28. January 2025 – IRAN

NAHID TAGHAVI IS FREE!

 

Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an

 

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Düzen Tekkal (@duzentekkal)

Nahid Taghavi is free! The (former) German hostage of the Islamic Republic of Iran was welcomed by daughter Mariam Claren at Cologne-Bonn Airport.

Nahid Taghavi (70), German hostage of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is finally free! We could not be happier! Our call to #FreeNahid has become reality after more than four years! With HÁWAR.help and Mariam Claren we are grateful that her release was obtained.

For more than 1500 days, Taghavi had been held innocently in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Yesterday afternoon, she was welcomed by her daughter Mariam Claren at Cologne/Bonn airport and embraced. An incredible personal bliss and a political success against the despotism of the Iranian regime!

Mariam Claren, Nahid’s daughter – and our colleague since 2023 – who has been fighting for her mother’s release for more than four years, commented on her mother’s release: “I can’t put into words how happy I am that my beloved mother is free again and is now safe in Germany! More than four years of fear, anxiety and hope are now behind us. I would like to thank everyone who has not forgotten my mother over the last few years and who drew attention to her case!”

HÁWAR.help founder Düzen Tekkal comments: “Nahid is finally free! Mother and daughter are finally reunited! I congratulate her and Mariam from the bottom of my heart and wish them both a joyful time of reunion and arrival in freedom! The strength with which Mariam Claren fought like a lioness for her mother’s freedom is remarkable! This fight was not in vain; and we are proud and happy that we were able to support her with the means available to us through our organization HÁWAR.help! We also owe this success to politicians/ diplomats – above all Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and the Foreign Ministry – but above all to the pressure by civil society: every single person who raised their voice in Nahid’s favour; be it online or at protests, and also signed and shared our recent HÁWAR.help petition to the Federal Chancellery of Germany!”

The Cologne-based architect Nahid Taghavi was visiting her country of origin when she was arrested on the streets of the Iranian capital Tehran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Intelligence Service on October 16, 2020. In August 2021, a two-day trial against her took place that in no way met constitutional standards, in which she was sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in prison for allegedly ‘participating in the leadership of an illegal group’. The 70-year-old was held in solitary confinement for around 7 months and was interrogated 12 hours per day over a period of 80 days. The German mission in Tehran was denied access to her. Taghavi’s four decade long campaigning for women’s and workers’ rights in her home country of Iran was criminalized and punished by the state apparatus.

Nahid suffered from severe pain during her detention as a result of numerous illnesses that were not treated while she was in prison. The authorities only granted the political prisoner three temporary releases for medical treatment under extremely strict conditions, including the requirement of wearing an electronic ankle bracelet.

In March 2023, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas became Taghavi’s political sponsor in Germany, advocating for her release.

The tireless, vocal protest by German civil society and the political sphere, including the relentless awareness raising in favor of political prisoners in public, as well as the quiet (and occasionally loud) diplomacy, bore fruit!

With HÁWAR.help, we stand up for these hostages as well as thousands of other political prisoners in Iran and work towards their freedom – among other things with the sponsorship program through which politicians at the state, federal and EU level as well as public figures can take on political sponsorships for them. Further information on our program and how to become a sponsor can be found here.

We are relieved and overjoyed about the release of Nahid Taghavi! Now more than ever, we remain committed to our goals: Freedom for all political prisoners! Freedom for Iran! Jin – Jiyan – Azadî! Zan – Zendegi – Azadi! Woman – Life – Freedom!