Reports of 'Mass Arrest' of Women Civil Activists in Rasht

News sources have reported that in recent days, a number of women's rights activists and female journalists have been arrested in Gilan province, with only the identities of five of them confirmed so far. Bidarzani, a media outlet focused on women's rights, reported on Wednesday, November 15, that on Saturday, November 11, 'more than 10 women were arrested in the city of Rasht, marking the second mass arrest of women in Gilan province in recent months.' According to this report, the identities of 'Nina Golestani, Rozita Rajai, Anahita Hajazi, Nasim Tavafzadeh, and Helaleh Nateq' have been clarified. Additionally, it was reported that 62 women were arrested during the funeral of Armita Garavand and transferred to Evin and Qarchak prisons, with 14 of them being tried 'just one week after their arrest.' Among those arrested are women from student organizations, lawyers, and families of the victims seeking justice. The report also confirmed heavy prison sentences of seven and ten years for Sakineh Parvaneh and Sarveh PourMohammadi, Kurdish activists, and the continued detention of 'Pakhshan Azizi' and 'Varisheh Moradi' with 'security charges and baseless accusations' as examples of intensified pressure on women activists. Furthermore, the report highlighted the arrest of Monijeh Mo'azen and the issuance of sentences for Reyhaneh Ansari, Nasim Soltanbeigi, and Saideh Shafiei, emphasizing that Mahsa Yazdani, the mother of the victim Mohammad Javad Zahedi, who was killed during the nationwide protests in 2022 in Amol, was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Sari, while 'the military officials of the city have yet to identify her son's killer.' The report stated that 'all these cases are linked to the extensive arrests of various groups of women civil activists in the city of Rasht,' and that 'the statistics of arrests and intensified security pressures against women' in various parts of Iran over the past two weeks 'are such that they could make any action impossible.' Mansoureh Hosseini Yeganeh, a women's rights activist, previously stated about women's civil struggles in Iran to Voice of America that the courage of Iranian women began in March 1979 and continues to this day.