Respected journalist and civil activist Abdolreza Tadjik was at Tehran’s Imam airport ‎ready to go to an international conference in Spain when he discovered there was a ‎government ban on his leaving Iran. We spoke with him on this. ‎

Rooz (R): Please tell us about this trip. Where were you going?‎

Abdolreza Tadjik (AT): I was invited to go to Spain to attend a conference by the ‎Fondation Trois Cultures de la Mediterranee (the Three Mediterranean Cultures ‎Foundation) to present a talk.‎

R: What happened at Tehran airport?‎

AT: Everything was going well and my passport was stamped with the exit stamp. As I ‎was boarding the plane my name was announced on the airport speaker system, and a ‎civilian clothed man also called out my name in the hall. He took my passport and told ‎me to wait.‎

R: Which agency did he belong to? Did he present an identity card or a badge?‎

AT: He was not wearing a military uniform but held a wireless in his hand and ‎comfortably moved all over the place. That is he was not stopped by anyone. When I ‎asked him about his mission, he still did not show me an identity and simply said that he ‎was from the presidential force.‎

R: Since no reason has been given to you for your ban, what do you think is the reason ‎for this?‎

AT: I see no reason. If there is one, then I would have been stopped before my passport ‎was stamped with the exit stamp by the airport police.‎

R: There have been other women, social and civil activists prior to you who have been ‎stopped from taking their trip. As a journalist and civil activist, what is your ‎interpretation of this?‎

AT: I think the Iranian government does wants international organizations and agencies ‎not to look at issues inside Iran, which includes human rights. So if there is an ‎international event on this, they would like at the least not to have anyone from inside ‎Iran to have anything to do with it. The government is concerned about contacts between ‎domestic and foreign activists.‎

R: Why is there such concern?‎

AT: The realities of what is going on inside Iran in the political, cultural and social ‎realms is more tangible to activists inside Iran and so they can present better solutions in ‎different areas. Their connection with the international civil society is that those outside ‎Iran make less mistakes in their understanding. The government does not wish there to be ‎an accurate understanding outside the country of what is going on inside.‎