One Million Signatures

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Change for Equality logo

The Campaign, “One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws,” also called the "Change for Equality" campaign, is a campaign initiated by Iranian women's rights activists in Iran which aims to collect one million signatures to demand changes to discriminatory laws against women in Iran. This campaign is a follow-up effort to the peaceful protest of the same aim, which took place on June 12, 2006 in Haft-e Tir Square in Tehran. Preparation activities in support of this campaign commenced in June of 2006 and the campaign was officially launched on August 27, during a seminar entitled: “The Impact of Laws on Women’s Lives.”

[edit] Goals

The collection of a million signatures in support of changes to the law is only one of several aims of this campaign. The Campaign, in its own words, will also aim to achieve the following:

Promotion of collaboration and cooperation for social change.
Identification of women’s needs and priorities.
Amplifying women’s voices.
Increasing knowledge, promoting democratic action.
Paying our dues.
The Power of numbers.
Power in diversity.

The organizers of the campaign consider that its demands do not contradict Islamic principles, and are also in line with Iran’s international commitments. Iran is a signatory to the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights and as such, is required to eliminate all forms of discrimination, and needs to take specific action in reforming laws that promote discrimination. Furthermore, these demands are in no way contradictory to the foundations of Islam, and have been discussed among Islamic jurists and scholars for some time.

Their hope is that a million signatures will demonstrate to decision-makers and the public at large that a large and diverse segment of the Iranian population is in support of revising discriminatory laws against women, and that these demands are not limited to a small segment of society.

The idea of gathering signatures for a cause has been done in many places in the world and specifically women in Morocco had a similar campaign for women's rights. However, this campaign was initiated solely by Iranian women in Iran and there has been no indication of any support from any foreign countries.