Women's peaceful demonstration in Tehran was violently suppressed

On Monday June 12th, a peaceful demonstration of women for equal rights was brutally suppressed by the police force even before the participants get any chance to voice their demands. More than 70 people are arrested and men and women were beaten up and tear gas was used. The demonstration was organized by a group of women activists as a follow up to the similar demonstration which was held last year in front of University of Tehran.

Zahra, a law student, describes the day in her blog:

"when we got there it was really scary. Several police buses and cars covering the whole area. Cell phones were obviously monitored because we were receiving suspicious text messages from an unknown number...We got to the meeting point in the Hafte-Tir Square and saw the police forces already being "busy" in three other spots. We sat down and started chanting slogans..After about 5 minutes of confused stares from the pedestrians at us we received the first surprise: the women police force which are scarier than men for two reasons...First they are "mahram" to women so they can kick and punch women without violating any religious code and second they are strangely way more aggressive than men! First they tried to force us by hand to get up and leave...When we resisted they started using their nightsticks, after not very long the kicks and punches and the nightstick beatings got very harsh...Right in front of my eyes one of them beat Mana right in her head so badly that I don't think I will ever forget the sound of it...All of sudden everywhere is red...The second surprise: they are using a paint spray on us. We didn't realize first but they were marking us so that they know later in the crowd who was sitting and resisting...Smart!

They finally forced us to get up and pushed us to the center of the square while we were still chanting the anthem for Iran's women movement. At least people are seeing us and you can see the objection and sympathy in their eyes...The other side of the square is so crowded I can't really see anything but I hear that they are arresting people...We are scattered...This is partly bad because we are so scattered that we can not even say why we are here so that they won't call all this "a police encounter with women with bad Islamic Hijab"...And it is partly good cause at least curious people are now mixed up with the demonstrators, occasionally receiving some beating and can sympathize with us. We roamed around for another 30 minutes just to be there. I hear they have arrested Delaram and Nasim...I am so worried...Delaram told me if she doesn't take her exam tomorrow it will delay her graduation for a semester...I found Elmira another friend and she told me that Firoozeh's shoulder is dislocated. The crowed moves to the other side of the square and police dispersed us with gas tear...We move away from the chaos a bit and all of a sudden a police woman gets us! " I remember you chanting anthems and slogans! I remember your face!" when we denied she pointed to the red marks on my scarf...She took us to another police woman for some "explanations"...For a second the woman got distracted and Mana and I each escaped from a direction and went to the subway station as fast as we could...Roshanak and Hedieh were there..Roshanak couldn't really see because apparently they had used tear gas right into her face..."

Based on Iran's constitution the age of being tried as a child is based on religious standards. By this law the age for men is 15 years and for women is 9 years. In other words a 9 year old kid, if committing a crime, will be tried like an adult. Women's testimony is worth half of men's and in some cases women can not testify in court. Children's custody is solely a man's right and if for any reason the father is not qualified or is dead it will be children's grandfather from father side who will have the custody of children. If parents divorce children should stay with their father unless they are less than seven years old(I think, it might be two for sons) and if the mother gets married with in this time she will lose her right to have the children. Men in Iran are legally allowed to have four wives where women are supposed to be loyal to their husband at all times. Based on Iran's constitution if a husband sees his wife having sex with another man he is allowed to kill that man and if he knows that his wife willingly slept with that man he is allowed to kill his wife. Iranian women, by constitution, have to comply with their men's sexual requests or they will lose many of their rights in marriage. They can not travel abroad or even ask for a passport unless they present a permission from their husband. They do not have equal rights for divorce. The blood money, the Islamic equivalent of value of life, for women is half of the men. If a man kills a woman he can not be prosecuted until the woman's family pays half of a man's blood money to the murderer's family.

This demonstration was to protest against these and similar regulations and demanding equal rights for men and women.

BBC's coverage, Washingtonpost

See more pictures here and here. Read more in LadySun's blog and this report.