Gohar Eshghi & Iran’s Other Justice-Seeking Mothers

Her name means The Gem of Love.

Gohar Eshghi is a human and civil rights activist, one of the Iranian “Mourning Mothers”. Born in 1946 in Neishabour, a city in northeast Iran.

She was the second wife of Sardar Beheshti, with whom she had four children: Aliasghar, Sattar, Rahim and Sahar. After separating from her husband she lived with her second son, Sattar. Eshghi had been a housewife all her life, so in order to earn a living after the separation she worked as a cleaning lady and even at a mortuary.

Gohar’s son, 35-year-old Sattar, who was a little-known blogger was arrested at his home on October 30, 2012, by the Cyberpolice (FATA) for what the authorities said were “actions against national security on social networks and Facebook.

He died under suspicious and unclear circumstances while in government custody, but it is believed that he died from suspected torture. On November 6, authorities told Beheshti’s family to claim his body from the Kahrizak Medical Examiner’s Office and warned them not speak to the media, the reformist news website Kaleme reported. On November 8, Kaleme published a letter the website said came from the blogger in which he wrote that he had been subjected to “physical and verbal abuse” during his interrogations. The letter also said that any confessions he may have made were untrue and extracted under torture, the website reported. On November 10, Kaleme published a letter signed by 41 political prisoners in Evin Prison that said Beheshti’s body bore signs of torture and that he was beaten during interrogation, repeatedly threatened with death, and hung from his limbs from the ceiling.^[

A short time after Sattar’s authorities also threatened Gohar’s daughter with arrest, badgering and forcing Gohar into signing a letter of legal consent.

In 2014 a court sentenced a police officer named Akbar Taghizadeh, said to have been involved in Sattar Beheshti’s murder, to three years in prison, 74 lashes and two years of internal exile. But the officer was only charged with manslaughter, whereas Sattar’s family and loved ones, including Eshghi, insist it was premeditated murder. Eshghi holds Khamenei personally responsible for her son’s death.

https://www.instagram.com/gohar.eshghi/