The fight for justice and freedom for ALL political prisoners in Iran has intensified and must go deeper and broader in the coming weeks.
| revcom.us
Activists held a ceremony in Helsinki, Finland, on the occasion of the International Day of Fighting Violence Against Women…. Here a woman from “Burn the Cage, Free the Birds” holds a poster of women political prisoners in Iran. (Instagram.com/Burn_the_cage Screengrab)
It was reported on the @burn_the_cage Instagram that “On November 25, 2020 a group of Latin American Finnish women artists and activists held a ceremony in Helsinki, Finland, on the occasion of the International Day of Fighting Violence Against Women.... A number of supporters of the campaign ‘Burn the cage, free the birds’ participated in the ceremony with posters of women political prisoners in Iran. The host of the program, commemorating the Iranian women’s struggle against the Islamic Republic system, spoke about the need for women’s solidarity around the world and fighting for the release of all political prisoners in Iran.”
On December 3, people demonstrated in Frankfurt, Germany, in front of the Iranian consulate with photos of several of the prisoners arrested and being held by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). These prisoners include some of the dual citizens from Germany whose passports were seized by the IRI. The daughter of one of the political prisoners told her relatives that after 50 days, her mother, Nahid Taghavi, was still in solitary confinement in Iran’s infamous Evin prison. According to the International Human Rights Law on Solitary Confinement website (2015), it was found that more than 15 days of solitary constitutes torture and “must be absolutely banned.”
The IRI’s practice of seizing people with dual citizenship is extremely dangerous as it means no Iranians abroad with this status can travel there unthreatened. There were demonstrations planned in Frankfurt at the Iranian consulate on December 10, which is International Human Rights Day, to highlight the struggle to free Iran’s political prisoners. Demonstrations called for several other cities in a number of countries on December 10 had to be postponed due to new coronavirus pandemic lockdown restrictions.
On December 2, human rights and women’s rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was imprisoned AGAIN after less than a month of being on temporary release. Her release was won by an international outcry after she was infected with COVID and hospitalized while on a hunger strike to demand the release of all political prisoners. There is a new campaign for her release, available here.
We urge people to sign and take out broadly "We Demand Justice and Freedom for All Political Prisoners in Iran NOW," a call from people in the U.S. to join and develop the campaign for political prisoners in Iran.
The human rights activist Nahid Taghavi is being held since October 16, 2020, under the pretext of “threat to security” in Evin prison in Tehran. The 66-year-old is in solitary confinement. Here her friends, her daughter Mariam Claren, and human rights activists demonstrate in Cologne, Germany for her release.
Tortured Iranian political prisoner
Photos of political prisoners from @burn_the_cage Instagram
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