Her name inspires hope, communicates strength and spotlights the human rights struggle in Iran. Though certainly not alone in her struggle, Shiva Nazar Ahari’s example of steadfast determination is a rallying point for many women and activists seeking improvement in Iran. Her life has become a narrative of those who selflessly give of their lives and resources for universal human rights in the Islamic Republic.
Born June 10, 1984, Nazar Ahari was only a few years old when the prior generation of political dissidents and intellectuals (over 4,500 of them) were executed at the end of the Iran-Iraq War. After graduating with a degree in civil engineering from Islamic Azad University, Nazar Ahari attempted to take the graduate school entrance exam. However, she was prevented from doing so because her name was blacklisted as a “politically active student” by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.
The label is true, Nazar Ahari has been an ardent human rights activist long before her graduation. As a journalist, she has advocated for the rights of child laborers, and at the age of 18, she joined the Student Committee for Defense of Political Prisoners. Nazar Ahari often wrote articles to give voice to activists who had been silenced. She soon became chair of the committee and was publicly arrested during a protest by families of prisoners. A year later in 2003, she was one of the founders of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters and the Society of Tara Women, which is devoted to the lawful, nonviolent defense of the rights of women. Over the next two years she would be arrested a total of four times, sometimes while at home or school and other times while at peaceful protests.
“When your heart trembles for another prisoner, a woman, a child laborer, that is when you become the accused. When you find faith in people and believe in humanity and nothing else, that is when you commit your first crime.” Shiva Nazar Ahari
While imprisoned, she and other political prisoners would be held at the infamous ward 209 in the Elvin prison. Here she has faced over a month of solitary confinement, and likely other forms of physical and sexual torture commonly used in that ward. While in prison she remained strong, organized hunger strikes, published open letters of protest, and wrote letters of encouragement to other prisoners. She became the first person to make public the human rights abuses and detainee deaths at the Kahrizak detention center. Her name is etched in many of the prison cells by prisoners who use her memory to remain strong.
Since then she has been arrested, detained or jailed almost regularly for nearly any public activity. Her name has also been tossed through the press by prominent officials with loads of negative propaganda. As of this writing, Nazar Ahari (age 26) had been a political prisoner for the past year, with bail set at the equivalent of half a million dollars. She and many others were arrested en route to the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri (a long time critic of the Islamic Republic’s domestic and foreign policy). This time one of her charges potentially bears the punishment of death.
“Dad, go ahead and cry but not for me. Cry for a motherland that sends it’s best children to jails.” – Shiva Nazar Ahari
So much negative press and political pressure surround Nazar Ahari, that her long-time lawyer Mohammad Sharif feels his reputation will be forever marred if he continues to represent these types of cases. Sharif stated when he learned that one of her trumped-up charges is moharebeh [waging war against God], “I’m wondering how to defend her in court on that one!… if a few more charges like this are issued [for my clients], I’ll withdraw from all of my cases.” Her other charges are “disturbing the public peace of mind,” “propaganda against the regime,” and “assembly with intention of conspiring against the Islamic government.”
Nazar Ahari was released on the half a million dollar bail on September 12, 2010. However, her politically motivated charges have not been dropped. She has been sentenced to 6.5 years in prison and 76 lashes.
While activists in Iran continue to be executed since the disputed 2009 elections, advocates around the world draw attention to her cause and call for her charges to be dropped. Nazar Ahari remains resolute. She refuses to follow the Intelligence Ministry’s order to stop publicizing the violations of human rights in prisons. She also continues to fight for the rights of assembly, free speech, and organization in a land where those rights are severely limited. For all of these reasons, Shiva Nazar Ahari is a hero of political resolve.
“[Nazar Ahari ] could have become the best student in engineering, instead she became the best student in the university of justice and freedom.” (Fellow human rights activist and professor Dr Zahra Rahnavard)
For those interested in being a voice for this hero, please consider sending a letter, postcard or signing petitions on her behalf. 8 ways to help Shiva.
