Over the past decade, the use of the Internet has risen to phenomenal proportions, transforming societies worldwide. In many countries dissident communities have seized on the Internet with enthusiasm as a method of expressing their views about their governments and launching campaigns for political reform. Very often, traditional print-forms of communication, such as journals, have been banned; the Internet, however, can promise the unfettered exchange of opinions. “Cyber-dissent” has become the samizdat of the 21st century. The issue is especially pertinent in 2005 as preparations are under way for the World Summit on Information Society, to be held in November in Tunisia, a country not known for its tolerance of dissenting views.

Women who use the Internet to disseminate their ideas have found themselves caught up in some governments´ harsh attempts to control information exchange on the worldwide web. To mark this year´s Women´s Day on 8 March, and looking towards the Tunis summit, English PEN is focusing on three cases of women under attack for using new information technology to challenge their governments.

Tunisia

Sihem Bensedrine, editor of the online magazine Kalima and fearless defender of human rights, has suffered years of harassment and attack. Bensedrine, who is also a founding member and secretary general of the Observatory for Defence of Freedom of the Press, Publishing and Creation (OLPEC) and the head of the National Council for Freedom in Tunisia (CNLT), is a leading light in the movement for free expression in Tunisia. She has suffered constant persecution by the Tunisian authorities over many years simply for pursuing her right to freedom of expression. In addition to having been subjected to constant harassment and police surveillance, Bensedrine has suffered severe beatings at the hands of the police. During June and August 2001 she was imprisoned for six weeks on charges of “defamation” and “broadcasting false news” for appearing on a London-based Arabic TV station in an interview during which she discussed corruption in Tunisia. More recently, on 5 January 2004, Sihem Bensedrine was attacked in Paris as she was going to an Internet café. She reports that she was approached by three men in the street, including one who was known to her, who tripped her up, beat her and insulted her. Bensedrine claimed that the Tunisian political police were behind the assault.

Iran


Two women, Mahboudeh Abbasgholizadeh and Fershteh Ghazi, have suffered torture and abuse when caught up in a crackdown against Internet users in Iran.

Abbasgholizadeh was arrested on 1 November 2004 on her return from the European Social Forum, which was held in London. She was reportedly charged with “acts against national security” and “spreading propaganda”, but was released on bail on 30 November 2004.

Ghazi is a correspondent for the daily Etemad. She was arrested on 28 October by the Edarah Amaken, the morality police, and is said to have been accused of “immoral behaviour”. It was reported that a number of male journalists who were arrested in the crackdown were forced to sign confessions “admitting” to having engaged in sexual relations with Ghazi. Fershteh Ghazi was released on bail on 7 December 2004, and was admitted to hospital shortly after her release as she was said to be in poor physical and mental health.

On 25 December 2004, Abbasgholizadeh, Ghazi and other online journalists testified about their detention before a presidential commission. Ghazi provided details of her treatment by interrogators, including severe beatings resulting in a broken nose during one interrogation session. The detainees were kept under lengthy solitary confinement in a secret detention center and were repeatedly subjected to psychological and physical torture. Following their testimony, both women reportedly received death threats, as well as threats to the safety of their families. 

Also in Iran, weblogger Najmeh Oumidparvar, was arrested on 3 March. Oumidparvar was accused of defending her husband, weblogger Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, She was interviewed by German radio station Deutsche Welle and posted one of Abdolahi’s messages on her blog. On 2 March the police raided their family home and seized computers and CDs, as well as all of the articles that the couple had written. The arrest followed.

the People´s Republic of China

Ma Yalian has been in prison for over a year for articles posted on the Internet. Ma was sentenced to 18 months´ “Re-education Through Labour” (RTL) in March 2004 for an article she wrote in which she criticised the Chinese petitioning system. The article was posted on a Chinese law website, Chineselawyer.com, and on djiyun.com, a website run by the Falun Gong, a spiritual group proscribed by the Chinese authorities.

In her article, Ma provided an eyewitness account of the physical abuse meted out to petitioners by the police and officials outside Beijing´s petitions offices. She detailed both her own experience at the hands of the authorities, as well as the personal experiences of other individuals who had been abused while attempting to file a petition.

Shanghai´s RTL Administrative Committee accuses Ma of “falsely accusing the Shanghai authorities of causing her physical injury”. Previously Ma had been sentenced to a year´s re-education in August 2001, after filing complaints after being evicted from her Shanghai residence as a result of an urban re-development scheme. According to sources, Ma had both her legs broken in detention and has since been disabled.