70 detained at Iranian protest over women's rights

TEHRAN, June 13 (Reuters) Iranian police detained 70 people at a demonstration in favour of women's rights, the judiciary said today, adding it was ready to review reports that the police had beaten some demonstrators.

About 100 women had gathered in central Tehran yesterday to protest against what they called the Islamic Republic's discriminatory laws against women. Some men joined them at the gathering which the judiciary said was ''illegal''.

A Reuters correspondent at the protest saw women and men being put into buses and others being beaten back with batons.

Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad said 42 of those detained were women.

''Normally most of these people are released,'' he told a news conference at Evin prison in north Tehran.

When asked by reporters about police beating demonstrators, he said: ''If there was any beating, it will be reviewed.'' Some women had protested about the difficulties in getting a divorce and securing guardianship for their children after divorce.

Others decried unjust inheritance laws and the fact that their court testimony is only worth half that of a man's. Some women said men were abusing with impunity their right to polygamy, which allows up to four wives.

''I want to know why the blood money for a murdered woman is half that for a man,'' said a woman who wanted to be identified only as Leila. ''I am against laws that openly discriminate against women.'' ''Blood money'' is compensation paid to the family of slain person.

Most women at the demonstration were reluctant to speak to journalists because of the heavy police presence.

Although women are legally entitled to hold most jobs in Iran, the Islamic Republic remains a male-dominated society.

Iranian women cannot run for president or become judges but in recent years they have started to work in police and fire departments.

REUTERS SHR KN1645