LAHORE: Women’s Action Forum (WAF), a rights organisation, has formally asked Iranian authorities to release political activist and anthropologist Dr Homa Hoodfar, who is a professor at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
In their letter to the Iranian authorities, WAF said Dr Homa was arrested on June 6 and detained in Evin prison in Tehran. “She (Dr Homa) is an internationally renowned and widely published anthropologist who studies a range of issues related to the role of woman in Middle Eastern societies and their struggles,” the letter read.
The organisation said the rights activist was had travelled to Iran in February this year to see her family. Shortly before she was to return home, she was arrested in March, but released on bail.” It added that Dr Homa had been summoned for interrogation on June 6 and was arrested.
It also termed Dr Homa’s arrest as “incomprehensible”, saying that the activist is “highly recognised internationally for her unprejudiced views of local cultures and histories”.
“She was among the pioneer scholars to highlight Muslim women’s public roles that have been justified through religious precepts. Her writings have greatly contributed to challenging the essentialised portrayals of Muslim women that was prominent in Western scholarship until recently.”
WAF said Dr Homa was a patriot “when it comes to Iran, and often argues that change must come from within through internal processes in societies and working within existing cultural parametres”.
It urged the Iranian authorities to allow the political activist to see her lawyer and family members. “Dr Hoodfar suffered a stroke last year and because of her illness, she requires regular medical attention and treatment for which she needs to return to Canada,” it wrote about Dr Homa’s condition.
The Iranian authorities, WAF wrote in the letter, should release Dr Homa and return her travel documents “so she can travel freely, to access proper medical care, and to resume her academic work”.
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