As we monitor the activities of the One Million Signature campaign on a daily basis, and circulate the overwhelming number of accounts of arrests and harassment of these brave women (and men!), it is easy to lose track of the small successes and uniquely human encounters that the campaign has brought about.

In Desert (cc) Horizon

A wonderful resource on the campaign’s website Change for Equality for those wishing to learn about what campaigning is really like for these activists and the moments of joy it brings them is their “Face to Face” narrative accounts of the personal interactions and “ah-hah!” moments that arise during sometimes planned, but oftentimes chance encounters among campaign activists and people on the street (or in taxis, on buses…) who are ripe to discuss the realities of women’s daily lives, and how working to reform discriminatory laws, one signature, one step, one person at a time really can make a difference.

But these moments of serendipity also can arise in the more disheartening stories of harassment and arrests that we learn about happening more and more, as tensions and clampdowns on civil society and grassroots activists in the country continue to escalate.  Even stories of release of campaign activists from detention are tainted with an understanding that their “freedom” is tenuous — marred frequently by excessive bails, procedural flaws, and the knowledge that future trials and arrests surely await.  Yet, as I looked at one such “commonplace” update posted today, on the release (on bail) of two campaign activists in Isfahan, one tiny gem jumped out at me:  With campaign membership itself now being employed as a charge against activists, and arrests of activists in provinces such as Isfahan on the rise, upon their release these activists instead shared a silver lining:

“…[D]espite all the hardships of being in prison and the ongoing interrogations by Security officials, the opportunity to meet female inmates, who in many respects are blatant examples of the various types of discrimination faced by women, was a valuable experience for me as a women’s rights activist.”

“…[T]he female inmates were very respectful toward us, and listened to our explanations about the Campaign and legal problems faced by women because of discrimination in the law with great interest.”

And, as is often the case when I reflect upon the work of this campaign, I am once again moved and inspired by their ability to take what might have been a moment of fear or rage, and instead experience it as an opportunity to learn, to teach, and to engage.

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