Last week, the authorities or Iran shut down Zanan, the country's premier women's magazine. President Ahmadinejad said that Zanan showed Iranian women in a "black light" and was a threat to the psychological well being of Iranian society. Zanan had long argued that the legal discrimination suffered by women in Iran is not mandated by Islamic law and that therefore it can and should be changed.
Zanan was established in 1992 by Shahla Sherkat, who continues to serve as its managing director. There have been 152 issues of the magazine spanning 16 years. The magazine regularly ran articles dealing with women's health, parenting, and legal issues and was one of the most popular publications in the country. Staff members of the magazine have been targeted for harassment in the past and I now fear for their safety.

On January 29, 2008, Zanan staff was notified by authorities from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance that their license was to be cancelled immediately due to the psychological threat the magazine posed to Iranian society. According to reports, the specific article that caught the authorities' attention discussed the rape of a woman by two members of Basij Resistance Force, a paramilitary group with strong ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

In the past two years, nearly 40 Iranian publications have had their licenses revoked or been banned by the government-run Press Supervisory Council. The revocation of Zanan's license thus represents a growing trend of censoring the press and silencing those publications that provide space for the discussion of the human rights situation in Iran.
Please visit the Human Rights First http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/Zanan and sent a message to Iranian government to:
Cancel the order to close the magazine Zanan and reinstate its press license.
Ensure the safety of the staff of Zanan.
Urge all branches of the government to respect the right to freedom of expression and the importance of a free and independent press.

". President Ahmadinejad said that Zanan showed Iranian women in a "black light" and was a threat to the psychological well being of Iranian society."

That argument sounds familiar. Why yes, it sounds exactly like a Christian demanding conservatism on social issues and various forms of entertainment, such as gay rights.

The women of Iran get it very tough; I have spent some time there and saw some bad stuff. I would be happy to lend my support but don't know how. What do you recommend?

I recommend you become an Iranian citizen before speaking about their domestic affairs.

Why? Should we shut up about apartheid in South Africa, genocide in Darfur, torture in China, and suicide bombers in Israel?

Iranian authoritiess won't care, whether we are citizens or not. The most well-defined national characteristic of Persia is bloody-minded stubbornness.

The Iranian government is going to listen to foreigners when it doesn't doesn't care about its own citizens?

What naive rubbish.

it doesn't hurt to fire off an email 'tut-tuting'.

but there are problems closer to home. like picking ozzies off the street and putting them in a box on the untested say so of a copper.

Dear Antonios,

I agree with Leigh on this one. Realistically, I don't think our protests will have much influence in Iran. After all we are 'infidels,' from their point of view. However, my conscience doesn't allow me to do nothing, so I have gone into the website that you gave here "humanrightsfirst," and sent a letter through their organisation to Iran. We can only hope that it will have some effect.

It is a shame that the only magazine for women ("Zanan" means "woman" in Persian) that has been published for 16 years (monthly - 152 issues) should suddenly lose its licence on 8th Febrary 2008.

It was a decision made by the Press Supervisory Board backed by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to revoke the magazine's licence. The magazine stood for equal rights and gender justice -
so I suppose it is surprising that it lasted as long as it did.

What Steel and Leigh do not recognise is the work of Amnesty International, where it is because interest has been shown from overseas that some despot is persuaded to release a political prisoner or bring them to trial.
The counter for my own argument, though, is that, in Iran, a flood of A.I. letters often resulted in the political prisoner being immediately killed.
However, I have already sent my very polite protest using the language recommended by A.I.

Foxy,

Feminist Majority Foundation on-line also have a couple of interesting resources for protest if you are at all interested. I expect you have been updating on Ms's report on the situation too?

As you say, it is not likely that individual "infidel" voices carry any weight, but once in a while public groundswell does result in policy amendments.

Yeah, its a dichotomy we face daily really, isn't it? Other countries domestic policies are none of our business...yet human beings world-wide are. And unless we ourselves live in a utopia it is rather like people in glass houses throwing stones to to call for changes elsewhere. Yet we do have a duty of care to those who share life on this planet; or so I believe.

Do you remember the movie "Rwanda Hotel" and how those poor people were sure that if the rest of the world knew what was happening they would intervene? Sometimes we really can help; other times we do more harm than good. Maybe we just have to make sure that our moral guidelines really are lines in the sand and not set in concrete .

That would be interesting to investigate. Whether the influence and sexism of feminists actually gets women killed where they normally would not be. I think they may even suppress that information to obtain a greater political reaction back in their own country.

Also, why do I call feminist groups sexist? Because men are also mistreated and killed for political purposes. Human rights are NOT A GENDER ISSUE. Whether you are male or female, you are a victim first. Your gender is irrelevant.

Dear Steel,

Human rights are not exclusive to any particular society or group of individuals, and they are as relevant to people living in Australia as they are to those who live elsewhere. Human rights are for everyone, everywhere and at all times.

The reason for the magazine, "Zanan" having its licence revoked however was because it was a prominent feminist magazine that dealt with equal rights and gender issues in general. And in an Islamic country like Iran that was a big "No, No!"

And those of us who support human rights - have sent emails to the
"humanrightsfirst" organisation.

Were you one of the posters who actually did something, or do you just like talking about the subject?

Things are banned in Australia too. It's really up to them what they deem offensive. In a society that is more free than our own, they might deem it repressive to ban the publication of nudity in advertising.

That's why I dislike this holier-than-thou attitude...it's hypocritical. We censor and repress certain media and people in Australia. I think it would be more honest and credible to everyone if we fixed our own repressive society and leave it to the Iranians to go through the same processes as our countries have done.

Mind you they may well have taken those steps by now if the Iranian Democracy in 1953, was not overthrown by the United States (spreading democracy? No, it's always been spreading the opposite if you do some research) and a dictatorship was not put in it's place (by the Usa).

Dear Steel,

I owe you an apology. I misunderstood what you were trying to say.

You're right of course.

Dear Romany,

Thanks for referring me to the Feminist Majority Foundation.
There's a few sites that I've earmarked - so thanks.

None can ignore the International public opinion, none can ignore the international non government organizations. Few years before Bush's administration tried to find who is the worst and strongest enemy for his policy. The answer was the NON GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. While it was easy for Bush administration to threaten Pakistan's president , << cooperate with us against terrorists or we will bring your country back to stone age>> it is not easy to threaten, press or buy the members and friends from a non government organization because they come from a wide political range left to right and of cause from many countries, friendly or not. The government of Iran will try to underestimate us but it can not ignore us because they know our press against an invasion to Iran had good results for them , because they need us and they want us enough strong. We are strong not only as message senders but also as consumers and voters. Today none country can savvy alone. Today individuals are strong, very strong, the internet gave us the tools not only to sent messages but to create the public opinion, in high degree. (About 54% of Americans prefer the internet for their news). We are strong, we are much more stronger than we think. None can ignore our voice, non democratic governments can try to seem that they ignore us but we know they scare more from us than from Bush's invasions.
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide