Source: CART Edition
Author: S. A. Aram
Review: JB
January 16th, 2016
Currently there are more than 800 prisoners of conscience in Iran who have been imprisoned not for any legitimate political or security reason as alleged by the authorities, but for practicing their rights to freedom of belief and expression.
This video introduces the 10 most famous Iranian prisoners of conscience based on a photo collection entitled “SOS for Humanity”, by an Iranian young artist (available on Art People Gallery) .
These 10 prisoners of conscience are:
Atena Daemi: A children’s rights activist charged with propaganda against the state and insulting the Supreme Leader and Islam, and sentenced to 14 years in prison; all charges were based on Facebook posts against forced hijab and in support of the children of Kobane.
Omid Kokabee: Iranian experimental laser physicist at the University of Texas who was arrested in Iran after returning home to visit his family in January 2011. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on the charge of collaborating with Israeli authorities. Kokabee consistently denied the charge.
Rasool Bodaghi: A teachers’ trade rights activist. His six-year imprisonment sentence ended on August 4, 2015, but the Iranian officials refused to release him by opening a new case against him.
Saeed Abedini: Is an Iranian-American Christian pastor. In 2013, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison on charges of undermining national security through private religious gatherings in Christian homes in Iran.
Saeed Rezaei: An agricultural engineer and one of the Baha’i leaders in Iran. He was arrested in 2008 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for practicing his religion.
Atena Farghadani: An Iranian artist and political activist. She was charged with spreading propaganda, insulting MPs, and insulting the Supreme Leader of Iran through her cartoons, criticizing a draft law which would restrict access to birth control. She suffered a heart attack in late February 2015 in Evin Prison.
Bahareh Hedayat: A 34-year-old Iranian student activist and women’s rights campaigner. In 2010 she was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for anti-state propaganda.
Narges Mohammadi: An Iranian human rights activist. In 2012 her speech against torture and unfair arrests of human rights activists in Iran went viral on social media. In 2014, she got arrested for the 4th time.
Kasra Nouri: A 25-year old Sufi’s rights activist and blogger. After an interview with a radio in Europe, he was charged with acting against national security, disclosing state secrets, spreading lies and being interviewed by foreign media. He was sentenced to 4 years and 4 months in prison.
Mohammad Ali Taheri: Founder of an Iranian spiritual movement, writer and practitioner of alternative medicine theories used in Iran and abroad. The Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death on a charge of Fesad fel Arz (corruption on earth).
