SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM

HÁWAR.help continues the sponsorship program for political prisoners in Iran who are threatened with execution and sentenced to long prison terms!

Our program arranges political sponsorships for imprisoned Iranians, Azeris, Baha’i, Beltus, Kurds, Lur, and other members of minorities in Iran to German and European politicians. Potentially, these are the more than 20,000 prisoners who have been detained since the protest movement gained strength following the murder of the Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022: Currently, about 110  are at acute risk of execution. Many of the imprisoned people are in danger of being locked away for decades.

Sponsorships create visibility and public awareness for the people whom the regime would prefer to make disappear. Through the program, the names of the death row inmates become public knowledge. With every single sponsorship, pressure is exerted on the regime.

The political sponsorship program has so far been led by Mariam Claren, daughter of Nahid Taghavi, a German-Iranian dual national imprisoned in Iran, activist Daniela Sepehri and journalist Mina Khani, both of whom also have family ties to Iran. They arranged more than 400 sponsorships between prisoners and politicians.

The initiators of the program and HÁWAR.help have now teamed up to arrange even more sponsorships and save people from execution.

LIVESTREAM KICK-OFF EVENT

 

THIS IS WHAT THE POLITICAL SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM CAN ACHIEVE

With every sponsorship that is taken on, visibility and public awareness is created for people whom the regime would prefer to kill in secret. The names of the candidates on death row in Iran become known to the public and pressure is exerted on those in power. The political sponsors regularly send inquiries to the courts in Iran and the Iranian ambassador in Germany and inform the public about the status of their sponsored “child”. In some cases, the sponsorships have already resulted in death row inmates being released on bail. Others at least received relief from detention, access to a lawyer or medical care, or were allowed phone calls with close relatives. Nevertheless, the goal is always to have the death sentences or charges overturned and for the prisoners to be released. We will do our utmost to support the detainees through our sponsorship program!