Iran: Authorities detain political prisoner’s mother

Iran: Authorities detain political prisoner’s mother

Farangis Mazloom, mother of political prisoner Soheil Arabi

Reported by PMOI/MEK

Iran, July 24, 2019 - A political prisoner’s mother, who has been vocal in defending her son’s innocence, was detained on Monday during a raid targeting her house involving seven male agents and a female agent of the repressive mullahs’ regime ruling Iran.

Mrs. Farangis Mazloom, the elderly mother of Soheil Arabi, a prominent Iranian political prisoner who has been in the Iranian regime’s dungeons since November 2013, was arrested and taken to an unknown location.

Mrs. Mazloom has time and again expressed concern and outrage over her son’s physical health in the prison.

Soheil Arabi, an Iranian blogger imprisoned for five years for opinions he posted on his Facebook. He recorded an audio message from inside the Greater Tehran Prison in November 2018. His message, sent on the occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, described the plight of Iranian women in prisons and the savage policies ofmisogynist mullahs ruling in Iran, was widely circulated on the web.

The following is Soheil Arabi’s audio message from prison:

Talk about the struggle against violence against women!

About your struggle against tyranny, discrimination, and violence in society against women;

Talk about the violence against women in Qarchack prison or Evin, talk about hunger strikes;

Talk about the interrogator’s assaults and threats against women in prison;

Talk about teary eyes and hands in the short visits in prison;

Indeed, fighting the violence against women has always been a must for any freedom-seeking movement in the face of sexual discrimination;

Ruling systems have been always creating the impression that men own women and women are men’s property;

This belief made me break the silence;

Silence in front of violence is a betrayal;

Stand up and speak out:

Speak out that my mother does not deserve violence;

Speak out that my sister does not deserve discrimination, and I don’t deserve superiority;

Stand up warrior, and break the ignorant beliefs;

I salute everyone who has stood up against sexual discrimination and stands tall in front of violence against women, and especially salute those who have paid the price of such true beliefs, by suffering in cold and damp prison cells and bearing the pain of lashes, and even those who felt the noose around their necks.

I salute mothers who have given birth and have raised freedom fighters; those who saw the violence and stood firm against it.

“Violence” is a word that deserves to be eradicated, and society needs people who will fight for this cause.

Now, it’s time to stand tall against those aggressive fists targeted against women and freedom fighters.

So I stand up and shout alongside the great freedom-loving women of my country:

No to violence against women.

No to compulsory hijab

No to the silence in front of violence

Stand up to teach our children that human beings deserve the best.