Appeal for Justice for Anasih Mahdi, Daughter of Fatemah Sepahri
Fatemah Sepahri is a political activist, advocate for women’s rights, democrat, and political prisoner in Iran. She and her brother Mohammad Hossein Sepahri are among the signatories of a letter demanding the resignation of the leader of the Islamic Republic. Fatemah Sepahri was convicted of “disrupting public order and peace as well as inciting public anxiety and spreading falsehoods” and sentenced to imprisonment and flogging.
On August 5, 2019, Fatemah Sepahri was among the signatories of a statement by 14 women activists inside Iran that endorsed a statement by 14 political activists calling for Khamenei’s removal from power. Subsequently, on August 20, 2019, she and her brother Mohammad Hossein Sepahri were arrested by security forces in Mashhad. She was initially taken to the Mashhad Intelligence Office detention facility and then transferred to the central prison (Vakil-Abad) in Mashhad.
After approximately 9 months of imprisonment, she was released because she was the widow of a martyr. However, after her conditional release, she stated in a video message: “I will not back down, I will not remain silent, I have much to say. I will continue on this path and will not be silenced.”
Fatemah Sepahri was again arrested on September 21, 2022, when security forces raided her home, and she was taken to an unknown location. This arrest occurred following Fatemah Sepahri’s latest interview with Iran International television and coinciding with the nationwide protests of 2022 in Iran.
On October 23, 2022, Anasih Mahdi, daughter of Fatemah Sepahri, announced in a video message that her mother has been held in solitary confinement in the Mashhad Intelligence Organization prison since her arrest, and after enduring more than a month in solitary, she can barely speak. Anasih Mahdi also stated that appeals to the case investigator and the deputy prosecutor of Mashhad court for her transfer to a regular ward have been futile.
Addressing the people, she said: “People of Iran and compatriots driven from your homeland, and all of you who harbor dreams of freedom, my mother is the nightmare of Ali Khamenei, who these days is busy killing children and youth of Iran to preserve his throne and crown. Before Ali Khamenei silences the cry for freedom of yet another opponent forever, hear my mother Fatemah Sepahri’s plea and do something to save her.”
