Remember Sohrab Arabi on His Birthday: Report

Persian2English – February 23 would have been Sohrab Arabi’s 22nd birthday. He was murdered by Iranian regime agents in summer 2009, after he went missing the day he attended the June 15, 2009 large opposition demonstration in Tehran. In December 2009, a few days before the mass Tasooa and Ashura protests, Iranian security forces attacked the residence of Parvin Fahimi, Arabi’s mother, when she was not there. They mainly tore down pictures of Sohrab Arabi displayed around the apartment. When Fahimi returned home she witnessed the incident and protested against the inhumane act. Fahimi reportedly stated that the attack was an infringement on her family’s privacy.

On the occasion of Persian New Year in 2010, Parvin Fahimi wrote a letter to the Iranian people. Part of the letter reads: “As a mother with an aching heart, I take refuge in God’s grace. What crime did our children commit to be subjected to such injustice? Our youth only demanded to have the same rights every human being is entitled to.”

In a translated interview uploaded on YouTube, Parvin Fahimi talks about her son’s murder. “I have always wondered where Sohrab was killed, but nobody has responded to my question yet…” She stated.

Below is a YouTube video clip of Parvin Fahimi outside Evin prison in summer 2009. She is seen showing her son’s picture to released detainees and asking them if they knew his whereabouts. 26 days after Arabi’s family had searched the prisons, police stations, and hospitals, Sohrab’s body finally became available for identification.

Parvin Fahimi told the Jaras website she even became open to the idea of giving an interview to a state-run television or radio program. “I stated that I would participate in an interview if they wished to report on everything that a mother had to say. I could have [just] told them what I had gone through, but they didn’t want that. I asked them to not censor me on Press TV. As a mother, I just wanted to express my right to follow up on Sohrab’s murder. I told them there was no benefit to running programs that acknowledge the people who killed our children as “rioters”. [I told them] to allow me to tell them who [really] killed our children in the streets and in Kahrizak [prison]. I am a human living in Iran and it is my legal right to have access to national media so I can [explain] what [really] happened to my son…”

After not receiving any response about the inquiry to her son’s murder, Fahimi told Jaras, “I suggest that the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visits the families of the martyrs to hear their stories.”