Daya Sharifa, the justice seeking mother of Ramin Hossein Panahi, was arrested by security forces in Kamyaran, a city south of Sanandaj, the capital of the Iranian Kurdistan Province.
Daya Sharifa, also known by her real name Sheraft Zarrini, is over 70 years old. She is a fervent opponent of the death penalty in Iran and is renowned for being among the mothers seeking justice in the wake of their sons’ executions.
Ramin Hossein Panahi, 23, was arrested in June 2017. He was viciously tortured in the detention centers of the IRGC Intelligence and the Ministry of Intelligence. He was executed after a grossly unfair trial on September 8, 2018, along with Zanyar and Loqman Moradi, while on hunger strike. His body was shown to his mother two days later.
Daya Sharifa was on her way to Kamyaran for the second time along with her daughter and son-in-law to meet the mother of Pejman Fatehi, one of the four Kurdish political prisoners recently executed.
They were arrested on Thursday night, February 1, 2024, by three carloads of agents from the Ministry of Intelligence and transferred to the Department of Intelligence in Sanandaj.
The intelligence forces of Sanandaj issued a threat to Daya Sharifa, informing her verbally that she was not allowed to leave her place of residence. They emphasized that, under no circumstances, should she depart from Qoruchai, the village in Dehgolan, Kurdistan, where she resides; otherwise, she would face arrest and imprisonment.
One of the intelligence agents insulted Daya Sharifa, saying, “Old woman, you don’t want to die, what do you want?” She bravely replied, “I died a long time ago. The body in front of you is not me; it carries Ramin’s soul. Go ahead and hang me once more.”
In recent days, she had already been detained twice for a few hours, preventing her from being with the families of the young men who were executed.
Pejman Fatehi, a 28-year-old married man with a young child, was executed on January 29, 2024, along with three other young men in the same case. They faced charges of espionage and were executed in Qezal Hesar prison in Karaj.
