IRAN – Ronak Safarzadeh
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Ronak Safarzadeh is an Iranian Kurdish graphic artist who was arrested for her peaceful efforts to promote equality for women. She is a member of the Azar Mehr Women's Organization of Sanandaj and of the Campaign for Equality, which seeks an end to legalized discrimination against women in Iran.
On October 8, 2007, Ronak Safarzadeh attended a meeting in Sanandaj to mark the International Day of the Child and collected signatures in support of the Campaign for Equality. The next day, officials reportedly came to Ronak's house and arrested her, confiscating her computer and materials from the Campaign for Equality.
Ronak Safarzadeh's lawyer Mohammad Sharif reported in April 2009 that his client has been sentenced to six years in prison. She was acquitted of the charge of being at enmity with God, a crime which can carry the death penalty. However she was sentenced to five years imprisonment for membership in an armed opposition group and to one year in prison for propaganda against the state. She intends to appeal the verdict. Amnesty International believes that Ronak Safarzadeh is a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned for her peaceful work for women's rights and the rights of Iran's Kurdish minority.
Please send messages of support for Ronak via her lawyer.
Please do not send cards containing images of any people.
Images of landscapes, structures, animals, etc., would be fine.
Mohammad Sharif
(for Ronak Safarzadeh)
Taher Alley, No.22
Ostad Hasan-e Bana Street
ShamsAbad
Tehran
IRAN
For more information on human rights in Iran
