Progress Amid Resistance

152 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA14The code refers to the covering of the whole body except for the face, hands, and feet upto the ankle. It does not specify the color, fabric, or model of the covering. See Ebadi,Hoqouq-e Zan, 83–84.15See Kar, “Discrimination Against Women.”16For a report on recent smear campaigns against Shirin Ebadi and other women activists,see Nayereh Tohidi, “Iran’s Women’s Rights Activists Are Being Smeared,” Women’seNews, September 17, 2008, www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3743.17See Feminist School, “Iranian Women’s Movement Detainees,” http://femschool.info/english/spip.php?rubrique5.18See Feminist School, “Summoning Five Members of the One Million SignaturesCampaign,” news release, April 9, 2009, www.feministschool.com/english/spip.php?article274.19See International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, “Report on the Status ofWomen Human Rights Defenders,” April 2009, www.iranhumanrights.org/2009/04/whrdreport/print/#sec2.20See Change for Equality, “Alieh Eghdam Doust to Serve Three Year Prison Term,” newsrelease, February 1, 2009, www.campaignforequality.info/english/spip.php?article455;see also “Hope for Judicial Review: Interview with the Lawyer of Alieh Eghdamdoust,”Roozonline, February 18, 2009, www.roozonline.com/archives/2009/02/post_11643.php.21See Articles 74–76, 119, 153, 170, 189, 199, 237 (Section B), and 248 of the penalcode, and Article 230 of the civil code, as discussed in Ebadi, Hoqouq-e Zan, 77–81.22Sussan Tahmasebi, “Answers to Your Most Frequently Asked Questions About theCampaign,” Change for Equality, February 24, 2008, www.changeforequality.info/english/spip.php?article226. For a detailed analysis of the birth of this campaign andrelated issues, see Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, Jonbesh yek million emza: Ravayati azdaroun [The One Million Signatures Movement: A Narrative From Inside] (Summer1386/2007), available at www.femschool.info/campaign/spip.php?article86.23See the website Meydaan that frequently reports on the activities of the campaignagainst stoning: www.meydaan.org/petition.aspx?cid=46&pid=9.24For example, in 2007 the office of Rahi (a center that offered legal advice to abusedand violated women) was shut down in Tehran, apparently for receiving grants fromthe Netherlands-based organization Hivos (Humanist Institute for DevelopmentCooperation).25Quote from Shirin Ebadi, who made this point during one of her media appearances inMay 2007.26The latest case in point is the Simon de Beauvoir prize, worth 30,000 euros, whicha French foundation awarded to the Change for Equality campaign (One MillionSignatures Campaign to Change Discriminatory Laws) in 2008. The honor caused aheated debate among the activists involved, and they ultimately decided to accept theprize, but not the money.27On the latest attacks on Shirin Ebadi’s office, see Change for Equality, “Campaign toDefend the Defenders of Human Rights Center Launched,” news release, January 3,2009, www.changeforequality.info/english/spip.php?article432.