Mothers’

Iranian women’s activists have launched a campaign for gender equality to mark International Women’s Rights Day.

The campaign, Call for Solidarity: Freedom and Gender Equality in Iran, targets gender-based discrimination against women and what campaigners describe as state-led violence.

Launched on International Women’s Rights Day (March 8), the campaign comes two months after 32 women known as the ‘Mourning Mothers’ were beaten and arrested at a weekly vigil for their sons and daughters who have been missing since protests began after the disputed June 2009 national elections.

One of the 32 women remains in detention and 6 female supporters of the ‘Mourning Mothers’ have since been arrested. The women are believed to be detained in the notorious Section 209 of Evin prison, which is administered by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. Rights groups say none of the women have been charged with any offense or granted access to lawyers hired by their families.

“There have been many infringement on women’s rights since the elections,” Nadya Khalife, the women’s rights researcher for the Middle East at Human Rights Watch told The Media Line. “Women are being detained imprisoned and harassed just like anyone else, so this campaign is not looking only at gender discrimination but positioning the women’s rights movement as a component of the larger protest movement.”

“Iranian women have bravely sought over and over to end gender-based discrimination, only to be met with threats, arrests, and imprisonment of activists,” Khalife said. “Human Rights Watch calls on the Iranian government to allow women’s rights groups to operate freely, without harassment, or worse.”

“There have been various campaigns over the past few years and there may be some provisions which have improved women’s rights along the way but there are still many that are discriminatory and there remains a lot more to be done,” she added.