Mina Saadadi
De Volkskrant (Amsterdam)
Even by Iran’s dismal standards, its treatment of Zahra Bahrami was a complete travesty of justice, says Mina Saadadi. The 46-year-old Iranian was under Dutch protection, having lived here in the Netherlands for years and holding dual citizenship. On a trip to Iran in 2009, she was arrested after joining an anti-regime rally, and when police found cocaine in her house she was charged with drug trafficking. Our government has been anxiously following her case, and last week it won a direct assurance from Iran’s ambassador that she would get a fair trial. Yet the very next day, Iran’s state media reported that she had been summarily executed. Bahrami, whose lawyer was also arrested, had not even been allowed to take leave of her family. Why such “barbarity”?
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Alas, that’s easy to answer. After her forced public confession of guilt, the state TV took the opportunity to show viewers how she worked in the Netherlands—as a belly dancer performing in restaurants. That sealed her fate. The regime has a standing army of “vice vigilantes” ready to pounce on any woman with the gall to wear lipstick, so there was no way it could show leniency to one who “assaulted the ideological pillars of its system with every sexy movement of her body.” The mullahs have been carrying on a “30 Years War” against women: Bahrami is the latest victim.
