ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The daughter of a jailed Kurdish political activist was detained on Tuesday in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran's Kurdistan province, a human rights watchdog said on Wednesday.
Nahid Kamangar, a university student, is “not personally involved in politics and her arrest appears to have been in connection with the political activities of her father and husband,” the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said.
Kamangar is the daughter of political activist Hossein Kamangar, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in March on charges of “instigating armed uprising against government and the state” for membership of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group.
Her husband, Rashed Montazeri, was arrested with her father in January 2019, before being released on bail four months later.
Nahid has been “repeatedly summoned and interrogated” by intelligence during her father and husband’s detention, the KHRN added.
“Security officers asked her to cooperate and make a confession against her imprisoned father, but she refused to accept the interrogators’ demands. Therefore, she was detained temporarily and transferred to the women’s ward of the Juvenile Detention Centre of Sanandaj,” KHRN cited a source as saying.
Tens of thousands of people are held as political prisoners in Iranian jails, for charges including advocating for democracy and promoting women's or workers' rights.
In 2019, at least 2,000 people were arrested in Iran for joining armed Kurdish forces or for activism deemed suspicious, according to data provided to Rudaw by KHRN founder Rebin Rahmani. In 2020, at least 400 people were arrested.
Ethnic minority groups, including Kurds and Azeris, are disproportionately detained and more harshly sentenced for acts of political dissidence, according to a report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran.
Iran also uses the arrest of family member of detainees to exert pressure on people in custody.
