Thank you so much.
First of all, I want to thank you, the subcommittee, for inviting me here to testify about human rights violations in Iran. I'm so sorry for being late.
My name is Shaparak Shajarizadeh. Many of you on this subcommittee may know my story, but for those who don't, let me begin by saying that I'm not a professor and I'm not a historian. I am a living, breathing example of the human rights situation in Iran.
I'm the mother of a young boy and an ordinary woman thrown into an extraordinary situation. I'm not a professional activist. I never began any movement, but when I was arrested, all that changed for me. When I was stripped naked, searched and thrown into solitary confinement, all of that changed for me. When I was imprisoned and told that I would never see my son again, all of that changed for me. I'm now a former political prisoner, but in many ways, I'm still a prisoner of the Iranian government.
Two years ago I began protesting the forced veiling of women in Iran. For the past 40 years, Iranian women have been subjected to coercive measures to try to make them cover their hair and their bodies. Women's bodies have been made into a battleground. Iranian women do not have the most basic right to decide for themselves what to wear every day.
My act of civil disobedience consisted of me joining other women in Iran who were placing white scarves at the end of sticks and waving them in the streets. The woman who instigated that peaceful act, Vida Movahedi, is still in prison in Iran. Scores of women were arrested for this act of civil disobedience, and many are still in prison or awaiting trial.
Before I was arrested in Iran, I would only hear or read about the brutality of the regime from people, but when I was arrested, all of those stories came to life for me. The first night of my detention, I was sent to jail in Vozara detention cells. I was forced to get naked and told repeatedly to stand and sit down over and over again. During the interrogations, I was beaten up badly, forced to endure abusive sexual comments and told that I was a spy for foreign countries and the CIA.
I was arrested a total of three times, called to Evin prison for questioning and sent to jail twice in three months. The first time, even though I had made bail, I was sent to solitary confinement for a week. After being on a hunger strike for five days, I was released on bail. The second time I was arrested, they also arrested my husband. Although he had not done anything, in their eyes he was guilty too, because he was failing at his job of controlling his wife, a sentence they said to him over and over again.
You see, when they arrest or detain you, they also terrorize your family. When I was arrested for the third time, they did so when I was with my nine-year-old son. He was with me in the interrogation for six hours. They handcuffed me in front of him while he was screaming and begging them to let us go home. I was sentenced to two years in prison in addition to an 18-year suspended prison term. I knew that I had to leave.
The only light I had when I was in prison was when I was finally allowed to see my lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh. She was recently sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. Nasrin Sotoudeh is one of Iran’s most well-known human rights lawyers. That is the situation of human rights in Iran, a place where lawyers become prisoners. Nasrin Sotoudeh is still in Evin prison, the same prison where Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured and murdered back in 2003.
I'm sorry, Mr. Hashemi, but I have the same names that you mentioned.
It's the same prison that Canadian environmentalist Kavous Seyed-Emami died in last year. His wife, Maryam Mombeini, had her passport confiscated as she was getting ready to board a plane to British Columbia with her two sons. She is still being held in the country against her will. Why shouldn't a Canadian citizen be allowed to join her two sons in British Columbia?
Evin prison is the same place that Canadian resident Saeed Malekpour has been in for the past decade. In fact, a dozen Canadians have been taken hostage by the Iranian regime in the past 15 years. How can a government just be allowed to keep taking other countries' citizens hostage over and over again? How can Canada even think of being diplomatic with such a government that takes its citizens hostage?
I feel a deep sense of guilt and obligation sitting in front of you here today: guilt because I am enjoying freedom in Canada that others don’t have, and obligation because I need to share the stories of those who we often don’t hear from, the ones who don’t receive Nobel Prizes. I want to speak their names.
When I was in prison, a woman named Mojgan Keshavarz began telling people about me and advocating on my behalf. Because of that, she got arrested and charged with colluding with foreign enemies. She is currently in Qarchak prison.
Yasaman Aryani and her mother, Monireh Arabshahi, were arrested because on International Women’s Day this year they were passing out flowers to other women on the subway to celebrate. They are charged with being a threat to national security.
Atena Daemi, a young children’s rights activist, spoke out against the killing of juveniles in the country. Iran is the largest executioner of juveniles in the world. On May 1, 2019, Human Rights Watch reported that Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat were executed on April 25, 2019. They were 15 when they were arrested and were executed two years later at the age of 17. Recently, the United Nations Secretary-General reported that there were 160 child offenders on death row in Iran. These are the things that Atena Daemi was speaking out against, and she has been in jail for the past four years because of it.
Sepideh Gholian, a 23-year-old student and journalist, was arrested last November while reporting on labour rights protests. Aras Amiri was recently charged with working for British intelligence. Rezvaneh Mohammadi was charged with promoting same-sex relations. Arash Sadeghi, Narges Mohammadi, Esmail Bakhshi...the list is long and the charges ridiculous. Arash Sadeghi needs medical care; he has cancer. He is inside the prison and the judge won't let him have the medical care he needs.
It is not just civil rights activists who are under attack. Environmentalists are also being detained. There are currently eight well-known environmentalists being held in Evin prison and for more than 400 days now. One of them, Niloufar Bayani, just turned 33 years old. She is a former graduate of McGill University in Montreal.
I ask that the Canadian government recognize the work being done by human rights activists in Iran, not only by raising the issue at the United Nations, but by designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. There was a decision to do so back in June 2018, but we have seen no movement on this for almost a year now. What are you waiting for? The IRGC are the ones who are torturing Iranians who are fighting for the most basic of rights. These are rights that I have here in Canada. Canada can begin by sanctioning the individual architects of human rights violations, and the judges, who are the real criminals in the courtrooms.
I want the people of my country to enjoy the same basic rights that I have in Canada.