Nassrin Sotoudeh's Birthday
May 30, 2011
Attorney General Warns of Hundreds of Executions
June 7, 2011
May 31, 2011 marked the death at 81 of Ezatollah Sahabi, a scholar, democracy activist, and former parliamentarian. Sahabi spent time in prison for his ideas both under the Shah and under the Islamic Regime. He was leader of the opposition party, the Nationalist-Religious Coalition (www.mellimazhabi.org/). The party had its roots in the political ideals of Prime Minister Mossadeq who was ousted by a coup in 1953.
In a letter written a little over a year ago, Sahabi, wrote of his despair at the actions of the Islamic Republic. After the demonstrations protesting the election results in 2009, many of his associates and friends were arrested. His own daughter, Haleh Sahabi, an activist and Koranic scholar was arrested in 2009 and imprisoned. Sahabi wrote:
It is so sad for me to see political prisoners of a regime that I helped create experience such unjust, cruel, and unethical treatment. [I am referring to] cruelty such as keeping the political prisoners with murderers on death row or insulting women in such a way that they break down and admit to false and shameful crimes on national television. I have been imprisoned and interrogated both before and after the [formation of] the Islamic Republic. [I can guarantee that] the situation is much worse than before.
I do not understand why our rulers have completely forgotten about ethics and religion, resorting to any means [necessary] to protect their short-lived worldly powers. We have not forgotten the days before the Islamic Revolution, when we criticized others by saying that the end does not justify the means.
Women’s rights campaigner Haleh Sahabi, died of a heart attack this morning after tense encounters with security forces during the funeral for her father. Sahabi had been released on furlough in order to attend the funeral. She had been imprisoned since 2009.
The funeral for her father, a former official of the Islamic Republic, was disrupted by plainclothes forces determined to halt the proceedings.
In a report in the Financial Times, the son of Haleh Sahabi says,
“When we took out the body of Mr Sahabi for the funeral [from his house], the security agents intervened and did not allow the procession to continue. There were fierce quarrels and tensions. They really harassed [us] and eventually took away the body by force.”
Arseh Sevom joins others in offering its condolences. The loss of the influential Ezatollah Sahabi is strongly felt in the Iranian community. The harassment of the mourners that led to the death of his daughter, Haleh Sahabi, makes his passing even more tragic. Until yesterday, Haleh Sahebi was one of many civil society activists held in prison on spurious charges. Her father was one of many to speak out against the incarceration of protestors and opposition. The actions of security forces at her funeral are just another example of pressure that the Islamic Republic places on individuals who dare to work for a better society.
Read more about the death of Haleh Sahabi:
The Feminist School (Persian or English)
Azarmehr’s blog
Radio Zamaneh (English and Persian)
Interview with Ezatollah Sahabi on YouTube (Persian)
