A Mother’s Nightmare

Now that world media has lost its focus on the “Iran story” perhaps in part because the drama of the 2009 election has died down I want to bring YOUR attention, you, a member of the international community, on a news story that has just come out of Tehran. It is the story of Taraneh Mousavi who is missing.

From the reports I have read and obviously from her picture, Taraneh Mousavi was an attractive young women who like many young Iranians was disillusioned by the election outcome and the coup d’état that followed. On June 25th Taraneh was on the streets of Tehran near Ghoba Mosque where she was captured and detained along with other youth protestors, even though some say she was not involved in the street protests taking place in that area.

According to eye witnesses who were with her at the Nobonyad police station stated that within hours they were taken from the station to Hosseinieh Ershad (a detention center) by basij forces and from 4:00pm to 10:30pm they were interrogated. At 10:30pm all but Taraneh were released.

The following day Taraneh's family who were unaware of her whereabouts recieved a phone call by one of the captured youth who was with her, informing the family of Taraneh's location. The family franticly started searching for her but to no avail. Her father who was under severe mental and emotional stress from the ordeal collapses and is rushed home. You see, Taraneh was an only child of the family and daddy’s little girl.

It was reported that after a few days the family was able to find Taranehs car parked in Mirdamad on Daroukhane street but still no sign of her.

It wasn’t until last week July 8th 2009, when an unidentified man contacts the family and tells them that their daughter has been in a car accident and that her injuries include a severe tear in her anus and her uterus and that she was at the Imam Khomeini hospital in Karaj (an hours’ drive outside of Tehran). But when the family gets there the hospital shows no record of such person being admitted. However, one of the nurses did confirm that a girl with Taraneh’s description was brought in to the intensive care unit. The nurse further stated that when they brought Taraneh in she was unconscious and when they took her she was also unconscious.

Now the cover up story coming from the basij (the paramilitary plain clothed shock force) is this: Taraneh allegedly had had sexual relations outside of marriage and was therefore depressed about the situation, in other words, they are insinuating that she deliberately tried to commit suicide. This is a blatant cover-up of state crimes against innocent and defenseless citizens of Iran committed by perpetrators who now use religion as a tool for violence, fear and aggression with impunity.

This is truly a sad day for humanity but to get a sense of the injustice of this crime I ask of you to look at Taranehs picture, close your eyes for 30 seconds and imagine that she is your daughter, your sister, your cousin or best friend being savagely raped by beast like men. Her innocence has been stolen, her life taken, but what these so called men of God can’t do is erase her from history and from our hearts.

Life is precious and it is our duty to protect it. Join the cause for freedom and democracy in Iran and together we can stop such crimes from happening in Iran and around the world, for ever.