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Parisa Hatami

The office of Shirin Ebadi announced that the Nobel laureate has sent a letter to Tehran’s ‎police chief informing him of life threatening messages received by her and her family ‎members from unknown sources. Shirin Ebadi, who has been threatened to death before, ‎attached the threatening letters to her correspondence with Tehran's police chief Ahmadi ‎Moghaddam. In one of the letters, Ebadi is threatened to death, while in another, her ‎daughter is. ‎

She explains in her letter: “Threats against my and my family’s life and security, which ‎had begun a while ago, have recently escalated.” ‎

Ebadi was referring to the threatening letters she has been receiving in the past few years. ‎In an open letter published during Khatami's presidency, she reported the threats and ‎complained about her lack of security, noting that had the "serial murders" of 1998 which ‎targeted dissidents and political opponents not stopped, she would been among the ‎victims. ‎

Ebadi warns about her life at a time when she is working on a number of high-profile ‎political, ideological and human rights cases, including representing the victims of the ‎serial murders, and the murder cases of Zahra Kazemi and Zahra Baniyaghoub. ‎

That is why in her letter to the police chief she writes, "I don't owe anyone and in my ‎legal practice I represent victims of human rights abuse free of charge. Therefore, people ‎who wish me dead are opposed not to me personally, but to my opinions and beliefs." ‎

It must be noted that every time Ebadi has been threatened, she has informed the police ‎of the threat and forwarded the requisite evidence, asking the police to follow up on the ‎issue. This time too Ebadi noted that, because she wants these threats to be recorded ‎legally, she forwarded copies of the threatening letters received by her to the police chief. ‎According to Ebadi, "finding the author or authors of threatening letters is not a very ‎difficult task." ‎

In one of the writings, which she saw when entering her office on April 4, her daughter is ‎threatened to death with the following note: "Mrs. Ebadi! We told you to quit your un-‎Islamic and Bahaii behavior, but you continued to dance to appease foreigners and the ‎Bahaiis, and have enlisted your daughter in this route too. We will kill her so that you ‎understand. Note this." ‎

The above-mentioned letter was signed by the "Anti-Bahaii Association." Another letter ‎states, "Mrs. Ebadi! We have warned you several times to watch your words. For a while ‎now, despite our toleration of your treason, you have begun propagating lies outside the ‎country. For the last time, you are warned to reform your actions and behavior. ‎Otherwise we will take revenge for your treason against your country and Islam." ‎