Photo credit: The Guardian
Endangered Scholars Worldwide learned that on January 12, 2022, anthropologist Fariba Adelkhah, who has been under house arrest, was sent back to Iran’s notorious Evin Prison amid diplomatic meetings to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in Vienna.
Adelkhah, a prominent researcher in political anthropology and post-revolutionary Iran based at the Sciences Po, Center for International Research (CERI), was arrested in June 2019 in Iran, and sentenced to five years in prison for “colluding with the aim of breaching national security” and “propaganda against the system.” As a French-Iranian dual citizen, she is among at least a dozen of Western nationals who have been prosecuted in Iran for unclear and unsubstantiated reasons.[1]
The French Foreign Ministry has condemned Adelkhah’s reimprisonment and demanded her immediate release, adding that such a move with no explanation or preliminary warning would damage bilateral relations and trust between the two countries.
A committee of academics set up to support Adelkhah’s case accused the authorities of “cynically using our colleague for external or internal purposes that remain opaque and have nothing to do with her activities.”[2] The committee also raised their concerns for Adelkhah’s health and even life, reminding the authorities of the death of poet Baktash Abtin this month, after he contracted COVID-19 in Iranian custody.
We at Endangered Scholars Worldwide consider Fariba Adelkhah’s detention a flagrant and unjust violation of the freedom, security, and safety of an academic who has been caught up in the political tension between Iran and France. ESW deplores and condemns the ongoing detention, persecution, conviction, and mistreatment of Fariba Adelkhah and other political prisoners and calls upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights to strongly protest and condemn this arbitrary incarceration; to ask for her immediate and unconditional release; and to urge the officials of the Iranian government to release all prisoners of conscience, especially those who pose no threat to the public, as COVID-19 spreads rapidly in Iranian prisons.
CC:
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Jomhouri Street
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 644 11
Website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/www.Khamenei.ir
President Raisi
The Office of the President
Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Javad Zarif
Minister of Foreign Affairs
The Minister’s Office
Imam Khomeini Square
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 66743149
Website: http://www.mfa.gov.ir
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jzarif
Michelle Bachelet
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org
Dr. Koumbou Boly Barry
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Email: sreducation@ohchr.org
David Kaye
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: +41 22 917 9006
Email: freedex@ohchr.org
Josep Borrell
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
European Commission
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels
Belgium
Marija Pejčinović Burić
Secretary General of the Council of Europe Council of Europe
Avenue de l'Europe
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex
France
Fax: + 33 3 88 41 27 99
Christophe Poirel
Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law Council of Europe
Avenue de l'Europe
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex
France
Fax: + 33 3 88 41 27 99