Iran sends German-Iranian activist on medical leave back to prison

BERLIN — A German-Iranian woman held for rights activism in Iran was sent back to prison, after being granted medical leave four months ago, her daughter said on Sunday.

“Despite not completing medical treatment but with her head held high, my mother Nahid Taghavi was forced to go back to Evin Prison on Sunday 13th November,” Mariam Claren wrote on Twitter.

Taghavi was arrested in October 2020, after fighting for human rights in Iran for years, especially women’s rights and freedom of expression, according to the rights group IGFM.

Taghavi spent seven months in solitary confinement and was interrogated by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for more than 1,000 hours without legal assistance, her daughter said.

She was handed a decade-long sentence last year for participating in an outlawed group, a verdict Germany described as “incomprehensible.”

According to Claren, Taghavi was granted “an urgently needed medical furlough” on July 19 for back and neck problems.

She also reportedly suffers from pre-existing conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes.

Illustrative: Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. (CC BY-SA 2.0 Ehsan Iran/Wikipedia)

Protests have erupted across Iran since September, in response to the death of a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, after her arrest by the country’s notorious morality police.

She had allegedly breached the Islamic dress code for women.

Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds more arrested in the unrest, with Iran on Sunday issuing its first death sentence over the protests.

Claren said Taghavi was “one of countless political prisoners” in Iran.

“Since the death of (Amini) in police custody and the ongoing revolutionary movement in Iran, the whole world has witnessed the reprisals of this inhuman regime,” she said