Profile in courage

Canadian activist scores human rights victory

By Beryl Wajsman, The Suburban

Afshin-Jam used her celebrity to great effect. Canadians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity when it comes to celebrating our own heroism. It is therefore not surprising, though still disappointing, that Vancouver’s Nazanin Afshin-Jam’s successful campaign to free Nazanin Fatehi from Tehran’s infamous Evin prison received relatively sparse news coverage. $"> $">Fatehi languished in prison for two years after being sentenced to death for stabbing the man who tried to rape her. Fatehi’s case had drawn some world attention, but it was not until Afshin-Jam took the lead in an international effort to save the life of this young girl facing the hangman’s noose because of Sharia law that the world sat up and took notice. Under Sharia law, since there were not four male witnesses to the attempted rape, Fatehi was convicted of pre-meditated murder. The decision by Iran’s judiciary to reverse itself is almost unprecedented. $"> $">Afshin-Jam not only made Fatehi’s specific case a worldwide “cause célèbre” but expanded her work to draw attention to the general abuse of women in Iran, and throughout the radical Muslim world. She put aside a budding singing career she had embarked on after winning the Miss World Canada competition, and plunged head-long into human rights advocacy using her celebrity to great effect. Helping in relief efforts from Africa to Asia, she also took up Fatehi’s case and cause at the UN, in London and in Berlin. She received a United Nations Human Rights award in the process. More at the Source

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