Statement of 260 Social Activists: The Message Has Come Through Loud and Clear: We Are Being Silenced
Women activists and social activists inside Iran have protested in a statement against the increasing and widespread suppression of social activists. These activists are calling for the unconditional release of all political and ideological prisoners.
260 women activists and other social activists inside Iran have protested in a statement against “widespread suppression of social activists.” This statement begins with a phrase from Hushyar Golshiri, which he stated during the funeral of Mohammad Mokhtari, one of the victims of the chain assassinations during the fall of 1998: “So much mourning has been poured upon our heads that we have no opportunity to grieve. The message has come through loud and clear: we are being silenced. We are ready! Isn’t it supposed to that we make sacrifices for civil society and freedom of speech? We are ready!”
The authors of this statement, referring to domestic problems such as “the increasing restriction of free services including medical and educational services, rent-seeking and increasing internal corruption,” have pointed to the growing danger of war and noted that “we are witnessing an increase in organization and popular protests,” however “the response of the ruling institutions to these legitimate protests has been nothing but increased systematic pressure on various segments of the people and social and political activists and the deprivation of any right to assembly and organization.”
The authors of this statement, paying attention to the increasing process of “telephone and written summonses; home searches; arrest on baseless charges; organized media actions for file-building and character assassination of the accused before final sentencing,” have also mentioned the violated rights of prisoners, including “deprivation of prisoners from basic rights including the right to access to a lawyer, access to medical services and basic facilities in prison, telephone contact, regular visits and furlough, extension of detention orders after the end of interrogation, imposing the bulk of prison expenses on the prisoner and cutting off the prisoner’s livelihood, setting heavy and disproportionate bail relative to the charges against the detainee and then the judge’s rejection of the same bail, and ultimately the issuance of heavy sentences” as among the pressures exerted on imprisoned activists.
In this statement, while criticizing the performance of the new head of the judiciary, it states: “The new head of the judiciary came with the slogan ‘the sweet taste of justice,’ but so far activists have experienced nothing but the bitter taste of heavy sentences and astronomical bail amounts. During this short period, many social activists have faced long-term sentences accompanied by flogging, and many others remain in uncertain detention.”
The authors of this statement, while condemning all these cases, “demand that prisoners enjoy fair trial procedures and the unconditional release of all political and ideological prisoners who are spending their lives behind prison bars because of raising legitimate demands and protests of the people.”
Roohangiz Karachi, Zara Amjadian, Jaleye Javaheri, Banafsheh Jamali, Sanaz Mohsenpur, Talat Taghinia, Fateme Sadeghi, Fateme Govaraei, and Fariborz Raisidana are among the signatories of this statement.
Source: DW
