<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/10/iran-bans-mahsa-amini-family-travelling-receive-human-rights-prize>
"Iran has banned Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to France to receive the
EU’s top human rights prize on her behalf, as the family of the imprisoned
Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi said she had begun a new hunger
strike before Sunday’s award ceremony in Oslo.
In Mohammadi’s absence, her 17-year-old twin children, Ali and Kiana, instead
collected the award on her behalf, reading out a speech their mother smuggled
out of her cell.
The two high-profile award ceremonies, taking place days apart in Norway and
France, have recast a spotlight on the deep costs borne by those who battle for
women’s rights in Iran.
Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman whose death in 2022 in police
custody set off months of protests that rocked Iran, was awarded the Sakharov
prize for freedom of thought in October.
Before Tuesday’s ceremony, members of her family, including her father and
brother, were stopped on Saturday as they attempted to board a flight to
France, the family’s lawyer in France, Chirinne Ardakani, told AFP. Their
passports were confiscated despite them having a valid visa to travel, she
added.
The months-long protests in Iran were met with a heavy-handed crackdown by
authorities, resulting in the deaths of more than 500 people and the arrests of
nearly 20,000, according to human rights groups in the country. The protests
have since been largely suppressed.
Ardakani said authorities in the country “have never been so mobilised to
prevent the families of the victims from speaking to the international
community”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
