The uncle of Kurdish-Iranian women’s rights icon Jina Mahsa Amini has been sentenced to over five years behind bars in Iran. He was arrested in September, after security forces went to the home of Safa Aaeli (30) and searched his house and car without a warrant during a renewed crackdown on dissidents ahead of the anniversary of his niece’s death.
Iran’s use of intense surveillance and intimidation tactics against the relatives of dissidents, frequently including arbitrary arrest, has become increasingly common over the past 18 months.
Iranian authorities ramped up pressure tactics in September 2022 as protesters, outraged by Amini’s death at the hands of the security forces after she was arrested for not complying with the country’s strict dresscode, took to the streets to demand women’s rights in the Islamic Republic.
In December 2023, Amini’s relatives were prevented from travelling to Europe to receive on her behalf the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought awarded to her posthumously in recognition of the Jin Jiyan Azadi (Women, Life, Freedom) movement.
Jina’s grave, in the Kurdish-majority town of Saqqez, northwest Iran, has been repeatedly desecrated – a tactic, the grieving family say, used to silence them. “I have never given in to this pressure,” her father, Amjad Amini said.
“Even the glass of your tombstone bothers them. Break it a thousand times, we will fix it again, let’s see who gets tired,” Amini’s brother, Askan Amini, said, echoing his father’s resilience.
The authorities have also attempted to silence the family’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht. He was convicted in October of ‘propaganda against the state’, sentenced to a year in prison and banned from social media.
