‎
Maryam Kashani
m.kashani@roozonline.com

Ali Azizi was a student of Amir Kabir University in Tehran a leader in the Daftar-e ‎Tahkim Vahdat student organization. He was arrested for student activities and is now ‎behind bars. His parents visited him in Evin prison after a two-month lull about his ‎whereabouts. Ali’s father Khosrow Azizi, his mother and his sister met him in prison and ‎spoke to Rooz about the reunion. Khosrow spoke of his son’s pale looks, but stressed that ‎according to Ali he had not been mistreated, humiliated or beaten in any way.‎

When I called the Azizi home, contrary to earlier calls when Ali’s mother answered the ‎phone, this time his father picked up the receiver. “No, they have gone to Qom, with my ‎daughter,” he said of his wife and daughter.‎

The voice that I heard on the line came from a man who had spent nights wondering and ‎in confusion, calming himself with all kinds of tranquilizers, yet he sounded very ‎enthusiastic. “You know that I was very disturbed and worried. I could fall asleep only ‎through medication. His mother was not as bad as I was”.‎

When I asked him about his visit to the Prison, he responded, “Ali himself called on ‎Sunday evening and said that there would be a meeting on Monday. So we went to Evin ‎prison first thing in the morning. Soon we saw Ali. We saw him through the glass ‎window. He looked pale. After all he had been in solitary confinement, without any ‎sunlight. He also looked weak. But he said he felt fine. We asked him if he had been ‎mistreated, or whether he had any problems, and he said ‘not at all, there was not any ‎beating or insults’. He also said that his interrogations had ended and told us not to worry. ‎‎‘I have nothing in my file and I have not talked about any accusations’, he said.”‎

In an earlier conversation with me, his mother had said that Ali was simply critical of ‎some things and that what he said was not anything bad. She said that he would talk ‎about the university, the president of the university, and conditions in the country. “After ‎all people live difficult lives. And he is a young man and gets upset about these things. ‎Young people criticize such things, and nothing else”, she told me. She questioned why ‎some people did not understand young people and felt confident that Ali had nothing ‎against him in his file.‎

I also learned that during their last meeting with their son, his parents gave him some ‎money. Previously they had given him clothes as he had said that it was cold out there.‎

Ali’s father seemed very pleased and said that his son had even seen judge Haddad. He ‎said that the judge had asked him about his case and his son had replied and the judge had ‎not said anything special to him.‎

But his happiness also seemed as if something was missing. “I pray to God that the fate ‎of the other three [students Ehsan Mansuri, Ahmad Ghassaban, and Majid Tavakoli] too ‎would be soon clarified. They are all our children, and not any different from Ali,” he ‎said revealing his deeper sense of concern. When I mentioned bail, his voice becomes ‎uncertain, “They will probably set bail for him and I hope it will be something that we ‎can arrange for. But what do I know,” he says.‎

His mother returned to Tehran last night. She was on her way to the court, “We must talk ‎to Mr. Mousavi, the judge in this case. We expect him to issue the release papers,” Ali’s ‎father said. ‎

Ali Azizi was arrested in his own house. When they took him away, they also took with ‎them Ali’s personal papers, including the awards that he had received. From the talk I ‎had with her it appeared that she was not aware of this when the officers left their house. ‎‎“Had I known, I could have protested their taking the awards away.”‎

But the officers who came to their house carried arms, even though they had no arrest ‎warrant for Ali Azizi. And when some is displaying a firearm, it is not easy to ask him ‎questions.‎

Ali Azizi was a member of the leadership of Iran’s largest student organization, Daftar-e ‎Tahkim Vahdat. He was arrested on the orders of judge Haddad on November 4, 2007 ‎and then transferred to the notorious ward 209 after being beaten and assaulted. Since ‎then, he has talked to him parents on the phone a number of times. The meeting last week ‎on December 17, 2007, was the first meeting in person the family had with him. In the ‎meeting, Ali said that he been transferred from solitary confinement to the general ward ‎of the prison, and he complained about the length of his detention especially as his ‎interrogation phase had already ended a while ago.‎