Yashar Khameneh, a business administration major at the Dutch university in Eindhoven, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide he fears the Pasdaran will execute his father.
Khameneh was an anonymous poster on the satirical Facebook page titled “Campaign to remind Shiites of Imam Naghi,” where contributors posted commentary on religious, social and political topics.
“We wanted to break the taboo on religion,” Khameneh said. “Many people in Iran have strict religious views and do not tolerate laughing about faith. But we don’t insult anyone. We just want people to be more open-minded.”
However, he said, police showed up at his parents’ home in May and detained his father. “My father has nothing to do with it,” Khameneh said. “He merely paid for my studies in the Netherlands.”
Khameneh received a call from his father pleading with him to give the authorities the password for the site, but the student refused “because they would have arrested my father anyway.” He said the administrator for the site, who lives in Tehran, has refused to take it down.
Because Khameneh is not a Dutch national, the Netherlands’ embassy in Tehran cannot step in to help.
“The Iranian government insists that I come explain what I have done,” he said. “But I won’t do that, of course, because I know exactly what would happen. It wouldn’t save my father, and I certainly wouldn’t survive either.”
