Dear Friends:Spring will be here shortly and now is the time to remember the many Iranians who have suffered injustice and are languishing in Iran's prisons. This is the SEVENTH year that Amnesty International USA has done a Nowruz action to bring comfort to Iranians in prison and their families. Nowruz is the Iranian New Year festival and starts the first day of spring. It is always hard to select subjects for the Nowruz action as so many Iranians are in prison. All of the people in this action have been identified as "individuals at risk" who can benefit from increased attention to their cases. Please send cards to the prisoners and their families at the addresses provided in the action. You will be making a huge difference. At a minimum you will remind them that they have not been forgotten. When the authorities see the volume of mail they receive, they may be persuaded to release them or at least improve their conditions of confinement. One of the 2013 Nowruz cases, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was released in September 2013! Her husband posted a picture on his facebook page of their daughter posing with a bunch of cards sent to them by Amnesty members. Your actions do count! [This action] can be found on the Amnesty International USA web site: http://www.amnestyusa.org/
This year we are asking people to, if they like, take pictures of their Nowruz cards--our of themselves holding their Nowruz cards--before putting them in the mail and send them to me (aiis@uchicago.edu) or jheiss@aiusa.org and also post pictures of your Nowruz cards on your facebook page.
Also, if you have not done so already, please take a minute to sign the online petition on behalf of Bahareh Hedayat, also one of our Nowruz cases, who has been in prison for more than five years: www.change.org/p/free-bahareh
Thank you for taking this Nowruz action
Best wishes,
Elise Auerbach
Iran country specialist, Amnesty International USA
