Iran bars poet from French Women's Day event

Iranian poet Simin Behbahani is shown in Tehran in this November 19, 200, picture.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian authorities prevented a prominent female poet and activist in her 80s from travelling to Paris to attend an event marking International Women's Day on Monday, an opposition website said.

Kaleme, the website of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, said Simin Behbahani had been invited by the Paris municipality but was barred from leaving Tehran's international airport early on Monday.

Behbahani, born in 1927, said she had planned to read a poem and talk about feminism in the French capital.

"After I passed the gate and got my passport stamped, two security personnel called me and took my passport," she was quoted as saying.

"They kept me until 5 o'clock in the morning (0130 GMT) and asked me questions. Finally they gave me a paper and told me that I should go to the Revolutionary Court to get my passport back," Behbahani said.

Rights activists say women face institutionalised discrimination in the conservative Islamic Republic on issues such as child custody, inheritance and divorce.

Iran's clerical leaders say women in the country are better treated than in the West, where they say women are often seen as sex symbols.

Behbahani suggested she had first been reluctant to go to Paris due to illness and her age, but that "my passion and commitment to my country's women ... pushed me to take part in this ceremony to read a poem and talk about feminism."

Mousavi came second in Iran's disputed election last June, which plunged the country into turmoil. The pro-reform opposition says the vote was rigged to secure hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election. The authorities deny this. (Writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Janet Lawrence)