INU : On Thursday, The Guardian reported that members of the Australian public had begun rallying support for an Iranian asylum seeker who is facing deportation after her claim was denied by the Australian government. The Australian immigration minister, Peter Dutton has reportedly begun reviewing the case personally.
Mojgan Shamsalipoor fled Iran for Australia as a teenager in 2012 in order to escape sexual abuse and forced marriage to a man in his 60s. Now 21 years old, she has since married a permanent resident of Australia, and she was in the process of completing her high school education in Brisbane when she was forcibly taken to a detention center to await probable deportation.
Shamsalipoor’s advocates now argue that she must be allowed to file a new visa application while still on Australian soil, out of fear that her life would be in danger if forced to return to Iran. Her story thus serves to highlight the human rights situation in Iran as it relates both to restrictions on the rights of women and to the treatment of persons who are considered political dissenters or affiliates of the West.
