As opposition protesters clashed with security forces in Iran yesterday
(11th) on the anniversary of the 1979 revolution, a campaigner against
the regime is entering the fourth week of her hunger strike in a
desperate attempt to avoid deportation from Britain. If she returns to
Iran she faces almost certain execution.
Bita Ghaedi, 24, of Whetstone, London, has been refused an asylum
application by British Immigration authorities and placed on a fast
track scheme by the UK Border Agency, which means she may be deported
at any time.
Having fled from Iran after two decades of
beatings and mental torture at the hands of her family and former
lover, she arrived in the UK only to be arrested and incarcerated for
45 days in Holloway prison and then held at Yarl’s Wood detention
centre whilst UK authorities assessed her claim.
Bita said, “I
feel my life is going to be finished. I’m so scared. I can’t sleep
during the night, I think immigration will come any time and take me
away. It’s better for me to die here.”
Afraid that she
will be hunted down by her family and killed upon her return, she now
also faces torture and execution at the hands of the state for her
involvement in the demonstrations against the Iranian regime last year.
Since her release from Yarl’s Wood she has campaigned
endlessly for regime change in Iran, a country where she says women are
“treated like slaves”.
During the crisis in Ashraf City in
Iraq last year - where Iraqi security forces attacked an Iranian
encampment and killed 11 people in their attempt to force them back to
Iran for execution – a solidarity campaign lasting 72 days erupted all
around the world, calling for the release of the 36 key members
arrested.
Ghaedi campaigned outside both Downing St and
the US embassy and went on hunger strike in protest. The 36 were
eventually released no thanks to the US authorities who refused to
intervene. No surprises there.
Campaigns like these,
organised by the National Council for the Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and
the Peoples Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) have put her in
direct confrontation with the Mullahs of Iran. Her Iranian boyfriend,
Moshen Zadshir, is also known for his work as a long-time opponent of
the clerical regime and spent 12years in prison for his views.
As the Iranian mullahs wrestle to gain control of its citizens, those
active against the religious regime have been officially declared
‘mohareb’, which literally means ‘enemies of God’, an offence
punishable by death. Public executions have been taking place to uphold
the ‘velayat-e faqih’ (absolute rule of the clergy) by violent force.
As Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the ‘guardian council’ of the regime, said, “Rioters
[and] advocates of corruption on earth...those who try to shatter the
structure [of the regime]...must not be treated with compassion. It is
now time for toughness”.
Despite this, the end of 2009
saw Iranians rising up against the fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and yesterday, opposition was evident on the streets of the
capital as protestors and police violently clashed.
Ghaedi
now faces deportation to a country actively searching for activists to
make an example of. Sign the petition to stop her deportation today.