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Trapped in Iran

Prague journalist Parnaz Azima is under virtual house arrest with no end in sight

By Hilda Hoy
and Lisa Nuch Venbrux
Staff Writers, The Prague Post
May 30th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Azima, who works for Radio Farda, had her passport seized upon entering the country.
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The fight to bring a Prague-based journalist home from Iran is growing increasingly
frantic as the weeks since her virtual imprisonment in Tehran pile up with no indication in sight as to when she might be allowed to leave.
Parnaz Azima, known to her friends, family and listeners as Nazy, has worked for nine years with Radio Farda, a Persian-language radio service based in Prague and Washington, D.C. Funded by the U.S. Congress, it broadcasts pro-democracy messages into Iran that have rankled hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran: Press repression

In its 2006 annual report, Reporters Without Borders called Iran "the Middle East's biggest prison for journalists and bloggers."
Some recent prisoners
May: Journalist Kaveh Javanmard is ordered jailed for two years after a secret trial
March: Four women are given jail terms of six months to one year for contributing to feminist Web sites
March: Journalist Ali Farahbakhsh is sentenced to three years on charges of spying
February: Journalist Shirko Jahani is freed on bail after nine weeks in custody for writing articles criticizing the regime

Source: Reporters Without Borders

In late January, Azima traveled to Iran to visit her gravely ill mother. Upon arrival, her passport was seized. As the months fall away, the best efforts of U.S. diplomats, human rights lobbyists and the family’s lawyers to get that crucial document back have thus far come up empty.
“She’s being, in effect, held inside the country against her will,” says Jeffrey Gedmin, president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). He calls her situation “a kind of house arrest.”
The radio station, based in downtown Prague, pairs with Voice of America to produce Radio Farda.
Gedmin calls the tactics of the Iranian authorities “psychological warfare.”
Since January, they’ve stymied all efforts to get Azima’s passport. In late April, one of her lawyers was told she should plan to be in Tehran for two or three more years, RFE/RL said in a press release. On May 15, Azima was told she would be criminally charged for working for Radio Farda, which “spreads propaganda against the Islamic Republic [of Iran].”
Prosecutors gave her five days to produce a bond of $440,000 (9.3 million Kč), intended to secure her presence in court if charges were laid. This amount of bond is unprecedented in Iran, Azima’s lawyer told Radio Farda May 21.
When Azima produced the bond in the form of a deed to her mother’s Tehran house, authorities still refused to hand over her passport.
When Azima traveled to Tehran last spring, her passport was seized but returned after only a few weeks. This time around, the increasing delays and “mind games” are worrying, Gedmin says.
“We thought … the return of [her passport] was imminent, and now they’re getting tougher again and they’re starting to intimidate and threaten,” he says. “Whether we go a little more assertive, or whether we go a little more patient and diplomatic, they hold the keys, and they seem … impressed with neither.”
Though Azima holds both Iranian and U.S. passports, Iran refuses to accept her U.S. citizenship. Because the United States and Iran don’t have formal diplomatic relations, the United States is relying on the Swiss Embassy in Tehran to speak for it, Gedmin says.
The Iranian Embassy in Prague did not respond to requests for comment.
Suppressing the press
As Azima waits in Tehran, her friends and colleagues in Prague are anxiously hoping for her quick return.
“Everybody is waiting to see [her],” says Mosaddegh Katouzian, acting director of Radio Farda and a longtime colleague of Azima’s. “We need her at work because the kind of work she does is very much valued. … She’s missed a lot.”
Katouzian describes her as a dedicated and even-keeled journalist who loves languages and was diligently studying Czech before she left in January. In her spare time, she translates literature from French and English into Persian and collects Czech art.
She has a son in the Washington, D.C. area who’s expecting a child with his wife, and Azima had hoped to be there for the birth, he says. “She needs to come back to work, to be reunited with her family. … It’s part of the International Charter of Human Rights that people … should be able to travel freely.”
Azima’s case is strikingly similar to that of Iranian-French journalism student Mehrnoushe Solouki, arrested in February while trying to film a documentary. In March, she was released on bail, but had her passport confiscated. Now, she also awaits permission to leave the country.
“We’re very worried about these two cases,” says Hajar Smouni, head of the Middle East desk at press freedom group Reporters Without Borders. “They’ve been going on for a long time and there’s still no solution. … I won’t be reassured until the two women have been allowed to leave.”
Iran has a long and troubled history of persecuting journalists and quashing press freedoms, Smouni says.
In Reporters Without Borders’ 2006 press freedom index, Iran was ranked as one of the world’s most repressive nations, coming in 162nd place out of 168 countries.
One of the most publicized cases was in 2003, when Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi died after being arrested for taking photos at a protest outside a Tehran prison. After first claiming Kazemi had died of a stroke, Iranian authorities later admitted she had been beaten.
An Iranian doctor testified after seeking asylum in Canada that he had examined Kazemi and seen evidence of rape, torture and brutal beatings, including a skull fracture. Two prison officials charged with her murder were acquitted.
“It’s been like this for many years. It’s linked to the political system. It’s not just journalism,” Smouni says. “It’s the repression of all civil liberties.”
 The writers can be reached at news@praguepost.com


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