During the interrogations, I learned that I was arrested because of being a member of the board of directors of the Iranian Writers Association (IWA) and the association’s statements in support of the protesters, especially women and the Kurdish people.

Aida Amidi

All about my case and IWA

On December 5, 2022, I was arrested at home. Around 1pm the security agents broke down the door of the apartment and started searching the house without an arrest warrant. They seized a number of my personal belongings, including laptops, mobile phones, flash drives, personal notebooks, camera memory and some other items. Around evening, the search ended, and the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence transferred me to the ward 209 of Evin prison.

The next day, after 8 hours of interrogation, I was taken to the prosecutor’s office into arraignment. There, I was accused of conspiracy and collusion with the intention of acting against national security and propaganda against the regime. No explanation was given about the proof of these accusations.

During the interrogations, I learned that I was arrested because of being a member of the board of directors of the Iranian Writers Association (IWA) and the association’s statements in support of the protesters, especially women and the Kurdish people. Interrogators also pointed to some of my posts on personal pages written in previous years in support of protesters and detainees. Including a poem of mine that was published along with a picture of the girls of Enghelab Street (the Girls of Revolution Street) and it was considered as an example of opposition to the hijab.

I was in Evin prison for 31 days and after that I was released on bail on January 5, 2023. Six days later, I was informed that my case was sent to the 26th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, and a day later, my court date was announced. I have to appear in court on February 19, 2023. As I prepare for the court, I think of the women who are still locked up in security detention centers. Brave women who are true reflection of the image of woman, life, freedom.

The court date of Roozbeh Sohani, poet and a member of the Board of Directors of the Writers’ Association of Iran (IWA), who was arrested at the same time as me and released on bail after 22 days, has not yet been determined.

Alireza Adineh, poet and a previous member of the Board of Directors of the Writers’ Association of Iran, who was arrested on December 26, 2022, and was released on bail after 27 days of detention, is also awaiting the announcement of a court date.

Reza Khandan (Mahabadi), writer, and Arash Ganji, translator, two former members of Board of Directors of IWA, are also in prison since September 2020 and November 2021, respectively. Keyvan Mohtadi, one of the members of IWA, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison after being detained for more than 8 months.

The Iranian Writers Association is the oldest union of Iranian writers, which has been fighting for the realization of freedom of expression and the abolition of censorship in Iran for more than 54 years.

Many members of this association have been threatened, arrested, imprisoned, and even killed. Mohammad Mokhtari, poet and writer, and Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh, writer and translator, were killed in serial murders known as political chain murders of Iran in December 1998. Baktash Abtin, poet and a member of the board of directors of IWA, who has been in prison since September 2020, was killed in January 2022 due to contracting the corona virus and the deliberate lack of attention of the prison guards.

UN Ruling Demands Iran Release Persecuted Writers

PEN America Calls Ruling a “Vindication” Affirming that Writers’ Human Rights Were Violated

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 20, 2022

(NEW YORK)— Amid a violent crackdown on nationwide protests, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) has issued a scathing ruling against Iran for its persecution of the Iranian Writers Association (IWA) and systematic abuse of the judicial process. PEN America said it was “encouraged” by the ruling, calling it a “vindication” that affirms that the human rights of the writers and IWA members had been abused. The IWA is Iran’s foremost independent writers’ and free expression advocacy group, though it is currently banned in the country.The UN decision comes in response to a petition by PEN America and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR), and supported by the IWA, on behalf of Baktash Abtin, Keyvan Bajan, Reza Khandan Mahabadi, and Arash Ganji. Baktash Abtin died on January 8th of this year in state custody as a result of repeated abuse and neglect of his medical needs after contracting COVID-19, while Khandan Mahabadi and Ganji remain imprisoned in standing violation of the UN decision. Bajan was released on parole in March after serving over half of his three year sentence, while Khandan Mahabadi remains behind bars.The writers were arrested, detained, and charged under fabricated and vague national security laws that the UN decision deemed illegal under international law for unduly limiting freedom of expression, assembly, and association.

“As the anniversary of Baktash Abtin’s death approaches, we are encouraged and heartened by this robust ruling,” said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PEN America’s director of Free Expression at Risk Programs. “These writers were arrested and imprisoned on indefensible and spurious charges, and then subject to mistreatment behind bars, because of their literary work, as well as their steadfast defense of free expression in Iran. This ruling is a vindication that their fundamental rights have been violated, and we call on the Iranian government to address the UN’s concerns and offer them immediate restitution and freedom. We also urge that authorities cease pre-emptively detaining other members of the IWA, and release those writers arrested in recent weeks.”

The Working Group investigates cases of arbitrary detention worldwide under five categories, and found the writers’ detention arbitrary on all grounds laid out in the petition. The UN ruling found their detention to violate both Iranian domestic and international law and called for their immediate release and an independent investigation into Abtin’s death. The decision found “a systemic failure to provide access to counsel during criminal proceedings in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and reiterated the UN finding that Iran’s judiciary acts “as a repressive organ instead of an independent body.” The decision also raised concern about crimes against humanity, citing the “widespread or systemic arbitrary detention in the country.”

“This indisputable UN decision is an indictment of Iran’s weaponized legal system and a recognition of the inextinguishable voices of Iran’s literary tradition,” said Yonah Diamond, a human rights lawyer with the RWCHR. “As Iran increasingly sentences young artists and demonstrators behind closed doors to public hangings, the international community needs to impose real costs on the Iranian officials responsible.”

Earlier this month, the UN raised the alarm about Iranian artists facing execution, again urging Iran to abolish the death penalty. Dozens of Iranians face impending execution related to the protests, including artists such as Toomaj Salehi and Saman Yasin, for mere lyrics or social media posts criticizing the regime. Last week, Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s most influential, Oscar-winning actors and also a literary translator, was arrested for Instagram posts calling for solidarity and an international reaction to the public execution of protesters.

PEN America’s 2021 Freedom to Write Index, released in April 2022, shows that Iran jails the fourth highest number of writers and public intellectuals in the world. In 2022, arrests of writers and other artists have spiked dramatically. A number of other members of the IWA have also been detained in 2022 since this petition was filed, including labor activists, writers, and translators Keyvan Mohtadi and Anisha Asadollahi, detained in May (Asadollahi was released on bail in August while Mohtadi is currently awaiting a verdict); Atefeh Chaharmahalian, detained on October 3 and released on December 13; poet and translator Ali Asadollahi, detained since November 21; poet Alireza Adineh, arrested on November 30; and Aida Amidi and Roozbeh Sohani, arrested on December 5. More about PEN America’s advocacy work on Iran can be found here.

December 07, 2022

Violent Arrests of Leaders of Iranian Writers’ Association are Designed to Intimidate and Silence December 07, 2022

Image – Aida Amidi a member of the IWA board

PEN Sydney and PEN America today condemned the recent arrests of three Iranian writers—Roozbeh Sohani, Aida Amidi, and Alireza Adineh—and raised alarm over the continued targeting of writers for their free expression. The three are members of the Iran-based Iranian Writers’ Association (IWA), a decades-old writers’ group that has been banned but steadfastly stands against state censorship

“The violent and targeted arrests of the IWA’s board members are designed to intimidate and silence one of the leading independent civil society voices inside Iran that steadfastly speaks out in support of the essential right of all individuals to free expression,” said Karin Karlekar, PEN America’s director of Free Expression at Risk Programs. “Given the Iranian government’s surge of baseless arrests and horrific record of mistreating political prisoners, we are raising an urgent alarm regarding their safety, and call for their immediate release.”

Roozbeh Sohani and Aida Amidi were arrested on December 5. Iranian authorities broke into Sohani’s home and arrested him, then took him to an unknown location. Two hours later, authorities raided Amidi’s apartment and detained her in the same manner. Alireza Adineh was arrested on November 30 at his home and taken to an unknown location. The previous month, on September 23, he had been summoned by the Ministry of Information for interrogation. Sohani and Amidi are both poets and board members of the IWA, and Adineh is a poet and member of the organization.

“For decades, the IWA has taken a consistent and principled stand against censorship, and has been the voice of writers and the creative community inside Iran, who have taken a lead role in opposing state repression” said Mansour Razaghi of PEN Sydney. ”We stand in solidarity with these brave writers and all those behind bars and facing harsh and wholly disproportionate punishments as a result of their words and expression, and remind the Iranian authorities that the world is watching and will hold them to account for these violations of basic human rights.”

Sohani and Amidi’s arrests occurred only one day after the Iranian Writers’ Association commemorated the Day Against Censorship on December 4, an observance that commemorates the abduction and murder in 1998 of two IWA members, Mohammed Mokhtari and Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh. Their deaths were part of the Chain of Murders in Iran by which tens of writers and intellectuals were abducted and killed in ‘80 and ‘90s. At present, the recent arrests of Sohani, Amidi, and Adineh expand the long list of writers who have been targeted for their free expression since the protests against the wrongful death of (Jhina) Mahsa Amini in mid-September.

The arrests of Sohani, Amidi, and Adineh are also part of an enduring government campaign of repression against the IWA, which has been banned since the 1980s. Since then, many IWA members have been jailed, imprisoned, and killed for their support of free expression and opposition to state censorship. In October 2021, PEN America honored three writers and IWA board members—Baktash Abtin, Keyvan Bajan, and Reza Khandan Mahabadi—with the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award recognizing a writer jailed for their commitment to freedom of expression. On January 8, 2022, Baktash Abtin died in a Tehran hospital after battling COVID-19, which he contracted during his sentence at Evin prison; prison authorities delayed giving Abtin medical care as his condition rapidly deteriorated. In March 2022, Keyvan Bajan was released on parole. Reza Khandan Mahabadi, though briefly released on medical furlough after contracting COVID-19 in Evin prison, remains in prison.

Iran is among the top five jailers of writers globally according to PEN America’s 2021 Freedom to Write Index, which provides an annual count of imprisoned writers worldwide. Since the custodial death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September, the government of Iran has intensified its violent crackdown on the protests that erupted in the wake of her murder, which has led to the reported arrests of approximately 18,000 people and the deaths of over 450 people. Several writers and high-profile critics have faced reported abuse while in custody and charges that carry the death penalty. Blogger Hossein Ronaghi was recently released on bail after over 60 days on hunger strike and sustaining injuries from torture. Jailed rappers Toomaj Salehi and Saman Yasin face execution if found guilty of the charges against them; Salehi has reportedly also been subject to custodial abuse and was filmed making a forced confession of his ‘crimes’. More on PEN America’s work on Iran can be found here.

Dear friends

I hope you all are well.

I thought maybe you are interested of reading my short article about what’s going on in Iran. Please don’t hesitate to share it with you friends. Specially your non_Iranian friends. Maybe it help them to have a better understanding and sympathy with Iran.

https://thefederal.com/opinion/irans-revolution-of-forbidden-song-dance-and-kiss/

Thank you

All the best

Shokoofeh Azar

Below is a statement provided by Zoë Rodriguez (Chair, PEN International Women Writers Committee)

Mahsa (Zhina) Amini was a 22- year-old Kurdish Iranian woman whose death in custody following her arrest by Iran’s “morality police” has sparked continuing mass protests across Iran.

Mahsa was arrested on September 13 in Tehran for allegedly not following the country’s dress code for women. According to media reports, she was torturedwhile in custody, an allegation the police deny. She was taken to Kasra Hospital in Tehran where she remained in a coma until pronounced dead on September 16.

The Iranian authorities maintain that Mahsa suffered a heart attack, an account that is not accepted by her family.

When her body was taken to her hometown of Saqqez, people were waiting to support the family at the funeral. This gathering was the starting point for the mass protests across Iran. Protesters gathered in the streets carrying posters and shouting the slogans, “Woman, Life, Freedom”, and “Down with the Dictator!”

The authorities have brutally cracked down on protests — unofficial reports claim many people have been killed or injured and thousands have been arrested. Last week, media reports raised concerns over widespread internet outages and restricted internet services which severely affected access to information regarding the government’s brutal response.

According to initial reports at least 13 were killed and many others were injured following Iranian missiles and drones’ attacks on the Kurdish region of northern Iraq on 28 September. Iranian authorities claim that the attacks targeted Kurdish groups behind the widespread protests that followed Mahsa’s death.

For the past four decades, Iran’s regime has maintained its grip on the country through mass killing, torture, imprisonments, censorship, and curtailing of essential freedoms. Political activists, writers, poets, artists, workers, teachers, and students have been arrested, tortured, and killed.

We, the members of PEN International at the 88^th Congress, together in Uppsala, Sweden, strongly condemn the brutal crackdown on freedom of expression in Iran. We stand in solidarity with the women and people of Iran in their fight for freedom, equality and justice and support their demands for a future without tyranny and dictatorship.

We call for an end to the crackdown on freedom of expression in Iran, and demand that Mahsa’s killers be brought to justice we also call for an immediate halt to military strikes.

We invite all members of PEN worldwide, to join in showing your support for the women and people of Iran. Please share this statement widely! Please post it on your websites, send it in your newsletters, and share widely on your social media, using the hash tags: #MahsaAmini and #WomenLifeFreedom. Sunday, 2 October, 2022, will be a global day of support and making our voices heard world ‘round: please use all means at your Centre’s disposal: send emails, post on social media using the above hashtags; offer a public program. And talk! Say her name! Tell her story! Mahsa (Zhina) Amini! Let us join in solidarity to support the women and people of Iran!

Statement provided by Zoë Rodriguez (Chair, PEN International Women Writers Committee)

*********

PEN Melbourne condemns the arrest of Baha’i writer and poet Mahvash Sabet and joins the call for her immediate and unconditional release by the Iranian authorities.

Iran: Authorities must release writer and poet Mahvash Sabet and end its crackdown on the Baha’i community in Iran

PEN International and PEN Centres strongly condemn the arrest of Baha’i writer and poet Mahvash Sabet by the Iranian authorities and call for her immediate and unconditional release. PEN International and PEN Centres raise serious concerns over Sabet’s health amid the continued prevalence of Covid-19 infections in prisons and deliberate medical negligence by the Iranian authorities.

On 31 July, Iranian authorities arrested Mahvash Sabet and two other members of the long-disbanded “Yaran-i-Iran” or “Friends of Iran,” Fariba Kamalabadi and Afif Naemi, who helped to administer Baha’i community’s affairs in Iran until 2008, over unfounded “spying” charges. The authorities have sent Sabet to Evin prison in Iran, where she was previously imprisoned.

According to media sources, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry alleged they were linked to the Baha’i centre in Israel and had collected and transferred information there. The Baha’i World Centre, the spiritual and administrative heart of the Bahá’í community, is located in the twin cities of ‘Akká and Haifa in Israel. The Baha’i presence has existed since before the founding of the state of Israel: nevertheless, the Iranian authorities have long used unfounded “spying” allegations against the Baha’i community in Iran.

Their arrests come amid a vicious crackdown on the Baha’i people in Iran, where authorities arrested several Baha’i activists, closed down dozens of Baha’i businesses, and demolished their houses.

Mahvash Sabet is a teacher and prominent poet who spent a decade in arbitrary imprisonment due to her religious beliefs. Sabet began her professional career as a teacher and worked as a principal at several schools. She also collaborated with the National Literacy Committee of Iran. Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Sabet was fired from her job and blocked from working in public education, like thousands of other Iranian Baha’i educators. She served for 15 years as director of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, which provides alternative higher education for Baha’i youth.

She began writing poetry in prison, and a collection of her prison poems was published in English translation in 2013. Sabet is an honorary member of Austrian PEN and Danish PEN, and was awarded the 2017 PEN Pinter Prize for an International Writer of Courage. PEN International has campaigned for her release and featured her case in PEN’s 2014 Day of the Imprisoned Writer campaign.

Signing PEN Centres:

Dansk PEN

English PEN

Irish PEN

PEN America

PEN Melbourne

PEN Norway

Swedish PEN

For more information, please contact Mina Thabet, MENA Regional Coordinator, at PEN International, Koops Mill Mews, Unit A, 162-164 Abbey St, London, SE1 2AN, Tel.+ 44 (0) 20 7405 0338, email: Mina.Thabet@pen-international.org

From Mahvash Sabet’s Prison Poems

The Sparrow

One day, returning from the prison walk

I met a sparrow taking the air too, on my way.

It was pecking a piece of frozen bread,

a cold crumb lying between us in the snow.

‘You and I are both hungry prisoners,’ I said.

At that, it instantly let go of the crumb and flew away,

and I thought, ‘Are you less than the sparrow’?

‘Why don’t you drop the bread too, like this bird?

Why can’t you free yourself from crumbs – and words?”

During the interrogations, I learned that I was arrested because of being a member of the board of directors of the Iranian Writers Association (IWA) and the association’s statements in support of the protesters, especially women and the Kurdish people.

Aida Amidi

UN Ruling Demands Iran Release Persecuted Writers

PEN Melbourne condemns the arrest of Baha’i writer and poet Mahvash Sabet and joins the call for her immediate and unconditional release by the Iranian authorities.

Iran: Authorities must release writer and poet Mahvash Sabet and end its crackdown on the Baha’i community in Iran

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