After graduation, rather than taking up a high salary job, she had volunteered to work in the impoverished poor provinces of Iranian Kurdistan.


Zahra came from a religious family background and her father was imprisoned during the Shah for political activities, but none of this protected her from the terrible fate that was awaiting her in the Islamic Republic.

The 27 year old Zahra was arrested while walking in a Park in Hamedan along with her fiancee by the Islamic Republic's religious observance patrol. The next day, her father was called and told to come to Hamedan. Her father asked to speak to his daughter but permission was refused.


When Zahra's parents arrived at the religious patrol headquarters, they were subjected to humiliating insults. The illiterate thugs told Zahra's father, 'Your daughter is not fit to be a doctor in this country'.

Another religious patrol officer told Zahra's father while laughing, 'If you want to know about your daughter, go to the police station, no better still go to court and no even better still go to the coroner'.

Somehow Zahra while being detained for walking with her fiancee in the park had been killed in custody of the religious patrol. More than a year later, Zahra's family who took part in the revolution still have no idea what happened to their daughter. They were even threatened not to pursuit her case.

In just about any other country, Zahra would be regarded as an asset, she would be protected and rewarded. In the Islamic Republic of Iran an illiterate religious police thug can decide and tell her father 'Your daughter is not fit to be a doctor for this country'