Iran: Former Iranian President’s Daughter Charged for Controversial Comment

Rafsanjani, the daughter of Iran’s former president Ali Akbar Hashemi, has been charged with propaganda against the country and defamation, a court announced on Sunday. In May, the judicial commission website Mizan Online was summoned by the prosecutor of 59-year-old Faezeh Hachemi for his comments on social networks about the Revolutionary Guards, the regime’s ideological army and the Prophet Muhammad.

“The indictment was transferred to the court, where he was charged with propaganda activities against the Islamic Republic of Iran organization and blasphemy,” Tehran public prosecutor Ali Salehi said.

Faezeh Hashemi, a former lawmaker and women’s rights activist, argued in mid-April that Tehran’s demand to remove the Revolutionary Guards from the US blacklist of terrorist organizations was “harmful to national interests”. However, removing the terrorist designation for the Guardians is Tehran’s main demand in negotiations to renew the deal on its nuclear program with major powers.

In a video, former President Rafsanjani’s daughter said Khadijah, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad, was “an entrepreneur,” showing that, according to Islam, “women can engage in economic activities just like men.” The Prophet laughed and said, “Then he squandered his wife’s money.” According to the official IRNA agency, he apologized on April 23, pointing out that he was “just joking (…) without intending to offend”.

This is not the first time that Fez Hashemi has been prosecuted by an Iranian judge. In late 2012, he was arrested and sentenced to 6 months in prison for “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic. His father, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was president between 1989 and 1997, was a moderate who advocated improved relations with the West and the United States.