Daughter Visits Imprisoned Parents After Months Long Visitation Ban
In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Arefeh Tajzadeh, daughter of prisoner of conscience Mostafa Tajzadeh, said that after a months long ban on visitation rights, her sister was allowed to see their father on Tuesday, 22 March. “My father has asked that we do not request visitations with him or furlough for him. He said that since he doesn’t consider the process and rulings in his case legal, and he has never requested anything from authorities, he does not wish for us to make any requests, either,” she said.
“Since he was moved to the Quarantine Ward, my father has been fasting every day. He said today that for as long as they keep him inside the Quarantine, he will continue fasting. His psychological state was good as usual, though he was suffering from neck and back aches because of his operation,” said Arefeh Tajzadeh.
Tajzadeh told the Campaign that her father only found out about their mother’s arrest on 1 March today. “My father was very surprised and said [to my sister] that even the coup agents themselves don’t know what they are looking for,” she said. Two days ago, Tajzadeh’s wife, Fakhrolsadat Mohtashami Pour informed her family during a prison visitation that if she is unable to meet with her husband until Monday, she would begin a hunger strike.
“In the short visit my mother had with the family, she only asked that we pursue my father’s medical problems because after her last visit with my father he was not well at all, and even though the prison physician asked that he have an MRI he was not allowed to leave the prison. Before he went to prison for the second time, my father had neck and back surgery, and considering prison facilities, we can guess what kind of shape he is in now,” added Arefeh Tajzadeh.
About her mother’s physical and psychological state she said, “It is not possible to evaluate physical and psychological states during a short visit, but my mother has reassured us that she is well. They only thing she asked is for us to follow up on my father’s condition. She was adamant that she would go on a hunger strike unless she is allowed to see her husband.”
Mostafa Tajzadeh is a member of the Central Council of the Islamic Participation Front and of the Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization of Iran. He was previously Deputy Minister of the Interior in Mohammad Khatami’s cabinet. Tajzadeh was arrested one day after the 2009 presidential election. He was released after nine months in prison, four months of which he spent in solitary confinement. After his release, Tajzadeh wrote a grievance letter to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Moshfeq and other commanders with six other top ranking members of the Participation Front, all of whom had been arrested and detained inside the IRGC Ward at Evin Prison. Tajzadeh was taken back to prison illegally after the publication of this letter, and after being arrested, was transferred to the Quarantine Ward of Evin Prison where he is still detained.
Fakhrolsadat Mohtashami Pour, a member of the Iran Islamic Participation Front and Tajzadeh’s wife, was arrested during protests on 1 March in Tehran. She is currently at the Intelligence Ministry’s Ward 209 inside Evin Prison and her charges are as yet unknown. During her husband’s detention, Mohtashami Pour wrote close to 90 letters to Tehran’s Prosecutor, asking for a review of her husband’s case.
