Empowered Women Still Terrifying

… At least to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Three female journalists who are also feminist activists have been arrested for trying to attend a workshop on journalism in India. Trying to attend, because they never got to: they were arrested at the airport.

“The arrest of these online journalists demonstrates President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s security and ideological paranoia which prompts him to ban all contact between journalists and foreign organizations and media,” said Reporters Without Borders (RSF), adding that the incident reveals “the fear that the women’s rights movement produces within the regime.” The three journalists are members of the Women’s Cultural Center, which runs a “One Million Signatures” campaign aimed at repealing Iran’s sexist laws. Recently, the campaign’s website was reportedly blocked by Iranian authorities, according to the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.

Good thing they’ve got a kick-ass lawyer.