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AMEWS

Letter to support Iranian Feminist Historian/Lawyer Mehrangiz Kar and other Human Rights activists who were sentenced for participation in an international conference in Berlin. Charges were reduced a few weeks after the publication of this letter.

January 20, 2001

His Excellency Hojjatoleslam Sayed Mohammad Khatami
The Presidency
Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Your Excellency,

This letter is to express the Association for Middle East Women's Studies deepest concern with the harsh and inappropriate sentences handed down by a Tehran Revolutionary Court to the defendants being tried for attending an international conference in Berlin Germany in April of 2000.
AMEWS, the Association of Middle East Women's Studies is an organization of over three hundred scholars and individuals of differing national, ethnic and religious backgrounds who engage in research on Middle Eastern women, or are otherwise interested in this subject. Our members reside in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, South Asia, the United States, and Canada. We have been affiliated with the Middle East Studies Association of North America since 1985.
We are also deeply concerned about particular aspects of the case, such as the secret nature of the hearings held, the refusal to allow one of the defendants, Ms. Mehrangiz Kar the right to travel abroad to be treated for breast cancer, and the fact that Afshari and Sahabi's families are uninformed of their place of detention.
We ask you to reconsider the judgments rendered in this case.
As scholars who care deeply about the future of the Middle East and the Islamic world, we have difficulty understanding why a responsible government would wish to deny freedom of expression and assembly to its citizens, and in an effort to contain their political views, deny them rights to a fair trial and justice. It is the task of journalists, activists, and intellectuals to ask questions, to formulate and debate different viewpoints, and the job of good governments to implement constructive criticisms.

Sincerely,

Sherifa Zuhur
President, Association for
Middle East Women's Studies
& Visiting Research Scholar
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
University of California, Berkeley
(510) 845-2803
szuhur@earthlink.net

cc: His Excellency Kamal Kharrazi, Mohsen Mirdamadi Najafabadi, Iranian Interests Section, Washington DC