Letter from “Mitham Dehabanzadeh,” Political Prisoner, to the People Regarding the Arrest of His Sister

“Mitham Dehabanzadeh,” a political prisoner, wrote a letter from prison to the people regarding the arrest of his sister.

“Kauthar Dehabanzadeh,” the sister of Mitham, a political prisoner detained in Qarchak Prison, was arrested by security forces in Shiraz on September 27 and transferred to a solitary cell at the Shiraz Intelligence Department detention facility. She is currently being held in this detention center, known as Section 100. She had previously been summoned to the Intelligence Department and interrogated several times due to her support and legal pursuit on behalf of her brother.

Political prisoner Mitham Dehabanzadeh, in protest against his sister’s arrest, which he considered a tool to pressure him and his family, wrote a letter from prison addressing the people of Iran and called upon them to be the voice of his sister.

While referring to the fact that the aforementioned pressures have led to his mother suffering two heart attacks, and the arrest of Kauthar has now worsened her condition, he wrote: “We were born and raised in a religious and traditional city and family, entirely under the upbringing of a family where more than ten members were continuously on the front lines and most of them lost their lives in that very war.

From childhood and adolescence, we learned to be zealous and fanatical in a way of ‘honor worship,’ lest a single hair of them be out of place, or lest my tongue become mute coming from school to home alone. Because we are a martyrs’ family! When the image of “Agha” was broadcast on television, if we did not pray, we were sinners, and if we asked an unconventional question or said something different, we immediately received warnings from our closest relatives, accompanied by threats, humiliation, belittlement, and…!

At the same time, there were nights when we had nothing to eat, not even a piece of bread! Under the roof of the sky with a hungry belly in the house of the caretaker, we praised the “image in the moon.” Our wish was to die for this sacred system, with bare feet that sometimes bled to the marrow and bone, our weeping and wailing was for the oppressed children of Palestine, and we asked God not for a pair of slippers, but for the health and well-being of Agha.

Seeing our relatives in the military (uncles, etc.), we felt pride, especially when we knew they were on missions to fight counter-revolution, and we wished to grow up quickly and defend our people and our country’s security like them on difficult days!!

We went to the mosque for prayer, on soft carpets that unlike the rough carpets of our home did not hurt our knees, and its heaters, unlike Aladdin’s lamp in our house, instead of suffocating gases and smoke smell, produced warmth. We chanted death to the enemies of the velayat-e faqih!!

Time passed and we entered society. To our great astonishment and pain, we realized everything was a lie and a dagger of deception had been plunged into our backs, especially in December 2017, when we witnessed people ready to protest in the streets. They were also young people like me, the very counter-revolutionaries that my relatives in the ranks of the Revolutionary Guards were going to kill.

When I graduated from university and joined the wave of the unemployed and educated below the poverty line, I became acquainted with the catastrophic conditions of our people. Like all youth, I sought to protest the existing conditions and claim our trampled rights. Thus, I was among the counter-revolutionaries who wanted nothing but shelter, an honorable job, or a shred of dignity, human rights, and freedoms. For this crime alone, they were shot in the streets and homes, hung from gallows, and subjected to the severest cruelties in prisons.

Now, after them, in 2020, it was my turn to become the subject of brutality and crimes of these godless “walayat” followers. They harbored great hatred and sought revenge against the fact that people like me in such an environment had become political opponents, against velayat-e faqih, and in their words, counter-revolutionaries. They directly or indirectly pressured my family (father, mother, and my sister Kauthar) and spared no depravity or pressure. Whether in my case in prisons (Evin, Yasuj Central, Gohardasht, Greater Tehran, and Qarchak) or in solitary confinement, exile, etc., and whether regarding my family, in the latest action of which they arrested my sister (Kauthar) and, to intimidate and pressure me and my family more, arrested her and directly took her to the solitary cells of Shiraz Prison, while she has committed no crime other than her affection for me (a sister’s affection for her brother) and has committed no illegal acts other than not being afraid to pursue legal matters for me.

The pressures of these information criminals previously led to two heart attacks for my mother, and now with Kauthar’s arrest (our dear one and coincidentally the assistant who helps the family obtain medications for my mother) it has resulted in another heart attack. Of course, these criminals are capable of any crime, and for exactly this reason, without any information and in complete unawareness, they have transferred her to solitary cells so that they can do whatever they want to her and force her to confess to what they want. However, these information beasts also know that except for confessing that she is my sister, they will hear nothing from her. Although we have not forgotten the fate of Navid Afkari, who despite his innocence was miserably executed on the gallows in that very place. Now I ask all awakened consciences to be the voice of my sister (Kauthar Dehabanzadeh). Although my sister and I are not dearer than all the dear ones of our homeland who were also executed without any guilt.

Political prisoner Mitham Dehabanzadeh

September 2024, Qarchak Prison”

It should be noted that Mitham is currently serving his sentence and is deprived of any basic rights of a prisoner, including the right to medical treatment at Qarchak Prison in Karaj. Furthermore, he was sentenced by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to 6 years imprisonment, travel ban, and social deprivations.

Additionally, as of the time of this report’s preparation, no information is available about the charge or charges against Kauthar Dehabanzadeh.