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Forozan
Abdipour, member of Iran national volleyball team
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to
all volleyball fans: In memory of Forozan Abdipour, member of national
volleyball team who was executed in 1988
by the Iranian regime
Ms.
Abdi was born in Tehran in 1957. She was the captain of the National Volleyball
team and a sympathizer of the PMOI. According to her cellmate, Ms. Abdi was
very popular among other inmates.
Her
cellmates remember her for her open-mindedness and tolerant attitude towards
other political prisoners. In one instance, her cellmate recalls, when a
repenting prisoner who was in charge of the cell ordered another prisoner to
separate her dishes from the others (because prison authorities treated
prisoners who did not believe in God as “unclean”), Ms. Abdi had intervened and
stressed that “no one considers the prisoner as ‘unclean’ and whoever does,
should separate her own dishes from others”. Ms. Abdi had also kept her
athletic spirits during her years of imprisonment and organized volleyball
games during the short period when female prisoners had access to a volleyball
court at Qezelhesar prison.
Arrest
and detention
She
was arrested in 1981.
One
of her cellmates saying: "I saw her in section 8 of Qezelhesar in 1982. It
was a section for special punishment and sometimes there were 25 to 30 people
in a cell [that was meant to fit 3]... They placed Foruzan and some others in a
restroom in early 1983. The place was so dirty that all of them contracted skin
diseases. Then, they were transferred to solitary confinement at both
Gohardasht and Qezelhesar prisons where they stayed until early 1986."
Ms.
Abdi was protesting against the inhuman rules and behaviour of prison guards.
As a result, for almost a year and half (fall 1983 - winter 1984), she was held
in solitary confinement and was deprived from recreation time outside, from
having contacts with others, reading newspapers, and having regular visits from
her family.
Sometime
in 1986, Ms. Abdi was transferred from Gohardasht to Evin prison where she was
detained until her execution. During this period, she also spent most of her
imprisonment in the closed section of the ward that prison authorities used for
punishing prisoners. Those held in this section were held in closed cells and
were allowed to leave their cells 3 times a day (for 30 minutes), during which
time they could use the bathroom, wash their dishes and their clothes.
Forozan
Abdipour was executed along with 30 000 other prisoners, mostly PMOI, when the
Iranian regime carried out the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of
1988.
Today,
women are fighting to enter volleyball stadiums to watch games. Forozan
Abdipour, member of national volleyball volleyball team was executed in 1988 by
the Iranian regime for wanted all women to live in freedom and democracy.
