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Bahareh Hedayat is a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity (Tahkim Vahdat), an Iranian student organization created in 1979. She was arrested last December for the fifth time and has been sentenced to 9 ½ years in prison. Her sentence is the longest prison term given to a member of the union formed amongst Iran’s Islamic Associations (the Office for Strengthening Unity) since the establishment of this student organization around the country. Since her incarceration, she has several times been transferred to solitary confinement and interrogated while placed under heavy pressures.

Bahareh Hedayat has written the following letter on the occasion of Iran’s Student Day commemorated on December 7, 2010 (16 Azar 1389):

It has not been long since the last goodbye and our passionate battle cry together to overcome the darkness. We intended to strive with a long stride to reach the shores of light and love. We thought, at last, there will be an end to our distress and suffering, and it won’t be long till freedom will be within our people’s reach.

With our hearts together, we united and although disadvantaged in an unfair battle, we fought against tyranny with empty hands. Not only in the streets but also in our hearts, we chose to be calm and collected, but when confronted with cruelty, our sorrows multiplied. Until such a day as flowers blossom far and wide and the breeze of knowledge blows from every town and village, we envisioned our univer... >>>