Germany on Friday said it had a “very clear” position on Iran after a prominent women’s rights campaigner stormed out of a government meeting and accused officials of helping Tehran “silence dissidents”.
Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad, who is known for her criticism of Iran’s clerical government and its requirement for women to wear veils, said Thursday she had walked out of a meeting at the German foreign ministry after she was told the talks had to be “kept secret”.
“They tried to censor me,” Alinejad said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“When the ministry officials insisted on keeping the meeting a secret, I walked out,” she said.
The German government’s reticence and desire to keep the meeting low-key was “helping the Islamic Republic to silence dissidents”.
A spokeswoman for the foreign ministry responded that Germany’s “stance towards the Iranian regime is very clear and we condemn where it violates human rights”.
In particular, Berlin had spoken out in response to the protests last year, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested over an alleged breach of strict dress rules for women.
Germany…
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