By Jessica • 15 years ago

Iran cracks down on women’s rights websites

onemillion.JPGBy Roja Bandari.
A few days ago we hit a new low in systematic filtering of women’s rights websites in Iran. Along with the website Change for Equality, 11 other sites and blogs belonging to local branches of the One Million Signatures Campaign in several cities or regions in Iran (Arak, Rasht, Mashhad, Esfahan, Shiraz, Zahedan) were blocked simultaneously. The list of blocked blogs included Men for Equality, set up by male activists in the campaign and those of a few Iranian immigrant populations in other countries (Kuwait, Cyprus, Germany, and the US). Campaign websites in Kurdistan and Azerbaijan had been blocked in April 2008.
Change for Equality has had over 10 web addresses since early 2007. The state continuously blocks the site, and in response activists create a new web address and move to a new location. This happens despite the fact that the activists of the One Million Signatures Campaign work strictly legally and despite the fact that they do not oppose the government of Iran.
Other women’s publications both online and in print have also been a target of censorship in the past few years; the popular women’s rights e-zine Zanestan (“Woman’s Land”), and the long-published and well-respected magazine Zanan (“Women”) have both been shut down and are no longer published as of and November 2007 and January 2008 respectively.
Read the rest at openDemocracy.
Thanks to Roja for permission to reprint an excerpt of her piece!

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