Twitter Storm in Support of Political Prisoner; Maryam Akbari Monfared Has Not Had Leave in 12 Years

Coinciding with the beginning of Maryam Akbari Monfared’s thirteenth year of imprisonment, a group of Iranian social media users launched a Twitter storm in support of the political prisoner.

Maryam Akbari Monfared was arrested in December 2009 and sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment by Judge Salwati in the Revolutionary Court in June 2010.

Ms. Akbari Monfared, whose three brothers and one sister named Abdolreza Akbari Monfared, Alireza Akbari Monfared, Gholamreza Akbari Monfared, and Raghia Akbari Monfared were executed in 1988, is accused of “supporting the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization.” However, according to her husband Hassan Jafari, she was “a housewife and mother of three daughters,” and her only connection to the organization was “a few phone calls with her sister and brother at Camp Ashraf in Iraq.”

Following the release of an audio file by Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri in the summer of 2016 regarding his meeting with members of the “death committee” in 1988, Maryam Akbari Monfared filed an official complaint from Evin Prison with the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office, demanding an investigation into the details of her siblings’ executions and disclosure of their burial locations.

Following this complaint, Ms. Akbari Monfared was threatened by the Ministry of Intelligence to stop pursuing the 1988 executions. She was transferred to Semnan Prison on March 10, 2021.

During the Twitter campaign supporting Maryam Akbari Monfared, Zhila Baniyaghoob, a well-known Iranian journalist, referring to twelve years of her imprisonment without even a single day of leave, called on users to write about this political prisoner.

Human Rights Campaign in Iran stated on its Twitter account that the “15-year prison sentence” for this female political prisoner was “unlawful on charges of seeking justice” and wrote: “She is the mother of three daughters and her 12-year deprivation of the right to leave is inhumane and unlawful. But in the face of a government that has taken three brothers and one sister from her, she has never remained silent and has not abandoned her right to seek justice.”

Hasan Nayebhashemi, a human rights activist, posted a photo of Ms. Akbari Monfared alongside her young and teenage daughters and wrote that these daughters have only seen their mother alone in prison during these 12 years and are now teenagers and young adults. Prison officials have also deprived her of even a short leave during these years.

Zia Nabavi, a former political prisoner, also wrote: “Twelve years of imprisonment without even one day of leave is not an issue that you can tweet about and then convince yourself that you have truly spoken about it! Perhaps the only reason that justifies writing is if you think saying something is better than saying nothing.”

Maryam Shafiepour, who was previously a cellmate of Ms. Akbari Monfared in Iran, wrote that perhaps if she had not been there, “prison would not have been bearable for many of us. Hope and belief in justice and seeking justice have kept Maryam’s heart bright and her beautiful smile warm. Maryam’s daughters were deprived of having such a mother for all 12 years. There are no words to describe such wickedness.”

Source: Voice of America