She is thirty years old, born in 80s whom are called the burnt generation, she has not seen the Iran-Iraq war, but has felt such anxiety and destruction of her people that even the struggle itself could not break her. The deprivations of her hometown have made her a woman that these days great men take their hats off to her! she was first arrested in Shiraz in December 2018 and sentenced to two years in prison. Although she was released after serving five months from Shiraz’s Adel Abad prison after her sentence was commuted. She got re-arrested 10 days later by IRGC intelligence forces as a “supporter of an anti-regime organization”. But who doesn’t know, on the foreheads of Iranian protesters, critics and opponents of the regime, either there’s a stamp of support and cooperation with the opposition organizations of the regime or spies and saboteurs and disturbers! She was later arrested by security forces in June 2019 and transferred to the women’s ward of Evin Prison. Shortly after, she was transferred to one of the IRGC’s safe houses and then taken back to the women’s ward of Evin Prison some time later. Finally, on March 15, 2020, she was released on 3 billion Toman bail until the end of the trial. On March 18, 2020, Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Judge Mohammad Moghayeseh, sentenced her to a total of 18 years in prison on charges including “propaganda against the regime, assembling and colluding, disturbing public opinion with intent to riot, and forming an illegal group.” 5 years of those 18 were enforceable. She had now become an opponent that nothing could stop, not arrest, torture or even imprisonment.
In June 2020, after the end of the court session and the announcement that her sentence had been upheld, she was arrested and beaten outside the courthouse by IRGC intelligence agents. Her former interrogator dragged her from her hair on the street pavement, put her in a car and threatened to file a new case. Soheila Hijab, who sacrifices her broken arms and legs to support a fellow prisoner, is the same beautiful and dignified young woman whose bones have already been crushed many times under the suffering of her people, the destruction of Iran and the oppression of the plunderers. Now the Islamic Republic knows that it is on the side of an unrelenting force that will never give up; No torture, no imprisonment, no threats can stop her. Now, based on the Islamic Republic’s history of its opponents treatment for 41 years, it is time to file a lawsuit, threaten to kill her and put pressure on her through her family. Soheila’s brother is arrested for being a brother, Soheila’s phone card has been confiscated and she has been left with a wounded hand and foot in the room of prison workers. She has been threatened to be killed, but she continues to shout, sends her voice recordings and writings out of prison, and does not allow the children of Satan to play her:
In the name of the True Judge
Greetings to the awakened consciences. I, Soheila Hijab Bidsorkhi, a lawyer and human rights activist from Kermanshah province, who was illegally transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin by the interrogator, have a question from the Judiciary, which I hope will be answered if there is a clear conscience person in this unjust system. Why file a new lawsuit for a fake and illegal case several times and issue bail several times? How many times has a false order been issued for a fake case, which is said to have been issued for my charge “actions against the regime”, the same case has been reopened with an additional bail of 2 billion Toman again? I was summoned to Tehran for my appeal. After leaving the Court of Appeals, I was arrested on the street by IRGC intelligence and beaten in the most brutal way in public, and I was transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin. False and contrary to the fact cases fabricated by the interrogator’s illusions! The interrogator who is an IRGC intelligence officer and puts himself in judge’s place, and without any evidence and legal justification has abused and harassed me mentally and physically, he has desecrated me, a lawyer! This illegal interrogator does something like kidnapping and considers himself the omnipotent of the country and criminalizes everything based on his delusions; It is as if the country has no law and Judiciary. The interrogator threatened to physically remove me, and in order to achieve this goal, he placed me in the Qarchak prison in Varamin, among the violent prisoners. Prisoners with all kinds of diseases, especially COVID-19, keep everyone in the same ward with me. Drinking water is salty and the food and health situation is dreadful. Deliberately, prisoners like me, who are lawyers and human rights activists, are being held in such a horrific prison to make us mentally ill. I repeat, the interrogator of this illegal case, without any reason or evidence, and only based on his delusion, is making up a case against me and illegally and deliberately has transferred me to Qarchak prison in Varamin, to achieve my murder, otherwise I was imprisoned in Evin Prison and was released on bail with two hefty bails. If I am to be kept in prison, I must be transferred to Evin prison. I request a very urgent investigation into this false and illegal case, and I ask the Judiciary to intervene in this case and investigate the facts so that I can be transferred to Evin Prison as soon as possible, while I have the right to be released based on those heavy bails.
Soheila Hijab Bidsorkhi, Lawyer
June 2020
But Islamic Republic, like all demagoguing totalitarian systems, still clings to the same old-fashioned way of thinking. In its latest attempt to suppress one of its most stubborn opponents, it has carried out its threats and intends to make up a new case against Soheila Hijab and prepares to have her terminated permanently. And who can spread this fallacy better than Fars News Agency, close to IRGC? On Wednesday, July 8, their website published a report titled “Arrest of a former security defendant before a terrorist act,” which was also posted by Donyay-e-Eqtesad, quoting Fars. According to them, “in early June, the country’s intelligence services became aware of a series of sabotage actions by one of the old accused in the country; A young woman named Soheila H.B. has resumed her anti-revolutionary and anti-security activities and, while communicating with dissident elements and expatriate saboteurs, has a new mission to blow up the residence of her hometown’s Friday prayer Imam.” The report calls Soheila’s audio files and letters coming out of prison are for her to “play a victim” and “discredit the Judiciary of Islamic Republic.”
The flawed and corrupt Judicial system that only bears the name and symbol of justice, is a black hole that is getting deeper, darker and more horrifying every day. It finally will destroy this vicious circle called the Islamic Republic with all its vain struggles to hold its grip on power. It will send it to the history’s dustbin with all its slanders and oppressions. Soheila Hijab will multiply in the minds of all real Iranians every day, in mine and your gazes, and the cry for justice and freedom will not only never, never be suffocated, but will be echoed by the number of all humans, loves and hopes, again and again and again and again.
There are numerous cases like Soheila, whom their voices don’t reach outside the tall walls of Islamic Republic hell holes, Soheila Hijab is just a sample.
Translation of this article by Mira Irani.
