- Iran: Eight Prisoners Hanged on Drug Charges
- Daughter of late Iranian president jailed for ‘spreading lies’ - IRAN: Annual report on the death penalty 2016 - Taheri Facing the Death Penalty Again - Dedicated team seeking return of missing agent in Iran - Iran Arrests 2, Seizes Bibles During Catholic Crackdown
- Trump to welcome Netanyahu as Palestinians fear U.S. shift
- Details of Iran nuclear deal still secret as US-Tehran relations unravel - Will Trump's Next Iran Sanctions Target China's Banks? - Don’t ‘tear up’ the Iran deal. Let it fail on its own. - Iran Has Changed, But For The Worse - Iran nuclear deal ‘on life support,’ Priebus says
- Female Activist Criticizes Rouhani’s Failure to Protect Citizens
- Iran’s 1st female bodybuilder tells her story - Iranian lady becomes a Dollar Millionaire on Valentine’s Day - Two women arrested after being filmed riding motorbike in Iran - 43,000 Cases of Child Marriage in Iran - Woman Investigating Clinton Foundation Child Trafficking KILLED!
- Senior Senators, ex-US officials urge firm policy on Iran
- In backing Syria's Assad, Russia looks to outdo Iran - Six out of 10 People in France ‘Don’t Feel Safe Anywhere’ - The liberal narrative is in denial about Iran - Netanyahu urges Putin to block Iranian power corridor - Iran Poses ‘Greatest Long Term Threat’ To Mid-East Security |
Friday 14 March 2014Human Rights Activist Rejects Criticism of her Meeting with Ashton
Narges Mohammadi, the human rights activist at the center of a controversy over her meeting in Tehran with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, has defended her action. “Objections to our meeting with Ashton are harmful to the atmosphere of moderation and trust promised by the Rouhani Administration,” Narges Mohammadi told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Mohammadi, the spokesperson for the Tehran-based Society of Human Rights Defenders, met with Ashton, who is the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, along with a number of other women activists at the Austrian embassy in Tehran during Ashton’s formal visit to Iran on March 8th. Topics discussed during the two-hour meeting included human rights, woman’s affairs, civil society, and Rouhani’s steps to improve the economy and foreign relations, Mohammadi said. A photograph of Ashton hugging Gohar Eshghi, the mother of Sattar Beheshti, the blogger who died under torture by his interrogators at Evin Prison, was particularly decried by conservatives and official media as interference in Iran’s affairs. “I and a number of women’s rights activists were formally invited,” to meet Ashton, Mohammadi said. “I saw nothing wrong with the invitation and therefore I accepted it. But what I don’t understand is all the criticism accusing me of sedition.” Mohammadi was arrested in 2009 and charged with propaganda against the state. She was sentenced to six years in prison but was released in 2013 for medical reasons after a severe illness in Zanjan prison. “When the topic of human rights comes up many of the world’s powerful people get upset,” she said. “I think one of the reasons that our meeting with Ms. Ashton raised objections was because human rights issues were discussed.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Marzieh Afkham denounced the meeting and said a formal complaint had been sent to the Austrian embassy. “These kinds of actions will increase our people’s distrust towards the West,” Afkham said. Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran |