Nationality Iranian | Children 2 Name Parvaneh Forouhar | |
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Born March 14, 1938 Tehran, Iran Died November 22, 1998, Tehran, Iran Spouse Dariush Forouhar (m. 1961–1998) Similar People Dariush Forouhar, Mohammad Mokhtari, Parastou Forouhar, Majid Sharif, Kazem Sami | ||
Occupation Dissident and activist | ||
Parvaneh Eskandari Forouhar, (Persian: پروانهی اسکندری فروهر, born Parvaneh Majd Eskandari, 20 March 1939 – 22 November 1998) was an Iranian dissident and activist who was murdered during the Chain murders of Iran in November 1998.
Biography
Dariush Forouhar's wife, she became a member of the Party of the Iranian Nation when she was a university student, launching an anti-Shah campaign alongside Dariush Forouhar. After a while, they got married. Their witness in absentia was Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh and the clergyman marrying the couple was Ayatollah Zanjani.
Both of the Forouhars were proponents of a democratic and independent Iran and supported the separation of state and religion, they felt that the Islamic Republic led to a concentration of power and made political reform difficult.
Parvaneh Majd Eskandari was stabbed 25 times on the second floor of her home while she was very ill. She was 60 years old at the time of her death. They are survived by a daughter, Parastou Forouhar and a son, Arash Forouhar. Before her death, she had told human rights watchdogs based in New York: "We are living with the fear of being killed. Every night when we go to bed we thank God the Almighty for His blessing of living for another day."
Concerning her mother, Parastou believes: "At the time of her death my mother was wearing an overall over her sleeping gown which indicates that she was not waiting for anyone and because she was killed in front of the wardrobe where family documents were usually kept, she had most probably gone upstairs to fetch the deeds of the house to use it for release of my father on bail."
The death of Parvaneh Eskandari Forouhar and Dariush Forouhar was followed by the assassinations of Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad-Ja'far Pouyandeh, two well known Iranian writers a few days later. The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence later denied responsibility for these assassinations and claimed the Ministry employees had acted on his own accord. As of 2014, the government still refuses to allow the families of the victims to hold any vigils or ceremonies for their loved ones.