#FreeNahid: Be a voice for political prisoners!

A female Iranian-German architect, Nahid Taghavi,  66, was arrested on October 16^th in Iran. Her daughter Maryam Claren, living in Germany, is worried for her mother.

She told an ARD reporter that she feels she used to live in a bubble before her mother’s arrest. She has never had to do anything with human rights violations or political prisoners before, but her bubble burst since her mother’s arrest. So far, the German government has received no information about the reason for Nahid’s Taghavai’s arrest. She has been travelling for 15 years between Iran and Germany without any problem.

This time when Nahid visited Iran it was no different. She intended to spend some time with her brothers, friends and relatives. Nahid had been due to return to Germany in the early spring, but decided to stay longer with lockdowns and the difficulty of flying. By September, the balance of risk seemed to have shifted so that it would be safer for her to be in Germany.

On 14 October, Claren told The Guardian that she sent her mother some holiday photos on WhatsApp, but received no reply.

“I thought she might have passed out or was resting in her apartment because she recently had a dental operation,” she recalled. “After two days I became really worried.”

She called her brothers and told them to visit her mother’s apartment. “When they got there they could not believe what they saw – the whole apartment had been turned upside down, including the carpet ripped up. Her computer, her laptop and passport were all missing. The neighbours confirmed that she had been taken away.”

Her uncles then went to Evin prison to ask if she was being detained. The prison, Claren said, explained that her mother was in solitary confinement and they should wait to hear back.

The brothers have heard nothing since. “They go to Evin several times a week, trying to get information about their sister, but they receive nothing,” she said. “Seven weeks later, we know nothing, and it is still going on.”

In Iran, political prisoners are found guilty based on interrogation taken under torture. Maryam Claren says that the German government’s diplomatic ways have failed to solve her mother’s case; therefore, political pressure is considered.

Maryam has been raising awareness since her mother’s imprisonment using the hashtag #FreeNahid. Raising her voice is the only weapon she has!

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