On June 12, 2006, a coalition of hundreds of women and men gathered peacefully in a downtown square to protest the discriminatory laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Repeating the violence that has been used to quell dissent in previous years, about 100 police officers attacked the demonstrators, using pepper spray and batons, seriously injuring one woman.  Witnesses claimed that women were dragged along the ground by their hair and savagely beaten.

According to the Minister of Justice, 42 men and 28 women were arrested for having organized an "illegal" gathering.  Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini, head of the Alumni Association of Iran, a former student leader and Member of Parliament who has been a leading critic of the government's human rights practices for several years, was held for more than four months. 

In addition, five women activists were charged with endangering national security, issuing propaganda against the state, and taking part in an illegal gathering: Sousan Tahmasbi, Parvin Ardalan, Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani, Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, and Shahla Entesari. Fariba Davoodi Mohajer is currently outside of Iran.

On Sunday, March 4, 2007, they were scheduled to appear in court for a hearing in the case.  To protest the prosecution, dozens of women gathered outside the Islamic Revolutionary Court, carrying banners demanding their rights to assemble peacefully and showing solidarity with the five defendants in the criminal trial.  Police once again broke up the gathering and arrested 33 women, including well known advocates for women's rights in Iran.  The arrests come just before a larger rally commemorating International Women's Day (the U.N. Day for Women's Rights and International Peace) on March 8 in Tehran.

As of March 8, three of the women remain in detention: Mahboubeh Abbhagolizadeh, Shadi Sadr and Jila Bani Yaghoub.

Iranian advocates for women's equality are pressing for reform of laws that discriminate against women in the areas of marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance, among others.  In August 2006 they launched the "One Million Signatures Campaign Demanding an End to Discrimination against Women." Their peaceful efforts to call attention to the campaign and to gather support in Iran have been met with mounting repression.  Iranian women also face brazen discrimination in other areas of the law; criminal harm suffered by a woman is less severely punished than that suffered by a man, for example, and the evidentiary value of women's testimony in court cases is half of that of a man. 

The rights enshrined in the 1998 Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which applies to all U.N. member states, include freedom of assembly and expression.  Iran is also bound by Article 21 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which protects the right to peaceful assembly, and Article 19, which protects the freedom of expression.  Therefore, the recent arrests of women's rights activists are violations of Iran's obligations under international law.