Mother's Plea for Missing Sisters in Iran

I am Samira Aini, mother of the late Saba Akramifard.

She was a young woman who, on the eighteenth and nineteenth of the month of Dey,

amid the bloody crackdown on the people of Iran, was shot

and killed in my arms by the criminal regime of

the Islamic Republic.

Today, I speak not only as a grieving mother who has lost her child in a horrific way,

but also as a sister who

has no knowledge of the fate of her two sisters, before

the public. What

my family is going through today is a very

serious and worrying matter, and I consider it necessary to state it plainly

and without any reservation to the people of Iran and the international community. Inside Iran, a cleric

named Yaser Taheri has been killed. Following this incident,

government forces abducted two sisters—

my two sisters—and took them to an

undisclosed location. For several

days now, we have had no information about where they are being held or their

physical condition and health. Our family

is living in total uncertainty and has received no response.

any clear and reliable information about their fate

have not been received.

But the matter became even more alarming when last night

intelligence agents and the regime’s security forces

raided my mother’s home. They told my family that

they had come to arrest my sisters. This claim is

deeply suspicious and raises serious questions, because according to

the information and evidence our family has, these

same security forces had previously arrested my sisters, me

Therefore, if they had already been arrested,

why did the agents go to my mother’s home again and claim

they had come to arrest them?

If they arrested my sisters, where did they transfer me—

If they are in custody, why has the family been kept unaware of their whereabouts

and condition?

This serious contradiction cannot be ignored.

As their sister, I raise this

very serious possibility that the forces

With such actions, the security forces seek to make it appear

that my sisters are fugitives and that the government

has no knowledge or information of their whereabouts.

Whereas our family believes that

they have already been arrested by these same forces.

We are familiar with the Islamic Republic's methods and

know that in recent years, the government has repeatedly

used methods that can conceal the responsibility

of the security forces and their actions

and create grounds for denying the truth.

That is why I am deeply concerned for my sisters’ lives.

And I take seriously the possibility that efforts to portray

their flight

are a prelude, a prelude to the government denying responsibility

should anything happen to them.

I, Samira Aini, publicly issue this

clear and explicit warning. The direct responsibility

and accountability for the safety, health,

and fate of my two sisters, Safura Aini and Maryam

The Islamic Republic and its security

agencies are responsible, and this cleric's death

has nothing to do with my sisters.