Seven years ago this summer, everything was set for the marriage ceremony of a young Iranian couple who had met and fallen in love at university. But on the day before the wedding, plain clothes officers raided the house of Bahareh Hedayat, a leading student activist, and took her to prison.

It wasn’t a surprise; she had been arrested twice before that, but the timing could not have been a coincidence. When she was released a month later, she didn’t feel in mood for a big ceremony, as is customary in Iran. The couple simply moved in together.

Human rights campaigner held in Tehran’s Evin prison despite the fact she should have been freed in June, while her husband is threatened for speaking out
http://www.theguardian.com/
August 12, 2015

Seven years ago this summer, everything was set for the marriage ceremony of a young Iranian couple who had met and fallen in love at university. But on the day before the wedding, plain clothes officers raided the house of Bahareh Hedayat, a leading student activist, and took her to prison.

It wasn’t a surprise; she had been arrested twice before that, but the timing could not have been a coincidence. When she was released a month later, she didn’t feel in mood for a big ceremony, as is customary in Iran. The couple simply moved in together.

That incident didn’t shake her commitment to fight for human rights. In fact, since then, Hedayat and her husband, Amin Ahmadian, have spent only a year together. She has been in jail the rest of the time.

Now, the authorities are refusing to release Hedayat even though she is eligible to be released under Iranian law. Hedayat, a founding member of the One Million Signatures campaign, a petition for women’s rights in Iran, was arrested after the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. She fell foul of the authorities for speaking out about the post-election crackdown, especially for giving an interview to the BBC’s Persian service, which is loathed by the Iranian establishment.

She was subsequently sentenced to seven and half years in jail. That includes five years for acting against the national security, two years for insulting the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and six months for insulting Ahmadinejad. But Ahamdinejad has himself fallen out of grace, with many of his closest allies and deputies being jailed for corruption after Hassan Rouhani took office in 2013.

“She has been in jail for six years for being a peaceful and unambiguous critic of Ahmadinejad,” Ahmadian told the Guardian on the phone from Tehran. “And now a few wards away in that same prison, some of the former president’s most senior deputies are held for corruption.”

Hedayat is eligible for release under Iranian law. According to amendments made to the penal code, approved by the parliament and enacted a few years ago, detainees should only serve their maximum sentences in jail if they are found guilty on multiple grounds. That means Hedayat should have been released in June at the very latest.

“The authorities have put pressure on us because of speaking out about Bahareh’s situation in jail,” her husband said. “They’ve threatened us, and have told her in jail that they’ll arrest me if we keep speaking out. They want to keep us silent.”

While in jail, Hedayat has also been given an extra six months for writing a letter about the situation of other student activists. It was written with another leading student activist, Majid Tavakoli, who has since been released.

Women held at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison do not have access to a telephone. Around 18 women considered to be prisoners of conscience are held there, including Hedayat. Of those, ten are mothers and four have children below the age of 10.

“Bahareh has kidney complications and reproductive health issues,” Ahmadian said. “They don’t let her have access to medical care. I’ve pleaded with her not to go on a hunger strike, she has already endured six years in jail, that’s enough, but if she’s not released, she has told me she would go on a hunger strike.”

Nassim Papayianni, a campaigner with Amnesty International’s Iran team, said it was “simply outrageous” that the Iranian authorities are jailing peaceful women’s activists and urged Tehran to immediately release Hedayat, along with ailing activist Narges Mohammadi, and anti-death penalty campaigner Atena Daemi, who is sentenced to 14 years in jail.

“Bahareh Hedayat should never have been imprisoned at all, let alone serving such a lengthy sentence,” she said. “It is is also a shameful breach of justice that the Iranian authorities are not even applying Iran’s own laws to her case.”

“The human rights defender Narges Mohammadi, whose activism included campaigning against the death penalty, is languishing in jail with a number of medical issues. Not only is she in poor health and being denied care, she’s also not even permitted to hear her children’s voices over the phone.” Mohammadi, mother of two eight-year-olds, recently wrote a moving letter from inside jail which described the situation of other mothers in prison.

Sussan Tahmasebi, a prominent Iranian women’s rights activist, said: “Former political prisoners who served prison terms with Bahareh, have written accounts of how excited and happy Bahareh was when Rouhani was elected.

“Like other Iranians I am sure Bahareh’s excitement came from the fact that she too hoped that Rouhani’s presidency would reduce external pressures, end sanctions and the threat of war. I have no doubt that Bahareh is happy about the Iran deal and the positive prospects it holds for Iran and Iranian citizens. At the same time, for those of us who have worked with Bahareh had hoped that Rouhani would take serious steps to push for release of political prisoners, including Bahareh.”

Rouhani has largely remained quiet on human rights and is yet to deliver on his election promises for social reforms in Iran.