Another Political Prisoner in Iran Hospitalized Due To COVID-19
Iranian human rights activist Soheila Hejab suffering from Covid has been transferred to hospital following cardiac arrest after days of neglect in a prison in Iran.
Iranian human rights activist Soheila Hejab suffering from Covid has been transferred to hospital following cardiac arrest after days of neglect in a prison in Iran.
According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Hejab was taken to a critical care unit (CCU) at a Kermanshah hospital on Thursday after she passed out following days of struggle with a severe case of Covid-19 along with 13 other inmates in her ward.
Hejab was sentenced to 18 years in July 2020 for "propaganda against the regime", "forming a women's rights group" and "calling for a referendum to change the Constitution", by notorious judge Mohammad Moghiseh.
She was first arrested in Shiraz in January 2018, and after five months at Adel-Abad Prison in the same city, Hejab who hails from a Kurdish family from Kermanshah was pardoned and freed. She was violently arrested again in June 2019 by IRGC intelligence, taken to Evin prison, and later released on a large bail.
In May 2020 she was arrested again by Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Organization and was taken to Qarchak Prison for women in the south of the capital. She was then transferred to Kermansah prison in early January.
Earlier in the year, Iranian poet Baktash Abtin died of Covid-19 complications following a medically induced coma after he was denied timely treatment by officials at Evin prison, Tehran.
The reformist newspaper Shargh published a video February 15 – along with a feature article "One Day With Madam Secretary General" – in which Mansouri talked affectionately with a dog.
Mansouri, who was elected secretary-general of the reformist Etehad-e Mellat (National Unity) Party in December, said that her son and daughter-in-law had brought the pooch home but had hidden him from her. Mansouri said she had at first been upset, but after a week refused to let them take the dog away “because it showed a lot of affection.”
Dogs are generally considered 'impure' in Islam and banned in public places by some majority-Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia. Iranian parliamentarians in November proposed a bill making illegal selling and keeping of pets. They claimed the ban was meant to protect public health. While working dogs have always been common in Iran’s rural areas and on farms, keeping pets has only recently become fashionable in urban areas.
The video was pounced on by hardliner rather than reformist media. Fars news agency noted that “reformists who claim it is people's right to know have chosen silence about Mansouri's remarks.” The Fars report suggested the reformists’ “unedited” images showed “disrespect for Islamic sanctities” and promoted “anomalous cultural behavior.”
A few days later, a second video appeared on social media showing an elderly lady at prayer with a dog playfully jumping at her, tugging her veil, and playing on her prayer rug. Some sharing the video said it showed Mansouri promoting "living with dogs".
Pets, not children
One widely shared tweet critical of Mansouri quoted the Prophet Mohammad saying, "there is no blessing in a house where there are no children." The tweet suggested that the "reformist Azar Mansouri and the rest of her gang" were promoting dogs as an alternative to children. Another tweet claimed that an obsession with pets had contributed to "destruction of the foundation of families" in the west, echoing views expressed by Pope Francis in January.
Ali Najmedin, a political analyst, alleged that reformists were trying to “to normalize indecency” and "desensitize" Iranian society to other steps including flouting the hijab, adultery and homosexuality.
But Hossein Kermanpour, a prominent physician in Tehran with reformist leanings, rose in defense of the National Unity Party and her mutt. "Dear Azar Mansouri, those who have intentionally claimed you were the kind elderly mother a dog affectionately tries to play with while she is at prayer know that dogs do not destroy a human being’s connection with God,” he tweeted. “What distances humans from God is poverty, oppression, dishonor and injustice if they happen under Islamic rule.”
