Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh
Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh (born 1958) is an Iranian women’s rights activist.[1]
Life
Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh is a director of Zanan Broadcasting Network(www.zanantv.org) , women’s rights activist , researcher and filmmaker. She was an active member of the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign and the Iranian Women’s Charter movement. She was the director of the Non-Governmental Organisation Training Centre (NGOTC), an organisation formed to support the work of the growing NGO community in Iran, which was closed down by the Revolutionary Court of Iran during her first arrest in 2004. She also headed the Association of Women Writers and Journalists NGO and was the editor-in-chief of Farzaneh, which is ‘a journal of women’s studies and research in Iran and Muslim societies’.
On 8 May 2010, the Revolutionary Court in Iran sentenced Ms. Abbasgholizadeh, 52, to two and a half (21/2) years in jail and thirty (30) lashes for ‘acts against national security through conspiracy and collusion intended to disrupt public security, disturbing public order and defiance against government officers.”
She was first arrested on 1 November 2004 with her personal effects summarily seized and her office closed down. On 4 March 2007, she was again arrested along with other women activists during a peaceful demonstration in front of Tehran's Revolutionary Court in solidarity with five (5) women activists on trial for their demonstration on 12 June 2006 demanding equal rights in law for women in Iran. On 21 December 2009, Ms. Abbasgholizadeh was amongst those arrested in Iran while on their way to attend the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri, a senior cleric who criticised the Iranian government’s crackdown on demonstrators in the aftermath of the contested June 2009 presidential elections. This time, she was arrested for her work as a filmmaker.
Security forces arrested her on 1 November 2004, holding her for a month as a result of a speech she had delivered in Bangkok. She was arrested again on 4 March 2007, prior to International Women's Day, and held for over a month in Evin Prison.[2] She was arrested a third time on 21 December 2009, with others trying to attend the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri."[3] Released after 24 hours on condition she remove films she had made from the website of her collective, she left Iran for Europe.[4] In May 2010 she was sentenced in absentia to 30 months in jail and 30 lashes for "acts against national security".[3]
Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh was awarded the 2010 Johann Philipp Palm Prize for freedom of expression and the press.[5]
Works
Writing
- "Chirā Farzānah?" [Why Farzaneh?], ''Farzaneh 1 (Fall 1993)
- "The Experience of Islamic Feminism in Iran," Farzaneh 15, no. 10 (Winter 2000): 7-14
Films
- Women Behind Bars.[6]
References
- ^ Elaheh Rostami Povey, 'Abbasgholizadeh, Mahboubeh (1958-)', Biographical Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, Gale Group, 2008. Accessed 26 June 2012. – via HighBeam (subscription required)
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Bucar2011was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Iran: Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh sentenced to 2 ½ years in jail and 30 lashes for ‘acts against national security'
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Childress2011was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Iran: German press freedom award for Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh
- ^ "Women Behind Bars" - Moving Documentary Film by Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh (Iranian political prisoner)