All released except.....

All the women are released except : Jila Baniyaghoob, Mahboubeh Abbasgholi zadeh, Shadi Sadr.... A friend of mine talked to Asieh Amini, one of the arrested women and she confirmed....

Here is a piece about the situation of arrested women a few hours before they released. Although, some of them still are in detention. This piece will publish at Roozonline in a couple of hours with some updated (In Farsi). It gives the detail information about the arrested women and the prison:

Despite release of seven additional women, eighteen social activists who were arrested last Sunday at the Revolutionary Court in Tehran continue to remain in detention at Evin prison. Solitary confinement of four of the women, Manboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, Shadi Sadr, Jelveh Javaheri, and Jila Baniyaghoub, joining Shahla Entesari who has been in solitary confinement since she arrived Evin’s Block 209, now leaves five women in solitary confinement. One of the released women told Rooz that Jila Baniyaghoub was sent to solitary confinement because she refused to use the blindfold during interrogation and when walking around in the block. When she was arrested during last July’s gathering, Baniyaghoub served a week in jail.

Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, too, served two months in solitary confinement in 2005. The situation of Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani and Sussan Tahmasesbi is not clear at this time. Parvin Ardalan is in precarious health conditions, and without proper and immediate medical attendance, she may face serious health complications. She has been arrested and interrogated numerous times previously, pursuant to her journalistic and cultural activities. Many attribute her poor health to the multiple incidents of interrogation and subsequent imprisonments over the past decade. She continues to push forward with her activities, nevertheless.

Shadi Sadr contacted her husband last night. She also contacted one of her colleagues today, requesting them to post her bail in order to release her. It was expected that several other women would be released today, but this did not materialize. A source who vigilantly follows the recent arrests has said that those who have a long standing record in the Iranian women’s movement are asked a wider array of questions about their social activities, their trips abroad, and their personal lives. As the circle of remaining imprisoned women shrinks in size, it is expected that interrogations take a deeper route, surpassing recent events, reaching into the women’s past activities.

Judiciary authorities have seriously denied news of women’s hunger strikes. However, they continue to provide no information about the reasons they have moved some women to solitary confinement and some others to the general blocks. As far as we know, in anticipation of March 8th, International Women’s Day, authorities have issued a gag order on Iranian newspapers about the arrests.

A women’s rights activist told Rooz that those released have reported that they were interrogated in detail about their planned activities for March 8th celebrations; hence, she believes, that the remaining women will not be released until after March 8th. Many of those detained had in past years been active in pulling large gatherings of women together for March 8th. Last year, several women were called to Ministry of Interior, receiving threats to stop their activities for March 8th assemblies, or prepare to be arrested. They had replied that women’s movement is unstoppable.

Nahid Jafari, Nahid Keshavarz, Mayam Mirza, Zeinab Peighambarzadeh, Somayeh Farid, Sara Loghmani, and Azadeh Forghani were released yesterday, forming the second group of releases. Previously, Parastoo Dokoohaki, Parastoo Sarmadi, Sara and Saghi Laghaee, Nahid and Farideh Entesari, Niloofar Golkar, and Sara Imanian had been released. One of the released women reports that Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh, a journalist and a member of Koneshgaran Website is suffering psychological reactions to the type and force of interrogations in Evin.

Asieh Amini, journalist and another member of Koneshgaran Website was originally said to be released with the second group, but according to Zanestan, her husband Javad Montazeri, himself a journalist photographer, has said that he was told documents he submitted for her release were not complete. Therefore her release has been postponed to today. Mahnaz Mohammadi’s release has also faced delays, complicating her health situation which one of her friends told Rooz will reach an acute state if she does not receive immediate medical attention.

Earlier it was reported that Parvin Ardalan is in urgent need of medical attention. She continues to experience difficulty in receiving her medication in prison. One of the released prisoners told Rooz that Mahnaz Mohammadi’s health has deteriorated, and one of her feet has no feeling in it, and she couldn’t move it. Fatemeh Govaraee, a middle-aged activist among the group, fights severe migraine headaches and is refused medication. There are no reports about the fate of the individuals who were bystanders during the Sunday protests, and had been arrested along with the protestors.

While it was announced earlier that Maryam Hosseinkhah, Zara Amjadian, and Nasrin Afzali were moved to the General Block of Evin Prison, one of the released women told Rooz that they have been moved to another location which is a lot worse than the General block.

One of the women released in the second group told Rooz: “The interrogators were not impolite; however, conditions inside the prison were not good at all. If we needed something, we had to bang on the door a thousand times and scream to, for example, ask for Parvin Ardalan’s pills.” She said that because all arrested are active in journalism, and their interrogators know from recent experience that each time journalists are arrested and released they go on to tell detailed accounts of their time in prison, they tend to be careful in their treatment of the prisoners.

The unprecedented and comprehensive detention of women is now in its fourth day, and Iranian newspapers are keeping silent about the event. Official Judicial system authorities, and specifically the Judiciary’s Spokesperson, have kept quiet and have not disclosed any information about the reasons for the arrests. In an important move, 620 academics, researchers, lawyers, and journalists have signed and submitted a letter, objecting to the events of last Sunday, requesting Head of Judiciary to release the women.