A prominent rights activist whose children live abroad had campaigned for the right to speak to their jailed mother was finally given permission to make a phone call and speak with her son, her family said on Sunday.
Despite her repeated protests, authorities of the Women's Prison of Zanjan had for more than eleven months refused to allow Narges Mohammadi to call her family. She is serving a 16-year prison sentence for "anti-government propaganda" and membership in a banned group opposed to death penalty.
In a tweet on Sunday Taghi (Taqi) Rahmani, her husband who lives with their children in France, said she had called and talked to her son. Mr. Rahmani also said Ms. Mohammadi has been told she may be allowed to call again "if the prosecutor is pleased with her behavior".
Kiana and Ali, the twin teenagers, recently posted a short video on their father's Twitter account with a hashtag that can be translated to "Be the Voice of Narges" to ask the Iranian people to help them hear their mother's voice again.
Ali and Kiana, the children of Narges Mohammadi campaigned for the right to speak with their jailed mother with the video in this tweet.
The video was retweeted hundreds of times and viewed by nearly 400,000 people. It has spurred another campaign to help political prisoners who can't reach out to the public themselves about the injustice being done to them in Iran's prisons. A new hashtag has been created for the online campaign which in English means "Let's Be the Voice of Jailed Combatants".
Campaigners post short videos of themselves saying silence about the injustice political prisoners are subject to should be broken and remove duct tape from their mouths on which the words "Don't Believe My Silence" is written.
Video for the campaign to help political prisoners who are deprived of their rights.
Narges Mohammadi who has several health conditions was infected with coronavirus in prison and says she was put in quarantine with 11 others and was denied proper medical attention. Prison authorities released a secretly taken video of her during a visit to the prison clinic to refute her claims of not receiving medical care. However, she says they had "prepared" for the staged video by giving her injections so she could stand on her feet.
