A Letter by Nazanin Davoudi: How Do I Make One See this Non-Islamic Tyranny?

A Letter by Nazanin Davoudi: How Do I Make One See this Non-Islamic Tyranny?


August 16, 2010
 
Original Report in Persian by HRDAI

August 15, 2010



Translation Neda Shayesteh for Persian2English

A Letter by Nazanin Davoudi on the situation of her imprisoned husband Arzhang Davoudi:

August 14, 2010 was the 32nd day that my husband Mr. Arzhang Davoudi, poet and political prisoner, spent on hunger strike. [Arzhang] went on strike [to protest against] the lack of legal rights of prisoners and because on February 11, 2010, Mr. Haj Kazem, the head of Rajai Shahr prison, issued an order to send my husband to solitary confinement without presenting any reason. My husband wrote a letter of complaint against Mr. Haj Kazem. It has been over two months that [Arzhang] has not made any *phone calls. Why imprison a prisoner?

It is surprising that, instead of the acknowledgement of his two requests, my husband was banned from family visits; a right stated in the Prison Regulations. According to Haj Kazem, the visits are more the right of the family than the prisoner. [Prison Regulations must be implemented] when assessing prisoners to ensure that their basic needs are met. And if the needs [are not met], the prison license is considered void.

But now, Security and Judicial authorities have verified the prison as adequate. They even congratulated Mr. Hassan Zareh Dehnavi (Hasan Haddad) and his colleagues for attending to their duties perfectly and providing clever plans to destroy our family.

Question: will a 56 year old man who lives a dark and quiet life behind bars and who endures pain and torture be forbidden from [imprisonment] as well? Why don’t they allow him to just be after all that they have done to us?

I admit that I have requested help from all judicial authorities to save my freedom-seeking husband (who is imprisoned for demanding liberty for all), but it seems that the authorities are too busy dealing with oppressed and pained people of other countries (which is admirable) that they don’t have time to investigate simple cases in their own country. They direct and redirect us [from one person to another]. [My husband's case] is trapped and locked in a labyrinth (**The light that belongs to a house is forbidden in the mosque).

Hereby I ask all freedom lovers and free thinkers to help rescue my husband from this bitter situation.

Nazanin Davoudi
August 14, 2010


Editor’s Notes:

*In an interview with VOA on July 15, 2010, Nazanin Davoudi stated that her husband has not used the prison phone for over a month. She explained that he does have the right to use the phone, but only for five minutes and the conversation is monitored. Due to the restrictions, Arzhang Davoudi made the decision to not make phone calls).

**The bracketed text is a Persian proverb. Since lighting in a home is a basic necessity, it is forbidden to give it away, even to a mosque as charity. Nazanin Davoudi uses the proverb to insinuate that the Iranian government provides aid to other countries when its own citizens are lacking basic necessities.