Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has kept Iranian-Kurdish civil rights activist Farzaneh Jalali in one of its detention centers in the city of Kermanshah since she was arrested without a warrant on February 23, the International Campaign on Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) reports.

Jalali was reportedly banned from continuing her graduate studies in 2010 because of her peaceful activism as a member of the Tehran University Islamic Students Association. According to ICHRI’s report, she had also worked as the editor-in-chief of the Tehran University’s student newspaper.

Other sources add that Jalali was also a civil society and women’s rights activist. In addition, she was a strong voice demanding compensation from the government for students who were burned in a fire incident at a girls’ school in West Azerbaijan Province in 2012. At least 29 girls were injured and two others killed, but the government has not yet compensated the victims.

Comment: While the Iranian regime suppresses peaceful activists of all backgrounds, it is more intolerant toward political and civil society activists belonging to religious and ethnic minorities. The Amnesty International Report 2016/17 released on February 21 noted “Iran’s disadvantaged ethnic minorities, including Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, Kurds and Turkmen, remained subject to entrenched discrimination,” and that the authorities deny them of rights to exercise their cultural, civil and political rights. Jalali’s illegal dention is also a grim reminder that President Hassan Rouhani has failed to fulfill his 2013 election campaign promise of guaranteeing Iranians’ freedoms and standing up to the country’s repressive intelligence and judicial authorities.

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