Fatemeh Karroubi to sue Iranian Press Supervisory Board

Fatemeh Karroubi

Fatemeh Karroubi announced that she plans to file a lawsuit against the Iranian Press Supervisory Board for shutting down Irandokht magazine.

Irandokht, literally translated 'daughter of Iran', a publication owned by Fatemeh Karroubi, was shut down on Monday for violating Press Laws.

The former Member of Parliament condemned the muzzling of the press and described the banning of Irandokht as an “illegal and illogical” act. She expressed hope that the judiciary would not allow “the executive branch of the government to easily violate the rights and individual liberties of people.”

Fatemeh Karroubi writes that the Deputy Minister of Culture, MohammadAli Ramin “does not believe in liberty” and two days prior to the banning of Irandokht, he had reportedly told Fatemeh Karroubi in the course of a phone conversation that “In any other country, Mr. Karroubi would have been executed.”

Mehdi Karroubi, Fatemeh Karroubi’s husband, is one of the disputing candidates of Iran’s June presidential elections who in the past nine months, along with MirHosein Mousavi, has challenged the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election as president.

The two opposition leaders have been repeatedly attacked both physically and verbally by government supporters and hardliners have oftentimes called for their arrest and prosecution. The Islamic Republic has remained ambivalent about arresting the two leaders because of their prominence in the politics and history of the system.

The government has however banned over ten reformist publications in the past nine months. Etemad and Irandokht, which were shut down yesterday, were two of the last reformist publications in circulation.

In her letter, Fatemeh Karroubi condemns the state-backed press for distorting the truth and claims the totalitarian movement in the system is violating every progressive law in the constitution to achieve its hegemony.