Fourteen political prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin Prison wrote an open letter protesting the forcible exile of their former cellmate, Maryam Akbari, to Semnan Prison.

Ms. Akbari Monfared, who is serving the twelfth year of her sentence, forcefully exiled from Evin Prison to Semnan Prison on Tuesday, March 9, 2021.

The full text of this letter is as follows:

“Maryam Akbari Monfared was forcible exiled to Semnan Prison on March 9, 2021, after about 12 years of uninterrupted imprisonment. Arrested in December 2009and sentenced to 15 years in prison, she is one of the oldest women political prisoners in Iran and a member of a family that has paid a heavy price for freedom with the execution of its four children. In all these years, she has always faced all kinds of pressures and restrictions, such as being deprived of a single day off.

Maryam Akbari Monfared was exiled in the days when, as every year, she was preparing for Nowruz. She was a strong pillar that instilled unwavering enthusiasm and motivation and a love of resistance in prison. We witnessed in astonishment and disbelief the departure of a virtuous and steadfast woman who, without any hesitation and with the same passionate spirit as always, with a smile and bright eyes, and while singing hymns, bade farewell and set out for exile.

We, the political prisoners of Evin Women’s Ward, with all our beliefs, know Maryam in accordance with the moments of our coexistence, her perseverance and patience, determination and fighting personality, indefatigably, alienation from habit and daily life and insatiable thirst for reading and learning.

We recall Maryam’s resistance to all the hardships she and her family have endured in litigation and their beliefs and with the joy of having the good fortune to accompany a great woman like her, while respecting her and her conduct and character. We wish her more honor and steadfastness.

Zahra Zehtabchi, Fatemeh Muthanna, Zeinab Hamrang, Nahid Fath’alian, Aras Amiri, Sepideh Kashani, Niloufar Bayani, Hadith Sabouri, Roya Izadpanah, Raheleh Ahmadi, Alieh Motalebzadeh, Arezoo Ghasemi, Parisa Rafiei and Athena Daemi

Sunday, March 14 “Women’s ward of Evin prison.”