USRHR letter to Dr. Klaus Buchner - MEP for the green-conservative Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)
Human Rights situation in Iran
Dear Dr. Professor Buchner,
Allow us to brief you on the situation of human rights in Iran. Recently the Islamic Republic of Iran has begun issuing harsh and long prison sentence to the activists in Iran. They include three of the “Girls of Revolution Street” (movement of women who oppose enforced hijab) including Yasamin Araiani, Monireh Arabshahi and Mojgan Keshavarz (combined 55 year prison sentence), Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof (1 year), British Council Employee Aras Amiri (10 years), film and theater photographer Nooshin Jafari, political affairs journalist Hamed Aynehvand (6 years), students Layla Hossein Zadeh (13 years) and Sina Omran (8 years.)
14 signatories – Recently a group of prominent Iranians submitted a statement asking for IRI leader to step down and hold a free and fair election. Almost all of them are now in prison.
Sepideh Gholian and Esmail Bakhshi – Sepideh is an Iranian civil rights activist, veterinary student and journalist from the city of Ahvaz. On November 18, 2018, Sepideh Gholian, who had previously worked with several publications as a citizen journalist, was reporting on a labor protest organized by the Workers Union of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro Industrial Company, when she was arrested by the Iranian security forces. Union spokesman Esmail Bakhshi and a dozen other trade unionists were also arrested during the protest. All of those arrested, except Gholian and Bakhshi, were released within days. Gholian and Bakhshi were held without charge or legal representation for 30 days and were eventually released on bail. On November 29, 2018, while Gholian and Bakhshi were still detained yet again. On January 19, 2019 the Iranian state television broadcast what it claimed to be a documentary showing that Gholian, Bakhshi, and other activists have connections to the Trump administration, communist groups and other Iranians in diaspora who pursue overthrowing of the Iranian regime. According to Amnesty International, the timing of their arrest strongly suggests it is an attempt to silence and punish them for speaking out about the abuse they suffered in custody. They remain in prison.
Blue Girl - Sahar Khodayari, an avid fan of the blues soccer team, Esteghlal, set herself aflame after she was arrested by the security forces because of the laws forbid women attending any sports venue alongside the men.
On Social Media she has been labeled the “Blue Girl” with hashtags of #bluegirl and #saharkhodayari.
Our organization, the Union for Secular Republic and Human Rights in Iran, is a political organization seeking to unite like-minded Iranians. We believe the theocratic state in Iran must be replaced by a Secular Republic believing in human dignity of every citizen of Iran through peaceful means
We hope upon your upcoming visits with Iranian authorities for bring up these caases. For further information please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Parviz Mokhtari - Germany - mokhtary_parviz@hotmail.com
Mehdi Amini – USA - iranrepublic2014@gmail.com
Union for Secular Republic and Human Rights in Iran
September 19, 2010
