One Million Signatures

One Million Signatures for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws (Persian: يک ميليون امضا برای لغو قوانين تبعيض آميز Yek Milyun Emzā barā-ye Laghv-e Qavānin-e Tab‘iz Āmiz), also known as Change for Equality, is a campaign by women in Iran to collect one million signatures in support of changing discriminatory laws against women in their country.

Preparation started immediately in June, and the campaign was officially launched on August 28, at a seminar entitled The Effect of Laws on Women’s Lives, (Persian: تاثیر قوانین بر زندگی در حال زنان Taaseereh ghavaaneen bar zendegee dar haaleh zanaan).

[citation needed] The organizers hope that a million-signature petition will demonstrate, to decision-makers and the general public, that the desire to change discriminatory laws against women is not limited to a small segment of society, but widespread among diverse parts of the Iranian population.

However, signature seekers "fan out in ones and twos, to small towns and villages, going into shops, beauty salons, schools and offices, or stand at bus stops explaining 'face to face' how the Iranian interpretation of Sharia law is stacked against half the population.

[1] Several participants in the peaceful gathering of women's rights defenders on 12 June 2006 in Hafte Tir Square, which ended with police violence and brutality and the arrest of 70 people, have been tried and sentenced.

[16] They include Delaram Ali, Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan, Shahla Entesari, Sussan Tahmasebi, Azadeh Forghani, Bahareh Hedayat and Bahare Alavi.

[18] According to California State University professor Nayereh Tohidi, women collecting signatures for the campaign were attacked and arrested, which has slowed down its progress, causing the need to extend its two-year target.

[21] After the victory over the marriage bill in September 2008, a court sentenced to jail four women leaders involved in the One Million Signatures campaign, for contributing to banned websites.

[2] In October 2008, Esha Momeni, a graduate student of the School of Communications, Media and Arts at California State University, interviewed activists in Tehran for a film as part of her California-based studies.

[22] She was arrested, initially for a driving offence, and prominent Iranian lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah quoted officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Court as saying her detention related to involvement in the One Million Signatures campaign.