Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7 31 A manda Ghahremani is a human rights lawyer with the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre for International Justice. Her aunt, retired Concordia University profes- sor Homa Hoodfar, was on a visit to see family and do research in Iran last March when counter-espionage agents of the Revolutionary Guard detained her for questioning — the first of several interrogations — and seized her belongings. She was allowed to post bail but was prohibited from leaving Iran. Thus began a seven-month ordeal, says Ghahremani, "in which my professional life collided with my personal life in an emotional high-stakes situation. I really had to take off my hat as a family member and put on my hat as a lawyer. I didn't have room to be emotional; I had to be strategic." Hoodfar and Ghahre- mani agreed to talk by phone twice a day. They knew that if Hoodfar became unreachable, the situation had deteriorated. "We knew that bail might be revoked at any point," says Ghahremani. "Alarm bells went off in June when she didn't return home following a court hearing." Hoodfar was taken to Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, which has a wing housing high-profile political detainees. The charges against her were not disclosed to the local lawyer she hired, and no trial date was announced. The Iranian press, however, reported that she was accused of "collaborating with a hostile government, propaganda against the state and 'dabbling in feminism.'" (Hoodfar is an anthropologist who has done research on gender and Islam.) Ghahremani, designated as her aunt's lawyer in Canada, liaised with her family in Iran, but Hoodfar's family and Ira- nian lawyer had almost no access to her. At one stage, the presiding judge dismissed the local lawyer and replaced him — without Hoodfar's consent — with one who was deemed acceptable to plead before the Revolutionary Court. Stymied by Iran's opaque judicial system, Ghahremani spearheaded an international academic and media campaign to win her aunt's freedom. She enlisted academic and NGO support not only in Canada but in Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico and other countries with ties to Iran. She gener- ated media coverage of her aunt's plight. She also maintained close contacts with Canada's Foreign Affairs Department as well as Ireland's diplomats (her aunt also held Irish citizenship). "I had a full plate already in a very demanding job at the CCIJ, and I had this international campaign that I was run- ning, so in terms of the workload it was the most intense period of my life, with very little sleep. But because my work was so closely related in terms of subject matter to the CCIJ's types of cases — political prisoners, human rights violations — it allowed me almost to incorporate this work with some of the work I was doing for my job. I had understanding colleagues and supervisors." While the trans-national scope of the campaign leveraged Hoodfar's support network, it also presented a challenge — making sure that everyone who wanted to help received cor- rect information and respected the campaign strategy. "If an organization, with all the best of intentions, used information [about Hoodfar] that was not accurate, that could eventually be used against her in the ongoing legal case," says Ghahremani. "We were very careful to make sure incorrect information that could be detrimental to her case wasn't circu- lating." Although Canada's involvement in the case was hampered by its lack of diplomatic relations with Iran, Ghahremani forged a "very collaborative relationship" with the Foreign Ministry. The Canadian diplomats kept in close contact with her and "respected my level of knowledge and what I brought to the table. It felt like teamwork." A turning point came when Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion raised Hoodfar's case in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in mid-September in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The following week, after 112 days in detention, Hoodfar was released on humanitarian grounds, including poor health, and deported. Ghahremani accompanied her home from Oman, where Hoodfar spent the first few days recovering following her release. Although Hoodfar's freedom owed more to outside politi- cal pressure than to legal maneuver, Ghahremani considers it important for a Canadian lawyer to become involved when a Canadian's rights are infringed on abroad. "Most family members do not have a background in international human rights law or contacts with civil society," she says. "They're often distraught and don't know where to start. They might not understand what the Canadian govern- ment can or cannot do. The lawyer ends up having to mediate between the stakeholders and managing the family. Lawyers have to take on the role of a counsellor and almost a case- worker." Homa Hoodfar speaks in Ottawa on Nov. 1, 2016. Client: Homa Hoodfar Lawyer: Amanda Ghahremani Country of detention: Iran Amanda Ghahremani is a lawyer with the Canadian Centre for International Justice in Ottawa. CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS

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