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November 24, 2025

یNarges Mohammadi is worthy of appreciation, support, and respect/ Musa Zahedi

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Mousa Zahed

Narges Mohammadi, founder and member of the Iranian Association for Human Rights Defenders, was arrested by security forces of the Islamic Republic at her home on the fifteenth of April this year.

Government officials forcibly entered the home of Mrs. Narges Mohammadi and arrested her without any legal explanation. This is happening while Mrs. Mohammadi’s lawyers still do not have access to her case file.

Judge Salavati has accused this human rights activist of promoting against the Islamic system, acting against national security, and being a member of the illegal group “Legam” (Step by Step Abolition of Execution). This is despite the fact that Ms. Narges Mohammadi had previously dismissed the baseless accusations in an interview. Ms. Mohammadi also stated that her new case was formed after her meeting with Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs. On March 8, 2014, in celebration of International Women’s Day, Catherine Ashton met with a number of women’s rights activists in Iran, including Narges Mohammadi and Gohar Eshghi, the mother of Sattar Beheshti, at the Austrian Embassy in Tehran.

Narges Mohammadi, a prominent Iranian activist, has paid a heavy price for her defense of freedom of speech, human rights, and the establishment of civil foundations in Iran. Her involvement in such activities has led to her dismissal from work, multiple arrests, imprisonment, harsh interrogations and insults, separation from her home and family, and especially her young children.

On the other hand, the approach of the international community towards the Islamic Republic, before anything else, indicates the fact that the West has surrendered in atomic negotiations and, in pursuit of economic and political interests, has shamefully turned a blind eye to the continuous and widespread violation of human rights and the repeated suppression and executions in Iran.

Therefore, it is necessary for all awakened consciences, human rights organizations, and human rights defenders to take action through their political and diplomatic leverage, through institutions, organizations, and all international organizations, to put pressure on the Islamic Republic for the immediate release of Ms. Narges Mohammadi.

It is astonishing when Ms. Narges Mohammadi is recognized as a dignified and respectable human being according to international and human rights standards, but how is it that she is considered a troublemaker and thrown into prison in her own country for participating in protests against acid attacks? In fact, after the first court session, Ms. Mohammadi stated in an interview that the interrogator had told her, “You are not a protester, you are a troublemaker?!”

Ms. Mohammadi’s insistence on using the word “agitator” instead of “protester” is first and foremost a revelation of the corrupt hands of this very government in the acid attacks against oppressed women in our country. While it is expected that the law, justice, and national security would pursue the acid attacker, instead, the protester against acid attacks is arrested and imprisoned. As Ms. Mohammadi puts it, in any case, women are the victims of violence; sometimes as victims of acid attacks and sometimes as protesters against acid attacks.

Furthermore, it should be noted that when Ms. Catherine Ashton met with Ms. Narges Mohammadi as a human rights activist in Tehran, she should have kept in mind that all expenses for this meeting will be fully covered by Ms. Narges Mohammadi and now the least expectation from her successor, Ms. Federica Mogherini, is to use diplomatic pressure through political channels to facilitate the immediate and unconditional release of Ms. Narges Mohammadi from the Islamic Republic.

In this regard, prominent figures from human rights activists, such as six Nobel Peace Prize winners, women: Shirin Ebadi, Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchu, Leymah Gbowee, Tawakkol Karman and Jody Williams, and members of the “Nobel Women’s Initiative” from countries such as Iran, Ireland, Guatemala, Liberia, Yemen and the United States, have protested the arrest of Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist in Iran, by issuing a statement. They remind in their statement that the Iranian regime has acceded to international human rights conventions and is committed to their implementation.

In addition, Dr. Mohammad Maleki, former professor and president of University of Tehran, and Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh, a first-class attorney in Tehran, have called for and issued a statement and organized protests and gatherings demanding the immediate release of Ms. Narges Mohammadi.

Furthermore, the Middle East Society has condemned this shameful act and has called for the release of Ms. Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist in Iran, by launching a petition. In this regard, all compatriots and human rights activists, artists, writers, national and patriotic figures, athletes, representatives of political parties and movements, and women and labor activists are requested to support us in achieving this goal by signing this petition.

Petition link

“Secure the release of Narges Mohammadi – Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran”

Created By: Mousa Zahedi
June 27, 2015

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Mousa Zahedi