Dear Iran: Free Roxana Saberi (Now)

To the 65.8 million wonderful people of Iran,

As an American Muslim human rights lawyer, I write to you today to kindly ask for the immediate release of American journalist Roxana Saberi. In order to continue the advancement of peaceful dialogue between our two nations, it is an absolute moral (and religious) imperative to immediately release Ms. Saberi so that she can continue her work in journalism and continue to give a voice to the majority of voiceless Iranian people to the rest of the world.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), when Roxana Saberi was first arrested in January 2009 in Iran; her family was told it was for simply buying a bottle of wine – an act banned under the country’s Islamic legal code.

However, since that time, Iranian prosecutors decided to then accuse her of working as a journalist ‘without a valid press card’; before finally being accused of being a ‘spy’ for the United States on April 8, 2009.

According to media reports, between January and March 2009, Ms. Saberi was only able to contact her family in the United States twice; according to international human rights group Amnesty International.

“The fact that Roxana Saberi faced a shifting tide of accusations from the time of her arrest until her trial is an indication that the Iranian authorities were looking for any excuse to detain her,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program for Amnesty International. “There is no reason for holding Roxana Saberi, unless the Iranian authorities can provide convincing evidence that she committed a recognizable criminal offense…”

Ms. Saberi has told her family that she has not been physically harmed in jail, but was finding life difficult in the notorious Evin prison; near the capital of Tehran.

According to Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders), Roxana Saberi has been on a hunger strike since April 21, 2009. In solidarity with their fellow reporter, several journalists from Paris to New York to Washington DC have also participated in hunger strike(s).

“Roxana has been considerably weakened by her hunger strike and, like her family, we are very concerned for her health,” Reporters Without Borders recently said in a statement. “We are therefore symbolically taking over her hunger strike in a gesture of solidarity, so that she does not have to continue it herself…”

One of those fellow journalists (and friends) of Roxana Saberi who is fasting in solidarity with her is former National Public Radio (NPR) colleague Jamila Bey.

In an exclusive interview for this column, former NPR colleague Jamila Bey explained why she was fasting in solidarity with Roxana.

“I am, and have been fasting in solidarity with Roxana because I believe this unjustly imprisoned woman’s work could bring about peace between our cultures,” Jamila Bey told me in our interview.

“Roxana is a shining example that educating a girl, permitting her to travel and encouraging her to ask questions can produce a citizen of the world who can help us to better understand each other…”

Former NPR colleague Jamila Bey finished by telling me that, “It’s harder to go to war with nations that share some connection. My hunger is a small sacrifice to pay so that this journalist may continue her work for truth, and perhaps, someday for peace…”

Thus, as both a journalist and international human rights lawyer, I join with Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders to call for the immediate release of Roxana Saberi. Allowing Ms. Saberi to go home to her loving family will send a resonating message to the rest of the world that the 65.8 million people of Iran are peace-loving individuals who want multi-cultural journalists of all religions and ethnicities to be able to travel the globe freely in their quest to help continue to give a voice to the voiceless worldwide.

This column is also published on CNN Anderson Cooper 360

Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of www.TheMuslimGuy.com and Contributing Editor for Islamica magazine in Washington.

Photo credit: Eustacio Humphrey / ZUMA Press

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