Nine Years of Forced Separation from Mother: The Story of Narges Mohammadi's Children

"I hope my children know that I, like all imprisoned mothers, was a loving mother, despite being labeled as 'improper' and marked as 'defiant', and the overwhelming wave of longing for my children still beats upon my heart." This is a sentence from a letter by Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist imprisoned in Evin, to her children Kiana and Ali. Kiana and Ali were only eight years old when they were forced to leave their homeland; at the time, their mother was in prison and their father, Taghi Rahmani, a political activist, had fled Iran to France after multiple arrests. According to Narges Mohammadi, at five o'clock in the morning on July 17, 2015, the plane took off, and her young Kiana and Ali were separated from her for an indefinite period and joined their father. Now, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of this forced separation, Kiana and Ali speak to Radio Farda about the days they spent without their mother, about nine years of distance. Kiana says, "I miss my mother, but this is how life is; this is her choice, and I respect my mother's choice." Ali also states, "We are Iranian and come from the Middle East. We must defend our people and our brothers and sisters. Our mother taught us these things. We come from the Middle East, a place where freedom is hard, and war is a daily occurrence." Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to another year in prison. The 17-year-old twins of Narges Mohammadi are now in France trying to continue her path and consider their separation from their mother as their cost for the freedom of Iran. Kiana tells Radio Farda, "What my mother taught me, even if she is in prison, is that one must always fight for freedom and their rights." However, she adds that although she wishes her mother would be freed, she does not have much hope for her release. You can listen to the full interview of Radio Farda with Kiana and Ali, Narges Mohammadi's twins, right here.