Authorities could demand 95,000 euros for cyber-feminist's release

Maryam Hosseinkhah, a cyber-feminist who was arrested on 18 November for an article on the website Zanestan (“Women's City - http://herlandmag.net/) about women detainees, could be released on bail of 95,000 euros. Lawyers who represent Hosseinkhah and other cyber-feminists are currently negotiating conditions for her release. “We note that the Tehran prosecutor's office does not envisage holding Hosseinkhah for much longer, but we think the sum demanded for her release is indecent,” Reporters Without Borders said. Zanestan, a women's online bi-monthly founded in 2005, has been closed since 12 November 2007 on the orders of the Internet bureau of the ministry of culture and Islamic orientation, after publishing reports about the sentencing of four women who campaigned for signatures for the web petition “One million signatures to amend laws which discriminate against women.” --------------------------------- 19.11 - Regime steps up crackdown on cyber-feminists Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest of journalist Maryam Hosseinkhah, a member of the editorial team of websites Zanestan (The city of women - http://herlandmag.net/ ) and Tagir Bary Barbary (Change to equality - http://we-change.org/), which campaign against violations of Iranian women's rights. She was arrested on 10 November for “publishing false news, threatening public order and publicity against the regime” after refusing to submit to an order from a judge at the Tehran revolutionary court to name all her colleagues. Zanestan, a women's online bi-monthly founded in 2005, has been closed since 12 November 2007 on the orders of the Internet bureau of the ministry of culture and Islamic orientation, after publishing reports about the sentencing of four women who campaigned for signatures for the web petition “One million signatures to amend laws which discriminate against women.” “We are dismayed by this arrest. Maryam Hosseinkhah has already been arrested on the 3rd March 2007”, the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “These women are simply asking for the same rights as men and there is nothing dangerous about them. The crackdown against these brave women shows the importance of the Internet in the country to the feminist struggle,” the organisation added. In just one year, Zanestan and Tagir Bary Barbary were filtered six times and had to change their URL address to dodge censorship. According to information obtained by Reporters Without Borders, Tehran prosecutor's office also summoned and questioned managers of Zanestan's web hosting company. Elsewhere, the prosecutor's office last week told mobile phone operators to monitor text messages and Bluetooth (sending of video and sound files) on the pretext that the “sending of immoral and sacrilegious messages have increased with the use of text and Bluetooth”. Iran is one of the world's most repressive countries in relation to the Internet. It is among the 13 ‘Enemies of the Internet' and boasts that it filters 10 million “immoral” websites. The authorities have since 2006 also banned high speed connections, a measure which could be viewed as a desire not to overload the very poor quality Iranian network, but which could also be interpreted as determination to block western cultural products - films and songs - downloadable from the Internet.