Bahareh and I were giddy with excitement that summer day in 2008. Our wedding ceremony was just a day away, but then Iranian authorities raided Bahareh’s house and took her to prison. Since then, we’ve spent just one year together.

My wife, Bahareh Hedayat, is a women's rights defender and student activist in Iran, and she has been unjustly imprisoned for almost six years. After her first arrest, Bahareh sent a video message to the European Students’ Union in 2009 where she spoke about injustice and the need for reform in Iran. She was arrested again, and she has been in prison ever since. The European Students' Union nominated Bahareh for its Student Peace Prize in 2010. Bahareh needs your help. Please join me and United for Iran to call on the Iranian authorities to immediately release Bahareh from prison.

Bahareh was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, for allegedly “insulting the Supreme Leader,” “insulting the President,” and “acting against national security.” While in prison in 2011, she was given an extra six months for writing a letter about the conditions of other student activists. Bahareh already had a two-year suspended sentence for participating in a June 2006 demonstration, but it wasn't implemented until August 2015. Now she is serving a 10 year prison sentence, all for her peaceful activism in support of student rights and women’s rights in Iran. Authorities said that Bahareh should have been released this past summer on parole, but instead they kept her in prison and just added two more years to her prison term by applying her suspended sentence.

 Everyday that Bahareh is in prison, I become more concerned about her physical and mental health. Bahareh has kidney complications and reproductive health issues that have worsened due to harsh prison conditions, and prison life has had a heavy psychological toll on her.

Iran has released dozens of political prisoners in recent weeks and I’m hopeful if we act quickly the Iranian authorities will release my wife. All I want is to finally have my wife live with me under the same roof and to see her bright face every morning. Please join me in demanding Bahareh’s immediate and unconditional release.

Amin Ahmadian