Few civil society actors in Iran survive the pressures and arrests, any independent collective being seen as a security threat by the regime. The non-governmental organization (NGO) the Society of Imam Ali has long been one of these exceptions. For twenty-one years, under different presidents – reformer, conservative and moderate -, the NGO developed its activities in the fight against poverty, education and the release of adolescent delinquents or condemned to death for murder.
Since June 21, its founder, Sharmin Meymandi Nejad, and two of the members of the management committee, Morteza Keymanesh and Katayoun Afrazeh, have been in detention. News sites close to Iranian intelligence accused Mr. Meymandi Nejad “Insult to the sacred” and of “Tarnish the image of the country”. All Iranian civil society actors consulted by The world consider that the NGO was targeted because“By working on poverty, children’s drug addiction issues and adolescent execution, she made the flaws in the Iranian system more visible”, explains Asghar, an activist.
The NGO has constantly displayed its loyalty to the Iranian Constitution and has given a Muslim tone to its activities
“It didn’t rain. And, the ability [de l’ONG] mobilizing the masses also scares the authorities ”, he continues. Thanks to its networks, which extend to the most remote regions of the country, to its 10,000 volunteers – mostly students – and to its legitimacy with Iranians, in the country and abroad, the Société de Imam Ali thus intervened after each natural disaster to come to the aid of the survivors, overshadowing government organizations.
The sign of increased repression
Iranian justice has still not accepted the lawyers chosen by the defendants. “She wants to force their families to choose between the twenty lawyers sworn in by the authorities to represent political prisoners”, explains Saeed Dehghan, one of the NGO’s lawyers. The arrest of its members is a sign of increased repression in Iran. It worries all the more that the Society of Imam Ali has always refrained from any political position and has constantly played transparency. It has never ceased to display its loyalty to the Iranian Constitution and has given a Muslim tone to its activities, which is reflected in its name, that of the first Shiite imam.
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