Iran Feature: An Activist's Imprisonment Turns a Family Against the Regime (Dehghan)

When Iranian student activist Arash Sadeghi was temporarily released from Tehran's infamous Evin prison in November 2010, he anticipated a little respite from a year of harsh beatings and agony in jail.

Instead, within a few days, security officials had raided his home in middle of the night. As they broke their way into the house, Sadeghi's mother, who was alone with her daughter, suffered a heart attack.

The officials continued their search as she laid unconscious on the floor, ransacking the house and trying to find Sadeghi, who was at his grandfather's house that night. When the officials left, Farahnaz Dargahi was taken to hospital. She died within a few days.

Click to read more ...

Iran Interview: Azerbaijani Activist Fakhteh Zamani Explains the Lake Urmia Protests

See also Iran Feature: Is Civil Disobedience Taking Off?

---

Fakhteh Zamani, director of the Association for the Defence of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran, talks about the protests over the environmental damage to Iran's largest lake, Lake Urmia --- moving from activists in Azerbaijan to football stadiums --- the response by the Iranian authorities, and the possible developments, both for the lake and for Azerbaijani rights: