These Iranian activists fled for freedom. The regime still managed to find them

These Iranian activists fled for freedom. The regime still managed to find them

CNN-April 21st, 2023

Iranian dissident Massi Kamari felt helpless when she found out about her elderly parents being harassed by the authorities back home.

She called her mother’s phone in late December, but the person on the other end was a man whose voice she didn’t recognize.

Her parents were inside the offices of Iran’s intelligence service in Tehran. And she was in the French capital, Paris, where she lives.

Kamari knew that the government agents who had been intimidating her family for months wanted only one thing: to speak directly to her about her activism abroad.

“I was thinking: ‘What can I do about this?’ So, I decided to try to record this phone call,” she recalled.

In the recording of the phone call in late December that was obtained by CNN, Kamari can be heard arguing for almost 20 minutes with a man she believes is a member of Iran’s shadowy intelligence service.

“Whatever actions you take against the Islamic Republic, there in France, is a crime,” the man is heard saying. “And your family will answer for it.”

“Sir, my family is only responsible for its own actions,” she responds.

“Listen,” he says. “Your mother will be taken to Evin Prison, at her age. Your sister and your father (will) also be taken to Evin prison too. They will be interrogated.”

“Okay,” she answers calmly. “Take them for interrogation. They have done nothing wrong.”

The 42-year-old is among many Iranians now living in the West who say that Tehran’s terrorizing repression is reaching beyond its borders, to faraway places previously assumed to be safe, in order to crush dissent.

CNN’s request for comment to Iran’s authorities has gone unanswered.

Last year, the country was rocked by a popular uprising that was first ignited in September by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in custody after being detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly.

Months on, the demonstrations have fizzled out amid a growing wave of repression.

Through the end of January, hundreds of protesters have been killed, including at least 52 children, according to Human Rights Watch. At least four young men have been executed at the order of Iranian courts that the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran has called “lynching committees.”

Dissidents abroad have played a key role in Iran’s protest movement, carrying stories of abuse and oppression from the streets of Iran to international news channels and the halls of foreign governments. That bridge to the outside world has been crucial for the protesters amid a near total shutdown of internet services in the country and tight regime control on local media.