Activist Imprisoned for Supporting Baha’is

Source: hra-news.org/fa/thought-and-expression/atena-3

Translation by Iran Press Watch

Thursday, the 8th of January, 2015

HRANA – Atena Farghadani, a civil rights activist, has been summoned to the 15th Branch of the Revolutionary Court by Judge Abu’l-Qasim Salavati. She is expected to be present in court on Saturday, the 10th of January, to be questioned regarding charges of propaganda against the regime, undermining national security, and insulting members of parliament by depicting them in cartoons.

HRANA reports according to Saham News that Ms. Farghadani had previously been summoned to court by a phone call made by judge Abu’l-Qasim Salavati for distributing a video that disclosed hidden cameras planted in the bathrooms and showers of ward A of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, and when she refused to appear in court, she was threatened with arrest by the Revolutionary Guards in the middle of the night.

Describing the reasons for this summons in a Facebook post, Ms. Farghadani wrote an open letter to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in her defense. She wrote:

“According to the summons notice I received yesterday, Wednesday, the 7th of January, 2015, I am to appear at the 15th Branch of the Revolutionary Court on Saturday, the 10th of January. I am Atena Farghadani. I was born in 1986-7 in Tehran. My birth certificate ID number is 34828. I will be present at the 15th Branch Revolutionary court on Moallem street at 8:30 AM on Saturday, the 10th of January, before judge Salavati… I know this Saturday I will be in a court that screams injustice. I will be present before a judge who for years has skewed the balance of justice. I, therefore, must pay retribution for defending my beloved defenseless people. Inasmuch as, for many years, nowhere in my country have I ever seen any official occupy his post, and each of us has had our positions change in different ways, I, the accused, sit and proudly present my written defense to one who for 25-some-odd years has not only preserved and protected his own position, but who also sits as the head of all three branches of government…Yea, Your Excellency, Seyyed Ali Khamenei… who these past years has been both a judge and a lawmaker, both a president of the country and head of a non-representative parliament of Iran, I present my defense to you.

Your Excellency Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and the Revolutionary Guard Corps.

What you call “propaganda against the regime” I call affinity for those whose children were slaughtered in 2009, those who were killed so the roots would not shake in a soil that is no longer fertile.

What you understand to be “assembly and collusion with the ‘wayward sect’ against national security”, I consider to be supporting those women and men whose most basic right – which is the right to attend university – is being denied because they are Baha’is! The so-called “human beings” of our era have taken it upon themselves to degrade the Baha’is’ human dignity and pronounce them “unclean” and destroy their homes and graves!

What you call an “insult to representatives of the parliament by means of cartoons” I consider to be an artistic expression of the home of our nation (parliament), which our nation does not deserve!

And what you refer to as an “insult to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the three branches of government during the course of interrogation” I consider to be a firm response to the arrogance of your armed forces about the so-called “security” and “power” that causes them to “entrap” provocateurs like me. If indeed there is such power and security among your “Revolutionary Guards”, why don’t they use them to entrap the offenders and murderers of many “Nedas”, “Sohrabs”, and “Setarehs”?!*

* For Neda: see “Death of Neda Agha-Soltan” at wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Neda_Agha-Soltan

For Sohrab: see “Sohrab Aarabi” at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohrab_Aarabi