Mar. 21, 2018
Maryam Mombeini, the wife of a Canadian-Iranian professor who died in a Tehran prison under suspicious circumstances last month, was detained by Iranian authorities while trying to board a flight to Canada on March 8 – International Women’s Day.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted: “I am outraged to learn that Maryam Mombeini, widow of Kavous Seyed-Emami, was barred from leaving Iran. We demand that, as a Canadian, she be given the freedom to return home.”
This is not the first indignity that Tehran has imposed on Canada, despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s strong commitment to re-engage with the Iranian regime. Will this latest malfeasance finally put to rest the Trudeau government’s determination to restore relations with Iran, without first demanding improved conduct?
Iran’s theocracy represents the antithesis of Canada’s liberal democracy, as it violently constrains its citizens’ speech, movement and religious observance, and deliberately enforces barriers to gender equality.