German Woman Faces 'Security Charge' in Iran

A prison guard stands along a corridor in Tehran's Evin prison June 13, 2006. (Reuters)
A prison guard stands along a corridor in Tehran's Evin prison June 13, 2006. (Reuters)
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German Woman Faces 'Security Charge' in Iran

A prison guard stands along a corridor in Tehran's Evin prison June 13, 2006. (Reuters)
A prison guard stands along a corridor in Tehran's Evin prison June 13, 2006. (Reuters)

A German-Iranian national held in Iran faces a "security charge", her daughter said as a court held a first hearing in the case on Wednesday.

Nahid Taghavi, 66, was arrested at her Tehran apartment on October 16 after years fighting for human rights in Iran, in particular for women's rights and freedom of expression, according to the rights group IGFM.

"Today was the first hearing of #NahidTaghavi Another trial day is scheduled, date unknown," her daughter Mariam Claren wrote on Twitter.

"My mother was allowed to see her brothers. They hugged her. Her first hug after almost seven months."

Taghavi's brothers were not allowed in the hearing but were given access to her, Claren said.

"She is accused of a 'security charge'," Claren told AFP, adding that details were hazy but that it related to "propaganda against the state".

Claren said her mother, an architect, had been held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, and has been placed in isolation in the last four weeks.

"My biggest worry is her health," she said.

Claren said her mother's lawyer had only been given access to the charge sheet on Saturday and had yet to see the case files.

Germany's foreign ministry said in October that it was aware of the arrest of a German-Iranian woman in Iran, but did not name the detained citizen.



Taliban Leader Dismisses Foreign ‘Threats’

 A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada along a road in Kabul (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP/File) 
 A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada along a road in Kabul (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP/File) 
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Taliban Leader Dismisses Foreign ‘Threats’

 A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada along a road in Kabul (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP/File) 
 A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada along a road in Kabul (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP/File) 

Afghanistan's supreme leader affirmed on Tuesday that the Taliban will not be intimidated by “threats” in a speech given days after the International Criminal Court prosecutor requested a warrant for his arrest and another Taliban leader over gender-based persecution.

“Whether Westerners or Easterners, how could we believe them and not almighty God's promises! How can we allow ourselves to be affected by their threats!” Hibatullah Akhundzada said in a recording of a speech shared with journalists on Tuesday.

The address was given at a graduation ceremony for religious scholars in southern Kandahar province on Monday, the governor's spokesman, Mahmood Azzam, told AFP.

Last Thursday, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor announced he had requested arrest warrants for two top Afghan Taliban officials for the repression of women.

Karim Khan said in a statement he asked judges to approve warrants for the group’s supreme leader, and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing the men of crimes against humanity for gender-based persecution.

Taliban members are “Muslims who stand for what is right and cannot be harmed by anybody. If anyone stands against them, from the West or East, nobody can harm them,” Akhundzada said.

Since sweeping back to power in 2021 -- ousting the Western-backed government and ending a 20-year insurgency -- the Taliban authorities have implemented their own strict interpretation of Islamic law.

They have imposed restrictions on women and girls the United Nations has characterized as “gender apartheid.”

Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from education.

Women have been ordered to cover their hair and faces and have been barred from parks and stopped from working in government offices.

ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue an arrest warrant - a process that could take weeks or even months.

The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its arrest warrants - with mixed results.