Iran detains journalists, women activists outside Tehran

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry detained several journalists and women activists outside the capital city of Tehran for allegedly receiving money from abroad, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Sunday.

A woman walks past a mural on a wall at Palestine Square in Tehran March 4, 2007. Women in Iran, who must respect the Islamic dress code of contour-hiding gowns or long coats, and scarves hiding their hair, face legal discrimination in cases such as divorce, child custody and inheritance. Women also need permission from their husbands to leave the country. (ReutersMorteza Nikoubazl)

The ministry said in a statement that the journalists, who were arrested in an unspecified province, allegedly confessed that they had received money from abroad to publish materials deemed against national security interests, according to IRNA.

The news agency did not say how many journalists were arrested or exactly where the arrests occurred but referred to the journalists as “separatists.” The state-run agency also accused the US as being behind plots to “sow discord among various ethnic groups” in Iran.

An unidentified number of Iranian women activists were also arrested Sunday in Tehran, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported quoting a Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) report. A group of women had gathered in front of the revolutionary court – in charge of cases related to national security – in support of activists arrested last June during a demonstration which demanded more rights for women in Islamic Iran.

As the women had not previously informed the Interior Ministry, the police declared the gathering illegal and tried to disperse the protestors. The general prosecutor of Tehran issued an arrest warrant after the women resisted arrest, and an unspecified number of women were transferred to the notorious Evin prison in north Tehran.

During last June’s demonstration in Tehran city centre, some 200 women protested against the violation of women’s rights in Iran. After clashes with police, over 40 women and about 30 men were arrested. It is unclear however how many of them are still in prison.

Women in Iran, who must respect the Islamic dress code of contour-hiding gowns or long coats, and scarves hiding their hair, face legal discrimination in cases such as divorce, child custody and inheritance. Women also need permission from their husbands to leave the country. But contrary to some other Islamic countries, they can hold executive jobs, even in politics, and are free to vote nationwide.

Tehran has been accusing the United States of backing militants in an effort to destabilize the country after a February car bomb by a Sunni Muslim extremist group called Jundallah, or God’s Brigade, killed 11 members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards in southeastern Iran, the Associated Press (AP) said.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington are growing over allegations of Iranian involvement in attacks on US troops in Iraq and over Iran’s controversial nuclear activities.