Alice Schwarzer is a world-renowned German feminist, founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of the feminist magazine Emma since it was first published in 1977. She has written extensively in support of Me Too campaign in US and Europe. In December 2018 she presented the German journalists’ award, Reporterpreis (Reporter Prize), to the investigative reporter Ronan Farrow, the 2018 Pulitzer Award winner, for his brave disclosure of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconducts that triggered Me Too in the United States.

Mina Ahadi’s open letter to Alice Alice Schwarzer about the suspicious death of Zahraa Navidpour in Iran

Dear Alice,

I am writing to you, a world-renowned feminist and the editor-in-chief of the famous magazine, Emma, about late Zahraa Navidpour. She was a 28-year-old Iranian woman who, four years ago, publically exposed the details of her rape by Salmaan Khodadadi, a former high-ranking official of the intelligence and military services of the Islamist regime in Iran, and currently a member of its so-called parliament.

Zahraa, a law school graduate, came from a fanatical religious family in the small northwestern town of Malekaan in Azarbayjaan. She was looking for a job. Her father, an acquaintance of Khodadadi’s, reached out to him to help Zahraa in this matter. Khodadadi invited her to his office, and she went to see him. At this very first meeting Khodadadi asked Zahraa for sex in return for his assistance in her job-searching efforts. Zahraa rejected the offer and started to leave, but he locked the door, raped her right there in his office, and then threatened that if she exposes him in any way he would have her and her entire family killed.  However, Zahraa bravely stood up to the influential crony of the regime, as well as to her own fanatical family who believed exposing the rape would bring shame on the family and, therefore, refused to support her in her predicament.

Zahra was in indirect contact with me through an Iranian journalist that had direct access to her. I am now in receipt of all the pertaining documents sent to me by this journalist: documents on all of the conversations between Zahraa and Khodadadi, as a Member of Parliament; his confession to the rape; the threats he made against her and her family in case she makes any effort to expose him; the texts of Zahra’s complaints to the relevant agencies of the regime; the official responses of the highest government bodies Zahra appealed to, in which all of them have refused to support her after giving her several run-arounds every time.

Who is Khodadadi? The now MP, Salmaan Khodadadi, was formerly the general director of the Intelligenge (secret police) office of the city of Ardebil, and later the commander of the so-called Revolutionary Guards Crop of Malekaan. Presently he is the Chairman of the Social Affairs Committee of the Parliament. He has a history of sexual harassment and rape. He has been convicted of raping his assistant and a client in recent years, for which he even spent some time in prison. As a result, his eligibility to run as a candidate in parliamentary elections was initially rejected twice in two previous elections, but both times later overturned by the Council of Guardians, the highest body to oversee the Legislative Power.

It is with deep sorrow that I have to let you know that her dead body was found yesterday in her room in her mother’s house. The regime’s Ministry of Intelligence has forbidden an autopsy, and her family has been forced to bury her in a hurry. In her public death announcement she was referred to as “Miss Zahra Navidpour”, i.e., as a virgin.

Zahraa has asked us that in the case of her getting killed we should make her voice heard all over the world. She has urged me to tell the world that the Parliament, the Council of Gaurdians, the deputy Speaker of the Islamic parliament, Mr. Motahari, and Ms. Parvaneh Salahshuri, MP from Teheran as well as President Rohaani’s deputy in Women and Family affairs protected the rapist and told her they were unable to do anything for her.

Now I am reaching out to you to, firstly, please lend a hand in spreading the info about this crime and, if possible, in exposing the said documents in my possession. Secondly, to help us convince the German government to dispatch a fact-finding delegation to Iran to investigate this tragedy. We have access to local witnesses that can greatly help any such delegation in its mission.

Best regards

Mina Ahadi

January 9, 2019