Mohammad Mostafaei.
let there be Million Mostafaeis born in that Persian Land..
]The lawyer defending a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran said on Sunday that he has applied for asylum in Norway, but hopes Iranian authorities will allow him eventually to return to his practice.
Mohammad Mostafaei told reporters he chose to flee to Norway after obtaining a one-year Norwegian travel visa. He also cited the Nordic country's prominent human rights profile.
The 31-year-old said he fled to Turkey last week after learning Iranian officials intended to arrest him. He flew to Norway Saturday after being detained briefly in Turkey over an undisclosed passport issue.
Human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei, who represented Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, was forced to flee Iran after the authorities became determined to silence him. Speaking to German news magazine Der Spiegel from his exile in Norway, he talked of his plans to continue the fight to save Ashtiani.
It's time to pack his suitcases again, vacate his attic room and move on to the next place. Mohammad Mostafaei, 37, is exhausted, and even a cold shower isn't enough to wake him up. But at least Mostafaei has a suitcase now, after being on the run for almost three weeks. All he carried while crossing the mountains into Turkey on foot was a small backpack, just big enough for his laptop and a change of underwear.
Mostafaei, an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist who has already become an international human rights cause himself, is now sitting with his few belongings in a small hotel in the Norwegian capital Oslo, wondering what happens next.
What will happen to his wife Fereshteh, 32, and his daughter Parmida, 7, who he left behind in Tehran? Shortly after he disappeared, the regime's thugs took his wife and her brothers into custody temporarily. And what will happen to his client Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, whose cause he had championed with such enthusiasm? Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning for the crime of adultery, but her sentence was commuted to hanging after international protests.
No Regrets
Mostafaei rubs his bloodshot eyes and holds his teacup tightly in his hands. He doesn't have much to hold onto - except the certainty that the Iranian judges were determined to silence him. He had become a thorn in their sides, and they had grown weary of his sharp criticism of their political sentences and archaic punishments.
In his diary, excerpts of which were published by Spiegel in June, he criticized stoning, the death penalty for adultery in Iran. Soon afterwards, he voiced his support for an international campaign in solidarity with Ashtiani, but it was a step too far for the authorities. Even now, alone in exile, Mostafaei says he doesn't regret his efforts on behalf of his client.
He was only allowed to visit her once at the prison where she was being held, in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz. It is a rundown facility, where Ashtiani shares cell number four with 25 other women. But even the poor conditions at the prison, says Mostafaei, are easier for her to endure than her former marriage. He calls it a "silent martyrdom" and says that his client, who he calls by her first name, Sakineh, was treated "like a slave." According to Mostafaei, she became filled with "hate" and was motivated by "hopelessness". And because of the "backward divorce laws" in Iran, separation was practically inconceivable for someone like Sakineh.
In fact, Iranian divorce law is legalized discrimination. While men can readily petition for divorce in Iranian courts, women are required to provide convincing grounds. A woman has to prove that her husband is missing, refuses to support her or is "harassing" her -- through acts of violence, for example. "In Iran, there are many women like Sakineh, who are at the mercy of their husbands," says Mostafaei.
'I Love Iran'
Mostafaei doesn't want to apply for asylum, because he plans to return home one day. "I love Iran," he says, sounding homesick already, although the government in Tehran gives him little hope. His client was paraded on state television as an underhanded murderer of her husband, with no mention of the adultery for which she is to be stoned to death. Now she blames her attorney for having made her case public and thus bringing "shame" on her family. Human rights activists like Amiry-Moghaddam are convinced Ashtiani's statement was "forced." Was it a prelude to her execution?
Mostafaei's allies expect him to remain in Norway for a long time to come. Now it's time for him to pack for his next destination, a small apartment in the city of Drammen. The town is only half an hour's train ride from Oslo where - as he plans to do at the beginning of this week - he can report to the rest of the world on the barbaric punishment his former client could face.
Mostafaei hasn't given up his fight for Ashtiani yet.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129063869
Topic: Shariah law abuse cases - post documented cases here!