Iran Feature: Activism and Human Rights --- The Story of Fati Masjedi (Bijnen)
Saturday, January 1, 2011 at 0:01
Much has been said and written about Iran's hundreds of political prisoners. Some are well-known, others not at all. There are also hundreds if not thousands of ordinary Iranians who live in permanent fear for their future, who have been summoned to court, who have been briefly arrested and then released on bail. Their computers, documents with their life'swork and family stories have been taken away. They are waiting anxiously for another call to present themselves to a court and a judge that can ruin their lives forever. In the meantime they live in limbo and are slowly getting desperate.
Thinking of Qom, I see seminaries, women clad in black chadors, Grand Ayatollahs, pilgrims, shrines, and mosques. The city breathes holiness and piety.
In this holy city lives a brave human rights defender, an ordinary young woman called Fatemeh ("call me Fati") Masjedi with whom I happened to get in touch recently. And she told me her own story.