TEHRAN, May 26: A man defending Iran’s feminists has been convicted to a year in prison, the moderate Kargozaran newspaper reported on Monday.Amir Yaqoubali is a supporter of the “One Million Signatures” petition campaign launched in June 2006. According to a feminist website, he was arrested as he collected signatures.

The campaign seeks to change Iran’s laws on marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody by collecting signatures both online and in person.

In recent months four feminists -- Rezvan Moghadam, Nahid Jafari, Nasrin Afzali and Marzieh Mortazi Langueroudi -- were handed down suspended sentences of six months in prison and 10 lashes by Tehran Revolutionary Court for disorderly conduct in public.They took part in March of last year in a rally outside the same court to protest against the arrest of five feminists the previous June.

The authorities have also arrested several feminism activists, some of whom are still in jail.—AFP