975 people, including 31 women, executed in Iran last year
New Age Islam News Bureau
20 February 2025
· 975 people, including 31 women, executed in Iran last year
· Australian woman charged with attacking Muslim women over hijab, 1 was pregnant
· Death Sentence for Woman Labour Activist In Iran Re-Issued
· Afghanistan Widows: The Silent Struggle of Women-Headed Households
· Afghanistan problem 'can be solved': former women's affairs minister
· When Grief Becomes Crime: Iran’s War on Mothers
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/women-iran-australian-muslim-hijab/d/134678
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975 people, including 31 women, executed in Iran last year
20 February 2025
The Iran Human Rights organization, based in Norway, and the French NGO "Together Against the Death Penalty" stated that the Iranian regime carried out at least 975 executions in 2024.
The organizations described this number as "extremely shocking" and the highest recorded since the tally began in 2008, surpassing the 972 executions recorded in 2015.
Around 40 suspected executions were not included in the report due to insufficient information, according to the report's authors.
The director of Iran Human Rights stated that "these executions are part of a war waged by the Iranian Republic against its own people to maintain its grip on power," which was shaken by widespread protests in 2022 and 2023, leading to a wave of arrests in the country.
Among the 975 executed in 2024, an increase of 17% compared to 2023, 31 were women, and four people were publicly hanged, according to the report.
The charges against these individuals ranged from drug-related crimes to political opposition, including participation in protests that erupted following the death of Kurdish woman JinaAmini at the hands of Iran’s "morality police" in mid-September 2022. Source:hawarnews.com
https://hawarnews.com/en/975-people-including-31-women-executed-in-iran-last-year
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Australian woman charged with attacking Muslim women over hijab, 1 was pregnant
19.02.2025
Australian police charged a 31-year-old woman with allegedly assaulting two Muslim women in Melbourne last week, one of whom was pregnant, over their head coverings, ABC News reported on Wednesday.
Pascoe Vale, 31, faces charges of “intentionally and recklessly causing injury, unlawful assault, and aggravated assault” following the attacks.
Local police stated that “the victims were allegedly targeted due to wearing head coverings.”
“There is absolutely no place in our society for discriminatory, racist, or hate-based behavior, and such activity will not be tolerated,” the police said.
According to local authorities, the assaults occurred on Feb. 13 at a shopping center in Melbourne.
Pascoe is accused of attacking a 30-year-old pregnant woman at the Pacific Epping shopping center on High Street before allegedly assaulting a 26-year-old woman 10 minutes later.
One victim recounted being grabbed from behind and choked with her hijab in front of her four-year-old daughter, while the other reported being beaten and pushed to the ground.
Investigators are also looking into reports of online threats directed at one of the victims.
The accused is set to appear in court this afternoon.
Source:aa.com.tr
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/australian-woman-charged-with-attacking-muslim-women-over-hijab-1-was-pregnant/3486812
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Death Sentence for Woman Labour Activist In Iran Re-Issued
FEBRUARY 19, 2025
Three Women Political Prisoners Face Execution on Sham Charges
February 19, 2025 — Iranian authorities have once again sentenced female labor activist SharifehMohammadi to death, despite the Supreme Court previously overturning her initial death sentence. Mohammadi was arrested on bogus charges solely in retaliation for her peaceful activism and handed a death sentence following a sham trial marked by torture, forced “confessions,” and grave due process violations.
Now, three women political prisoners—labor activist SharifehMohammadi, Kurdish social and humanitarian worker PekhshanAzizi, and Kurdish activist VarishehMoradi—are at risk of execution by the Islamic Republic.
“The three women political prisoners facing execution in Iran—Mohammadi, Azizi, and Moradi—are running out of time. The international community must act now to pressure the Iranian government intensively to immediately revoke their unjust death sentences,” said HadiGhaemi, executive director at the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
CHRI calls on top UN officials—including the special rapporteurs on Iran, on freedom of expression, and on arbitrary executions—as well as government leaders worldwide to urgently and directly call upon the Iranian authorities to:
Immediately revoke the death sentences against SharifehMohammadi, PekhshanAzizi, and VarishehMoradi.
Halt all pending executions given the systematic denial of due process and fair trial rights in Iran.
Institute an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Iran given the Islamic Republic’s refusal to adhere to international standards and law regarding capital punishment.
SharifehMohammadi: “I have to be strong and get up for the sake of the children.”
Mohammadi received the news of her death sentence on her son Aydin’s 13th birthday. A source close to Mohammadi, who cannot be named for security reasons, told CHRI that Mohammadi had been baking a cake for her son despite the prison’s limited facilities and had dressed in special clothes to see her son. Just hours before visitation time, the prison guards informed her of the court’s decision. Though devastated, she composed herself to see her son.
The source described Mohammadi as a strong and cheerful woman who has formed a close bond with the two-year-old child of a fellow prisoner:
“Sharifeh is a very, very strong and cheerful woman. For a long time, she has been sharing a cell with a woman who has a two-year-old child. The bond between Sharifeh and the child is very strong. She is always playing and joking with the child and does not let the child be upset. When Sharifeh was initially sentenced to death, she asked fellow inmates to leave her alone for a while. She went to lie down on the bed and pulled the blanket over herself. A few minutes later the child pulled Sharifeh’s leg to try to wake her up. Sharifeh said she told herself, ‘I have to be strong and get up for the sake of the children.’”
Arbitrarily Arrested, Held Incommunicado, Tortured, and Denied Access to Lawyer
Mohammadi, a 45-year-old industrial design engineer and mother of a 13-year-old son, was arbitrarily arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence on December 5, 2023, and held incommunicado for months, denying her family any information about her status, condition, or whereabouts.
On December 28, 2023, she was transferred to a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, where she was subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including repeated beatings to the face and head while blindfolded, to force her into making “confessions,” and she was denied access to a lawyer.
After she was transferred to solitary confinement in Sanandaj prison, she filed a complaint regarding her treatment at the Sanandaj Ministry of Intelligence detention facility. However, no investigation was initiated and four weeks later, she was pressured into withdrawing the complaint. In February 2024, she was transferred to Lakan prison, in Rasht province.
She was initially sentenced to death on July 4, 2024, in Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Rasht on charges of “armed rebellion” following a grossly unfair trial. Her lawyer was given only 10 minutes to present a defense.
However, the Supreme Court later overturned the verdict on October 13, 2024, and ordered a retrial. Mohammadi’s second death sentence was reissued on February 13, 2025, following a grossly unfair retrial in Branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court that was marred by numerous due process violations. Mohammadi was only permitted to attend via video conference, and her lawyer was again denied sufficient time to present a defense.
The first trial was presided over by Judge Ahmad Darvishgoftar, and the retrial was presided over by his son, Mohammad Ali Darvishgoftar. This is a blatant conflict of interest, severely violating standards of judicial independence.
Sham Charges and Evidence Used Against Mohammadi
According to information received by CHRI, Mohammadi was subjected to extreme pressure during her detention to extract forced “confessions” to be used as torture-tainted “evidence” against her. A source familiar with her case expressed grave concern, stating, “Although Sharifeh is incredibly strong and determined, no human being should have to endure such conditions.”
Initially, Mohammadi faced charges of “propaganda against the state,” but within days, this was escalated to “armed rebellion against the state” based on alleged membership in the national Labor Unions Assistance Coordination Committee (LUACC), an independent labor organization which operates legally in Iran, and alleged membership in the banned Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, which she has repeatedly denied.
LUACC was established by a group of well-known labor activists in the early 2000s in Iran. Its primary goals include empowering workers by helping them to organize, raising awareness about labor laws, and abolishing child labor.
“If membership in the LUACC is an act of rebellion, come and arrest us too, because we were once members of the committee as well,” said Mahmoud Salehi, a former board member of the LUACC, in a post on Instagram on June 28, in which he strongly refuted the charges against Mohammadi.
During the first trial, the court cited Mohammadi’s possession of an anti-death penalty poster, her files on women political detainees in Gilan province, her information on workers’ involvement in the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, and her membership in the Goftegoo Telegram channel.
Additionally, her articles, “Jina’s Place in the Uprising” and “A Guide for Detained Labor Activists on How to Respond to Interrogators” were presented as “evidence.”
Authorities also referenced the contact details of the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations found in her files, attempting to link it to the Komala Party of Kurdistan. However, the Coordinating Committee, which Mohammadi was a member of until 2011, denies any affiliation with Komala, emphasizing its focus on workers’ rights and trade unionism.
Women Activists Especially Targeted by State
Iran’s prosecution of Mohammadi for her peaceful labor activism severely violates the country’s obligations under international law and treaties to which it is a signatory.
Iran is a member of the International Labor Organization, whose Fundamental Principles guarantee the right to independently organize, collectively bargain, and strike. It is also a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which mandates in Articles 21 and 22 freedom of association and guarantees the right to form trade unions, and to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which guarantees in Article 8 the right to form or join trade unions and protects their right to strike.
Yet in the Islamic Republic, peaceful labor rights advocacy is treated as a national security offense, independent labor unions are not recognized, strikers are often fired and risk arrest, and labor leaders are prosecuted under catchall national security charges and sentenced to long prison terms.
However, the harsh persecution and sentencing to death of Mohammadi is more than a product of the authorities’ contempt for international labor rights—it reflects the particularly draconian punishments that the state is increasingly imposing on women activists in Iran.
While peaceful advocacy for women’s rights has long been criminalized in the Islamic Republic, and women activists have long been persecuted and imprisoned, after the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising that erupted in Iran in 2022-2023, and the widespread participation of women across the country in those protests, the authorities moved to aggressively suppress women activists, and they were subjected to increasingly harsh state reprisals.
Detainment, torture, and imprisonment have now been augmented by death sentences handed down by the authorities to peaceful women activists, in a clear effort to terrorize and silence the women of Iran. That three women political prisoners now face possible execution—with one of them, Azizi, already having exhausted her appeals—reflects this intensifying state violence targeted at women.
It is also no accident that two of these three women are members of Iran’s Kurdish minority community. Minority communities have long been discriminated against and persecuted, but the intersectional persecution of minority women has also greatly intensified in the wake of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
Protests were significant—and indeed have continued—in the marginalized provinces that are populated by Iran’s oppressed minority communities, and Islamic Republic authorities and security forces have moved ruthlessly to violently suppress any activism in these communities. This suppression has included greatly increased use of the death penalty against its members.
Other Women Political Prisoners Sentenced to Death: PakhshanAzizi Faces Imminent Risk of Execution Despite Lack of Evidence
On February 6, 2025, the Supreme Court rejected a request for a retrial in the case of PakhshanAzizi, a political prisoner sentenced to death. Azizi was convicted on July 23, 2024, by Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, on charges of “rebellion” and “membership in opposition groups.” The verdict was upheld by Supreme Court Judges Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghiseh.
According to Azizi’s lawyer, Amir Raesian, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal that pointed out numerous investigative flaws and a lack of credible evidence.
“[The Supreme Court] ignored the flaws in the investigation and paid no attention to evidence that showed Ms. Azizi’s case does not merit the death sentence, and that her activities in refugee camps in northern Syria and other locations for people displaced by the war with ISIS, were peaceful activities that had no political dimensions and centered around providing aid to victims of ISIS attacks,” he added.
In a letter published in July 2024, Azizi detailed the torture she was subjected to during her detention, including being subjected to mock executions.
Read more about Azizi’s case here.
VarishehMoradi: Intersectional Persecution as a Woman and a Kurd Increases Risk of Execution
VarishehMoradi, another Kurdish political prisoner, is also at risk of execution. Although her death sentence has not yet been confirmed by the Supreme Court, concerns are growing due to the government’s especially harsh targeting of activists from Iran’s ethnic minority communities.
Moradi was arrested on August 1, 2023, near Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province, and transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence’s Ward 209 in Tehran’s Evin Prison. On November 10, 2024, Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced her to death for “rebellion” after a trial marred by torture, forced confessions, and severe due process violations.
A source familiar with the case told CHRI in June 2024, that Judge AbolqasemSalavati—known as the “Hanging Judge” for issuing death sentences in political cases—barred Moradi and her lawyers from presenting a defense. Her lawyers were denied access to the case file and could only briefly review it after the final session on October 6, 2024.
In January 2025, Moradi penned an open letter from prison, revealing that she had been subjected to physical and psychological torture, threats of execution, and sexual violence during detention. In her letter marking the first anniversary of anti-execution hunger strikes in Iran’s prisons, she wrote:
“The fact that we women have taken on this resistance is due, on the one hand, to the oppression by the patriarchal and misogynistic system, and on the other hand, to the determination of women to achieve freedom.”
Read more about Moradi’s case here.
Widespread Protests Against Death Sentences of the Three Women Activists
On January 22, businesses and shopkeepers went on strike across Kurdish cities to protest the death sentences against Kurdish women activists PakhshanAzizi and VarishehMoradi. At least 12 Kurdish civilians and activists were arrested in less than a week, and security forces forcibly shut down many businesses in Sanandaj, Mahabad, and Kermanshah for participating in the strike.
In an interview with CHRI on January 29, 2025, a knowledgeable Kurdish source said:
“Exactly one day before the strikes, intelligence agents held a meeting with civil society and trade union activists in a hotel. At that meeting, the agents openly threatened the activists and said they had no right to protest the execution of VarishehMoradi and PakhshanAzizi. The agents showed films about Moradi and Azizi, to try to convince the activists that the two should not be supported because they were involved in armed activities and had ties to foreign countries. These films clearly showed that the methods used by the Ministry of Intelligence in fabricating cases against the two prisoners were the same. This is not a good sign as it could indicate that the government intends to deal with these prisoners in the harshest possible way.”
Additionally, on January 24, 2025, AmjadAmini, the father of MahsaJinaAmini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman killed in police custody in September 2022, revealed that he was charged with “propaganda against the state” after protesting PakhshanAzizi’s death sentence.
On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, activists and the families of political prisoners, including family members of VarishehMoradi, gathered outside the notorious Evin Prison to protest against the widespread issuance of death sentences in Iran.
On February 18, 2025, more than 200 lawyers signed a statement addressed to Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, condemning the death sentences against Mohammadi, Azizi, and Moradi. The letter warned that executing them would have severe consequences, exacerbating societal distress and deepening feelings of discrimination among Kurdish citizens.
“Carrying out the death penalty in these cases would not only erode public trust in the justice system but could also inflict lasting harm on national unity,” the statement read.
Alarming Escalation of Death Sentences for Political Prisoners
Iranian authorities have been increasingly using executions as a tool of political repression against protesters, activists, dissidents, and other critics of the state following sham trials, including, as this article discusses, against women, especially women from minority communities.
Currently, a shocking 57 political prisoners are on death row in Iran. Among the political prisoners at risk of execution are six young protesters involved in Iran’s 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, and political prisoners Behrouz Ehsani, Mehdi Hasani, ManouchehrFallah, and ShahriarBayat.
In 2024, executions in Iran surged to nearly 1,000 known hangings—making the Islamic Republic the leading per capita executioner in the world. The Islamic Republic disproportionately applies the death penalty to Iran’s minority communities—at least a third of those executed in 2024 were from the Kurdish and Baluch communities.
These executions violate every single international law and standard regarding capital punishment. In addition to the aforementioned violations, the vast majority of executions are carried out for drug offenses, which do not meet international thresholds that allow the death penalty only for the “most serious” crimes, and Iran is one of the very few countries in the world that executes children and juvenile offenders.
“Anyone who defends basic rights and freedoms is going to be in the Islamic Republic’s crosshairs, but the Iranian authorities are now using the death penalty on a mass scale to silence them permanently,” said Ghaemi. “The international community must speak out against the lawlessness, terror, and state-sanctioned murder that underpins the Islamic Republic’s power,” he said.
Source:iranhumanrights.org
https://iranhumanrights.org/2025/02/death-sentence-for-woman-labor-activist-in-iran-re-issued/
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Afghanistan Widows: The Silent Struggle of Women-Headed Households
February 19, 2025
Close your eyes for a moment. Now imagine stepping back in time to an era when women in Western countries had no rights, no security, and no voice.
Now open your eyes again. In our own moment, millions of Afghan women—and in particular widows—live in just such a moment. This reality has never changed for them, and, in fact it has only worsened. Afghanistan remains one of the most repressive places in the world to be a woman: education is banned, employment is restricted, and even traveling alone is forbidden.
Widows in the country find life even more challenging. Afghan society expects women to be under the care of a male guardian—whether it be a husband, a father, or a brother. Women who have lost their guardian are left in an extremely vulnerable position, exposed to a high risk of poverty and exploitation.
These widows are known as “bisarparast” (or “without a guardian”), and they are left to fend for themselves in a world that offers little to no help. Many of them are compelled to return to their birth families, rely on in-laws, or depend on their young sons to support them.
While the exact figures remain uncertain, estimates suggest there are between 2 to 2.5 million war widows in Afghanistan. Many of them lost their husbands to decades of conflict, natural disasters, or disease. They now face a daily struggle for survival, remaining largely invisible to the world.
A Daily Struggle for Survival
Women in Afghanistan face severe restrictions on their movement, healthcare, and safety. Widows who lack a male relative are particularly isolated and unable to access basic necessities.
Imagine needing permission to see a doctor or buy food. With no male relative to accompany them, Afghanistan’s widows find themselves entirely isolated. Even those who were once financially independent struggle in a landscape in which women’s employment opportunities are increasingly restricted.
Widows not only endure a deep and pervasive loneliness, but they often face poverty, violence and exploitation. Gender-based violence (GBV) in Afghanistan has surged by 30% since 2021, impacting over 13 million women. Without education or job opportunities, many of the country’s widows are forced to beg, exposing themselves to even greater risks.
Afghanistan’s worsening economic crisis has meant that food has become a luxury. The World Food Program (WFP) reports that nearly all women-headed households face food insecurity. As a result, many widows resort to selling their possessions, skipping meals, or sending their children to work just to survive. Shockingly, one in ten widows has been compelled to marry off a daughter, even an underage child, to keep the rest of the family alive.
Winter inevitably brings even more devastation. Freezing temperatures, blocked roads, and fuel shortages make survival harder. Picture a mother wrapping her children in thin cloth as they shiver from the cold. With no money for fuel, no food to cook, and no one to turn to for help, this is the reality that most Afghan widows and their children must endure every winter.
What Can Be Done? A Realistic Approach
As winter tightens its grip and international funding declines, one question remains: how much longer can Afghan widows endure?
Their voices must be heard, their struggles acknowledged, and their rights restored. Until that happens, millions of Afghan widows will continue their silent fight for survival—one day at a time.
Despite a restrictive operating environment and challenges to access inside the country, organizations like the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) continue to provide aid under extremely difficult and challenging circumstances, despite their limited resources.
Targeted humanitarian aid can still reach widows, despite the current restrictions and challenges. Expanding emergency relief—such as food distribution, winter supplies, and basic healthcare—remains one of the few viable solutions to provide relief to people on the margins.
Strengthening local support networks and discreetly assisting widows through trusted community figures also can help ensure aid reaches those who are often left invisible and are most in need. Mobile healthcare units with female staff, while still navigating restrictions and safe access, can still provide lifesaving medical care, including health awareness and promotion.
Given the current context, economic empowerment may not be achievable through large-scale programs. Yet small-scale, home-based work that aligns with restrictions in place can provide widows with a modest income. And advocacy on international platforms remains crucial to maintaining pressure for incremental change. While major reforms seem unlikely in the near term, ensuring that widows receive access to basic necessities is a crucial step toward their survival.
As we have seen, the struggles of Afghan widows are real. Yet they remain largely unseen. Trapped between societal expectations, oppressive policies, poverty, and hunger, the plight of these women calls for urgent global attention. Their resilience is remarkable, but resilience alone will not feed their children, or keep them warm at night.
As international aid continues to shrink, the world must act. Even small, realistic interventions can make a difference in the lives of Afghanistan’s widows. It is imperative that donors, humanitarian organizations, and policymakers take urgent action. Sustained funding for local organizations providing essential healthcare, disaster response, and livelihood support is crucial to prevent further suffering and strengthen community resilience, particularly for widows and other vulnerable groups.
Source:newsecuritybeat.org
https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2025/02/afghanistan-widows-the-silent-struggle-of-women-headed-households/
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Afghanistan problem 'can be solved': former women's affairs minister
20 Feb, 2025
Afghanistan has been cloaked in "darkness" since the return of the Taliban government three and a half years ago, but the country's former women's affairs minister insists the problem "can be solved".
When the Taliban swept back to power in August 2021, "everything was lost", Massooda Jalal, a former minister and the first woman in Afghanistan's history to run for president, told AFP in an interview this week.
"They brought back the darkness we had fought so hard to escape."
Despite promises not to return to the brutality displayed during their first stint in power in the 1990s, the Taliban authorities have imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, including the return of public floggings and executions.
Women and girls have been barred from education beyond the age of 12, from holding many jobs and from many public spaces in what the United Nations has described as "gender apartheid".
Jalal, a 61-year-old medical doctor who served as Afghanistan's women's affairs minister from 2004 to 2006, insisted that "there is a way to replace the darkness with the light".
"It is challenging, but it is not impossible," she told AFP in Geneva, where she and her daughter Husna were being awarded a women's rights prize at the annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.
"It can be solved."
- Light -
She called for an international conference, like the United Nations-backed talks held in Bonn, Germany in 2001.
Those talks saw the signing of a landmark deal to create a post-Taliban leadership and usher in democracy after the militants were ousted by a US-led invasion following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"The political regime in Kabul is not supported by the people, and it is not recognised and supported by the world," said Jalal, now an activist who lives in the Netherlands.
"It has no meaning, so why continue that? Millions of people there are suffering."
With a little bit of international will, she insisted that pressure could be exerted on the Taliban authorities and those propping them up to ensure they participate.
The international community, she insisted, has a responsibility to bring an end to the deep suffering in Afghanistan.
"The world should not just keep watching it," she said.
Jalal recalled her elation in 2001 "when the international community came in and set the democratic agenda".
"The light came into the country."
- 'Will not be erased' -
Jalal, who at that time was a UN aid worker, after the Taliban had chased her from her post as a professor at Kabul University, stood in the country's first presidential polls in 2004.
She was surprised when she lost to Hamid Karzai, garnering just 1.1 percent of the votes.
"I thought I was going to be the winner," she said, pointing out that her opponents were all linked to armed groups, while she claims she had become very popular after travelling all over the country, handing out aid.
While that loss was disappointing, Jalal rejected the idea that Afghans were not ready to see women in power.
She called for the swift restoration of democracy, insisting that "of course, women should be given equal rights".
And since "they suffered more than others... they should get extra... We need to bring more and more women into the process and into leadership in the country".
During her speech to this week's rights summit, Jalal lamented her own "forced exile".
"But exile does not mean surrender," she said.
"I will continue to fight for democracy, for justice, for the dignity of every Afghan woman, because we will not be erased."
Source:24newshd.tv
https://24newshd.tv/20-Feb-2025/afghanistan-problem-can-be-solved-former-women-s-affairs-minister
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When Grief Becomes Crime: Iran’s War on Mothers
FEBRUARY 19, 2025
As the mother of EbrahimKetabdar, killed in the November 2019 protests, SakinehMohammadi joins a long line of women who have transformed their grief into defiance.
She said, “Take us to prison, take us wherever you want - we are not afraid of you. You should be afraid of us.”
In just the past week, three mothers’ stories have highlighted the brutal cost of seeking justice in Iran.
In one cell, a mother lies beaten, fresh bruises marking her body - her only crime was asking questions about her child’s fate.
In the prison clinic, news arrives of another mother’s death. A stroke finally ended her years of standing outside these gates, sending desperate video messages, and demanding answers that never came.
And in a third cell, a mother who once stood outside these walls now finds herself behind them. Day by day, she attempts to end her life, seeing no other escape from a system designed to silence her.
They are just the latest in a decades-long chain of mothers who have faced the Islamic Republic’s repression.
Movement after movement, protest after protest, they have gathered - outside prison gates, in video messages, and increasingly, in prison cells.
Yet still, they come.
Still, they speak. Still, they demand answers about their children’s fates. As SakinehMohammadi understood, their grief itself has become a weapon the state cannot silence - not with prison bars, not with beatings, not even with death.
In the latest case of harassment against mothers, the beating of SaadatBayazidi has been reported. On February 17, IRGC Intelligence forces attacked the home of political activist Farzin Tout in Piranshahr - who does not live in Iran himself - and beat his mother and grandmother.
Farzin’s mother had six teeth broken. His grandmother, who was also subjected to physical violence, is 80 years old.
Just one day before this news, the stroke of RahimehKhakizahi, mother of Ahmad Khakizahi, was reported.
On February 16, Intelligence Department forces in the Qasr-e Qand district of Sistan and Baluchistan violently arrested two Baluch citizens in front of their family members.
Ahmad’s mother, who was 52 years old, suffered a fatal stroke right there after witnessing the security forces’ violence against her son.
While the deaths of these two mothers may go unnoticed in the flood of daily news, NahidShirpisheh’s suicide attempt - the mother of PouyaBakhtiari, killed in the November 2019 protests - highlights the deepening suffering of prisoners’ and victims’ families.
According to news posted by Mona, Pouya’s sister, NahidShirpisheh, who is imprisoned in Zanjan Prison for seeking justice for her son, attempted suicide.
In response, prison officials transferred her to solitary confinement, and her daughter wrote that she had no news of her mother for three weeks.
The deaths of justice-seeking mothers and prisoners’ mothers also bring back bitter memories from previous years.
Like the death of ArashSadeghi’s mother, a human rights activist - when he came home on prison leave in 2011, security forces raided their house, and their violence caused his mother to suffer a fatal stroke.
Death has claimed the mothers of prisoners in other ways, too - like the mother of AmirrezaArefi, a former political prisoner, who died along with Amirreza’s wife in a car accident on the Ahvaz road in 2013 while returning home from visiting him.
On February 5, news came that Mehdi Mahmoudian, a journalist and human rights activist, was on his third day of a hunger strike.
It was later revealed that he had coughed up blood in the prison quarantine, and prison guards were forced to transfer him to the hospital.
The night before Mehdi Mahmoudian’s transfer to the hospital, his mother sat in front of the camera and cried out against the injustice.
“If my child comes home by tomorrow noon, so be it. I’m waiting for him here. If he doesn’t come, I will go there - arrest me too.”
The health problems of prisoners and their concerned mothers might remind one of Behnam Mahjoubi and his mother, Batoul Hosseini.
On February 21, 2021, Behnam died due to prison guards’ negligence in transferring him to the hospital in time.
Behnam had a “medical exemption from imprisonment” due to panic disorder. At that time, when Behnam’s body lay lifeless in the hospital, justice-seeking mothers from decades of Islamic Republic crimes gathered in Loghman Hospital’s yard and embraced Batoul Hosseini.
Two years after Behnam Mahjoubi’s death, when his mother was holding a memorial service for him, plainclothes security forces attacked Batoul Hosseini and Behnam’s sister, subjecting them to physical violence.
At that time, Batoul Hosseini released a video of herself saying, “If you think these actions will make me stop seeking justice for my child, you are gravely mistaken. I am a justice seeker.”
Perhaps mentioning AkramNeghabi as a symbol of mothers whose children disappeared under the Islamic Republic government brings the same question to mind for anyone following justice-seeking: “Where is Saeed Zeinali?”
AkramNeghabi has been seeking this answer since 1999, when her son was arrested during the University dormitory incident.
But the Islamic Republic has not only failed to answer this question - it has also arrested and interrogated Saeed Zeinali’s mother.
Saeed Zeinali’s mother and sister were arrested, threatened, and released on bail in 2010.
Another mother whose image holding a photo frame is etched in Iranians’ collective memory is GoharEshghi, the mother of SattarBeheshti.
A suffering woman whose life changed in November 2012, SattarBeheshti was a blogger who was killed under torture, and his mother was repeatedly subjected to violence.
Islamic Republic agents, who even forbid mourning for justice-seeking families, attacked their house during SattarBeheshti’s 40th-day memorial service and beat his mother.
The history of justice-seeking mothers goes back further. During the 2009 protests and the rise of the Green Movement against election results, their numbers grew. These were mothers whose children were killed by Islamic Republic forces, either in protests or under torture.
A group of mothers who lost their children or spouses in the 2009 protests formed an organization after the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan in the Green Movement.
After holding protest gatherings seeking justice, at least 30 of them were arrested in January 2010 in Tehran’s Laleh Park.
During that arrest, one of the mothers was transferred to the hospital. Their goal, while protesting and keeping their children’s memory alive, was to prosecute those who ordered and carried out the state-sanctioned killing of their loved ones.
Ten years after the Green Movement, the nationwide November 2019 protests began, and more mothers were bereaved by their children’s blood.
During the 2022 protests, the fight for justice was carried on by other mothers who lost their children in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement or had loved ones imprisoned, as history seemed to repeat itself.
Source:iranwire.com
https://iranwire.com/en/women/139178-when-grief-becomes-crime-irans-war-on-mothers/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/women-iran-australian-muslim-hijab/d/134678