A Concordia University professor says she believes Iranian authorities have fabricated charges against her colleague, Homa Hoodfar, whom she calls an 鈥渁sset to Iranian society.鈥�
Hoodfar was detained in Iran on June 6 and placed in Evin prison. Her niece, Amanda Ghahremani, told CTV News in June that a newspaper with links to Iran鈥檚 Revolutionary Guard said she was accused of "fomenting a feminist soft revolution.鈥�
Ghahremani said Monday that state media are now reporting that Hoodfar is being investigated for 鈥渄abbling in feminism and security matters.鈥� It is still not clear whether she has been formally charged.
Genevieve Rail, a women鈥檚 studies professor at Concordia University, told CTV News Channel that Hoodfar is indeed a feminist, but 鈥渟he is working for the well-being of Iranian women and Muslim women in many countries, so that is certainly not a cause for her imprisonment.鈥�
Rail said Hoodfar has helped to 鈥渄ebunk all the myths that we may have here in the west about Muslim women鈥� during her three decades in Canada.
鈥淭he kinds of research that she is dealing with are an incredible asset to Iranian society and Muslim societies,鈥� Rail added.
Rail said she is concerned that Hoodfar is being held in Evin. Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died there in 2003 after she was raped and tortured.
Hoodfar, 65, was born in Iran. She also holds citizenship in Ireland.
