Hana Abdi (21) is a student and women’s rights activist in Sanandaj, capital of the western province of Kurdistan. She is a member of Azarmehr Association of Kurdish Women, a local organization. Actively promoting women’s rights, she worked to educate women about their legal rights within the framework of the One Million Signature Campaign and collected signatures in support of its demands. The One Million Signature Campaign is a nationwide effort to remove discrimination against women from Iranian laws. Hana studies psychology at Payam Noor University in Birjand.
On November 4, 2007, intelligence agents arrested Hana in her grandfather’s house and transferred her to the Intelligence Ministry’s detention center. A few hours later, Ministry agents searched her house and confiscated materials relating to One Million Signature Campaign as well as her personal computer and notes. On the day of her arrest, Intelligence Ministry agents told Hana’s family that she would be freed within a few days after they finished questioning her. On November 8, her family went to the Intelligence Ministry headquarters, seeking information about Hana. Ministry’s officials told Hana’s family she would not be released for another month, but failed to inform them of any charges pending or filed against her.
After Hana had been interrogated for nearly three months by Intelligence Ministry agents, on January 25, 2008, Mohammad Sharif, Hana’s lawyer, told the Iranian Student News Agency that she had been transferred to Sanandaj’s Central Prison. The authorities have not provided any information about her case and the charges against her. The authorities have not permitted Hana’s family to visit her.
A month before Hana’s arrest, on October 9, 2008, her friend and women’s rights campaigner Ronak Safazadeh was arrested. Hana and Ronak had celebrated Children’s Day and collected signatures for the One Million Signature Campaign on October 8. The next day, intelligence agents arrested Ronak Safazadeh in her house.
