Amnesty International Calls for Immediate Release of Masih Alinejad’s Relatives

“They have arrested Masih Alinejad’s brother and the brother and sister of her ex-husband to silence her.” Amnesty International has called on the Iranian government to release Masih Alinejad’s relatives and end its campaign against women’s rights in Iran.

Pressure on the families of activists and civil society campaigners in Iran is not a new phenomenon. Amnesty International released a statement on Wednesday, October 25, 2024, in response to pressure being applied against Masih Alinejad’s relatives.

In its statement, the human rights organization noted that the Iranian government, by detaining relatives and family members of women’s rights defenders, is attempting to silence them.

Amnesty International’s statement added that Iranian government agents have detained three of Masih Alinejad’s relatives. The statement indicated that Masih Alinejad’s efforts to defend women’s rights and fight mandatory hijab, including through the “White Wednesdays” campaign, were among the reasons for the detention of this women’s rights activist’s relatives.

Masih Alinejad’s Instagram Post

Following news of the arrest of her brother Ali Reza Alinejad and the arrest of Hadi and Leila Lotfi, the brother and sister of her ex-husband, Masih Alinejad responded to the Iranian government’s actions in two separate Instagram posts.

Masih Alinejad pointed to the pressure from government officials against her family and wrote, among other things: “They raided my brother Ali’s house and arrested him in front of his two young children’s eyes. Some time ago they took my 70-year-old mother for interrogation, and now my brother.”

This women’s rights activist and civil campaigner said she would soon inform the public about these actions by the Islamic Republic against her relatives.

In her Instagram post, Masih Alinejad also wrote: “The people who took my brother Ali away blindfolded said they were from the Tehran Ministry of Intelligence. His crime is love, my mother’s crime was also love. The Islamic Republic’s job is assassination and creating terror, and by taking my family hostage it wants to silence me.”

Alinejad referenced Zarif and Rouhani’s statements about peace at the UN General Assembly and said: “The Islamic Republic has taken Iran hostage. Hassan Rouhani and Javad Zarif have brought a message of peace from the Islamic Republic to the United Nations, while the Islamic Republic is at war with my seventy-year-old mother, my brother, and millions of Iranians.”

In her second Instagram post, she referenced the arrest of Hadi and Leila Lotfi and said that after interrogating Hadi, the brother of her ex-husband and one of the women’s rights activists, officers told him that any contact with Masih Alinejad and “her team” would be considered a crime.

Hadi Lotfi was released after interrogation, but was told he does not have the right to leave Babylon and must be available at all times to respond to questions from security officials.

Masih Alinejad expressed her lack of knowledge about Leila Lotfi’s condition and her place of detention.

Amnesty International, while covering this news, did not rule out the possibility of torture and mistreatment of Leila Lotfi. Philip Luther, director of advocacy and research at Amnesty International for the Middle East and North Africa, described the Iranian government’s actions as aimed at silencing women’s rights activists.

Amnesty International’s statement also referenced Sahar Khodayari’s self-immolation and her defense of women’s right to attend stadiums.

Amnesty International has called on the Iranian government to immediately release Masih Alinejad’s relatives and end its campaign against women’s rights in Iran.

Source: DW