Iran's authorities have arrested more than 32 women activists protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran.It's curious that Human Rights Watch is labeled a pressure group in this instance, but is labeled something quite different when HRW is pushing its agenda against the US. Then, HRW is often labeled "leading international human rights organization."
The protesters were showing solidarity with five women on trial for organising a protest last June against laws they say discriminate against women.
The five have been charged with endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering.
US pressure group, Human Rights Watch, has urged an end to the prosecution.
It said the women had been exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.
The five are organisers of a demonstration last June which was violently broken up by the police and led to the arrest of 70 people, many of them innocent bystanders.
HRW should be commended for speaking out against the ongoing misogyny in the Islamic world, where half the population is subject to intolerable conditions simply because they are women. Women are treated as little more than chattel and even the slightest sight of skin may be sufficient for a public beating or worse. That said, HRW and others have little power to effect change in Iran or the misogyny that is found throughout the Middle East and Islamic world.
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