Germany – Welt, December 27, 2024
Nahid Taghavi, German-Iranian and from Cologne, was arrested by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in October 2020 in her second home in Tehran. A year later, a court sentenced Taghavi to ten years and eight months in prison for alleged membership of an “illegal group” and “propaganda against the state”. Experts see the 70-year-old as a victim of Iranian hostage diplomacy, in which foreign citizens are deliberately imprisoned as a means of exerting political pressure. Taghavi’s daughter Mariam Claren, 44, is fighting for her release.
WELT: Ms. Claren, this year was the fifth Christmas in a row for you without your mother Nahid Taghavi, who is in prison in Iran. Is Christmas a particularly difficult time for you?
Mariam Claren: Absolutely. It was the fifth time that her seat remained empty. Even though as German-Iranians we may not be the classic German family, Christmas is a special celebration for us. We’ve lived in Germany since 1982 and have always loved the Christmas spirit. It was particularly hard for our family in the first year of my mother’s arrest. At some point, a kind of routine sets in. And every year we hope that it will be the last Christmas without her.
WELT: Your mother has been on so-called prison leave since the end of September. You can talk to her regularly on the phone while she is out of prison. How is she doing mentally and physically?
Claren: Mentally, she has always been very stable. Sometimes more stable than my family here in Germany. That’s admirable. Physically, she’s had several slipped discs, she has carpal tunnel syndrome, she can only move her right arm with difficulty, and recently she’s also had problems with her leg – probably caused by the heavy ankle bracelet she has to wear. The four years in prison have not exactly had a positive effect on her physical condition.
WELT: What exactly does the interruption of detention look like?
Claren: My mother can currently go to doctors, but is only allowed to leave her apartment for a maximum of 1000 meters. Any walk further than that has to be approved. The ankle bracelet has to be recharged for 90 minutes every ten hours. On the whole, we are glad that she has been out of prison for over two months now. On the other hand, we are worried because she could be returned at any time. That’s what happened the last two times she was released without notice.
Claren: You have to imagine the premises as a kind of wing. There are four rooms in total, where you can move around freely. There are eight to ten beds in each room. My mother is in one of them with Narges Mohammadi.
My mother reads a lot and is now in charge of the prison library with over 2000 books that former inmates have left there. She has spent months trying to bring structure to the library. Otherwise, you can walk up and down the prison yard or do yoga. The women’s wing of Evin Prison is also the spearhead of the resistance. Every Tuesday, many women go on hunger strike to protest against the execution of prisoners. Or they go on a sit-in strike. So everyday life consists of a mixture of routine, resistance and protest.
WELT: Let’s take a look at the political efforts being made to secure the release of your mother. You say you are disappointed with the Foreign Office in Berlin. Why is that?
Claren: My mother has been in detention for over four years now. Jamshid Sharmahd, a German citizen, was killed in Iran in October. First the Iranian regime spoke of an execution, then it was allegedly a stroke. As a result, we have seen how the German government’s approach works – namely not at all. My mother does not have a death sentence, but in Iranian parlance it is called an execution in installments. I can name countless cases in which prisoners in Iran have died in custody due to a lack of medical care.
Claren: We can see that the German government is learning nothing from its mistakes. It is simply carrying on as before. What is the plan for my mother? I don’t have the impression that there ever was one in Berlin. Let alone that the issue has been made a top priority in any way. I doubt that the Federal Chancellor even knows who my mother is. Now you can say that Olaf Scholz may no longer be Chancellor in two months’ time anyway, but I think it’s a fundamental systemic problem.
WELT: What do you mean by that?
Claren: When I look at the other European countries, almost all of them have freed their citizens from Iranian custody. Great Britain has only one prisoner left to mourn, the others have been freed. Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Austria have also freed almost all of them. Six French citizens have been released in the past two years. Emmanuel Macron has publicly stated that the relationship between France and Iran depends on the release of the hostages. In Austria, there is a task force that campaigns for the release of arrested citizens abroad. There is nothing in Germany.
