About Mina Ahadi
 |
Mina is founder and head of the International Committee against Execution and Stoning, which is an international network of more than 200 organizations and individuals around the world with the aim of ending the practice of stoning in the world.
Mina Ahadi was born in Iran in 1956. She started her political activities when she was only 14, by setting up discussion clubs and libraries and performances. In the Iranian revolution of 1979, she who was by then a university student was actively involved. When the Islamic government got to power and with Khomeini’s Fatwa for compulsory Islamic veiling, she did not hesitate organizing meetings and Demonstrations against this government. Her first major public speech was in a gathering of more than two thousand women in the city of Tabriz and soon after that she was expelled from University.
Mina, who had been recognized by authorities, had to go underground and a year later her house was raided and her husband and some other friends were arrested. She escaped only because she was not at home at that time. Her husband was executed soon after and she had to leave her home town and go to liberated areas of Kurdistan in 1980.
She stayed in Kurdistan continuing her struggles against the Islamic Republic of Iran for ten years and in 1990 she went to Vienna. Mina Ahadi has lived in Europe ever since and has been actively involved in struggles against the Iranian government and for women’s rights. She has been the main speaker at countless meetings and international conferences for women’s rights. Some of these major women events include the International women’s conference in Peking, International conference for human rights in Vienna, the International women’s congress in Cologne and Wied conference. In these assemblies she has introduced women’s problems in the Islam- stricken societies and has organized protest activities.
Mina was spokeswoman of the International Campaign in Defense of Women’s Rights in Iran. She has been invited by Amnesty international several times to attend their annual meetings and address their members. She is a well- known figure in the movement for women’s rights and has had many interviews with leading newspapers and TV programs in Europe.