No place like home for Iranian journalists in exile

“I belong to Iran, not anywhere else,”  says Sheida Jahanbin, an exiled Iranian journalist, who fights for freedom of the press in her home country from the icy fjords of Oslo

Sheida Jahanbin has been running for a long time.

Chroniclers of human rights abuses in Iran, Sheida and her husband were pursued by Iranian police until her husband was caught and tortured. After his release, their journalism work forced them to flee and cross the Turkish border on foot. They found no sanctuary there and after two years of dodging the authorities they escaped to Norway, where she and her husband have finally found a place to rest and breathe.

Their continuing efforts to spread awareness about the truth of Iran’s human rights abuses has led Sheida to create a 45 minute radio feature for Norwegian and Danish radio, retelling her tale using poetry and first-hand accounts from political prisoners.

No speech allowed

Sheida Jahanbin began her journalism career in Iran at a cultural newspaper known for publishing news about women’s rights. Around the same time, she and her husband launched a comprehensive blog about human rights abuses with a specific focus on political prisoners. Iranian authorities caught wind of the blog and began to block access but censorship could not stop their publishing and Sheida’s husband was arrested and thrown in jail.

– He was sentenced to two years in jail and execution two to three months after. The government called us every day with threats. When he was let out, we decided to leave the country. It was just one month to our marriage party and I had bought all the new things for our new home but we did not say goodbye, we just left.

Not safe in Turkey

Her experience in Turkey was no less harrowing. Forbidden to work, she and her husband struggled to make a living and found that the Turkish authorities were more than happy to obstruct their human rights blog on behalf of Iran.

After Sheida and her husband made it to Oslo, they plunged back into their human rights work and added Turkey to their monitoring activities. Setting up a secret hotline for Iranians to phone in, they receive hundreds of calls a month, updating the stories of political prisoners, religious discrimination and abuses of women and children.

Refuge in Oslo

Both journalists have enrolled in Norwegian language courses to be able to eventually join the media profession in Norway. In the meantime, IMS has provided opportunities to build on Sheida’s journalism skills. In 2009, she participated in a radio feature workshop where she first met her mentor Rikke Houd, the driving force behind the NRK project.

-I did not know anything about making radio programs. I thought, I cannot do it, it is very hard, but I learned it and I think it is a good way to say anything you want. Writing is writing but with radio you use sounds.

She used the skills from the radio workshop like script editing, sound editing technology, use of sound effects, background music and storytelling to create the 45 minute feature for Norwegian and Danish radio.

Click here to hear the radio feature in Danish

Radio ambassador

An autobiographical piece, Sheida has dedicated the story to a political prisoner that was executed for oppositional activities shortly after writing a poem for the program. Though many people know the story of the Iranian government, she believes few Norwegians empathize with the Iranian people, especially the exiled community.

-It is enough for me if ten people hear this programme and change their minds about Iranian people outside of Iran. In every country, they don’t like foreign people but they should know that everybody loves their home country. They are just here because it was a bad situation in their country.

And for those in Iran, she believes that awareness will result in actions. In her experience, international organisations have put pressure on the Iranian government to release political prisoners after reading her blog. Without the exiled community to help spread truth, Sheida Jahanbin believes the Iranian government will continue to act with impunity.

– I cannot go back to Iran when the government is there but I belong to Iran, not anywhere else. I have my childhood in Iran. My lovely family is there.  They are in danger but they tell me, you are outside to share this kind of news.