Amnesty International Calls for Immediate Release of Golrokh Ebrahimi

Amnesty International has called for the "immediate and unconditional" release of Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, an Iranian writer and human rights activist, who was arrested on Monday morning during a raid by agents at her home. In a statement on Monday (October 25), the organization reported that agents broke down the front door of Ms. Ebrahimi's home and violently took her away. The statement speculated that she may have been transferred to the women's section of Evin Prison to serve her six-year sentence. This comes despite the fact that no written summons had been delivered to Ebrahimi, and she had only received a phone call from the enforcement office instructing her to report to Evin Prison to begin her six-year sentence. She was also threatened that otherwise, agents would arrest her on the street or at her residence. Golrokh Ebrahimi has been accused of "insulting sacred beliefs" for writing an unpublished story about stoning in Iran. Amnesty International noted that the unpublished manuscript of Ebrahimi's book was discovered when agents went to arrest her and her husband at their home. According to the report, Ebrahimi's novel, "An Emotional Reaction of a Young Woman" after watching the film "The Stoning of Soraya M.", depicts a young woman who, out of anger, burns a copy of the Quran. Furthermore, as Amnesty International stated, Golrokh Ebrahimi did not have a lawyer during her two brief trial sessions at the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The organization added that "security and intelligence" officials pressured her first lawyer to abandon the case and also barred her second lawyer from representing her. Magdalena Mughrabi, the Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, described Golrokh Ebrahimi as a "young Iranian writer and activist" who has faced "suppression of artistic freedom" in Iran. She called Ebrahimi's imprisonment for her "peaceful expression" against stoning a "clear injustice and an assault on freedom of expression." Mughrabi demanded the immediate release of this writer and the annulment of her conviction. According to Amnesty International, Arash Sadeghi, her husband and a human rights activist, has gone on hunger strike in protest against Ms. Ebrahimi's arrest. Mr. Sadeghi is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for charges such as "propaganda against the regime," "gathering and colluding against national security," and "insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic."