Academics at Concordia University made an urgent appeal Wednesday to the Canadian and Irish governments to secure the freedom of Canadian-Iranian professor Homa Hoodfar, who is being held in an Iranian prison.
Kimberley Manning, a political science professor at Concordia and principal at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, called the situation dire amid reports Hoodfar’s health is rapidly deteriorating.
“This is an emergency. This is a life-or-death situation. Right now we don’t even know whether Dr. Hoofar is alive,” Manning told reporters at a press conference Wednesday morning.
Manning called on both Canada and Ireland to do everything in their power to work with Iran to facilitate her release.
Hoodfar, a 65-year-old retired anthropology professor, was born in Iran but has lived in Montreal for 30 years. She holds Canadian, Irish and Iranian citizenship.
READ MORE: Canadian professor Homa Hoodfar hospitalized in Iran as health ‘rapidly declining’
“The Irish government has a responsibility to help her enter into whatever negotiations it can with the Iranian government,” said Emer O’Toole, an assistant professor of Irish performance studies at Concordia.
Hoodfar travelled to Iran to visit family and conduct academic research in February. She was initially arrested in March for “dabbling in feminism” shortly before she was to return home, but was released on bail.
WATCH: Irish academics pressure gov’t to secure Concordia professor’s release
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard seized her passports along with her computer, and subjected her to repeated day-long interrogations about her work and research. She was arrested again on June 6 and charged with collaborating with a hostile government against national security — charges her family denies.
WATCH: Political science professor at Concordia calls the Iranian detainment of Homa Hoodfar a ‘life-and-death’ situation.
Manning said there are several actions planned to step up the pressure on Iran.
“I am getting emails from friends and colleagues from across the country wanting to know how to help,” Manning said. “We see the protest this morning in Dublin as just the beginning of a series of national and international events that will take place over the coming weeks.”
In a statement last week, her family said she is being held in solitary confinement in Iran’s Evin prison and was recently hospitalized due to “rapidly declining health.”
READ MORE: Who is Homa Hoodfar?
Hoodfar’s family claims that Iranian officials have violated several laws in jailing Hoodfar, including preventing her lawyer from contacting her or accessing her case file.
“Given the alarming news of Homa’s hospitalization and declining health, we are left with no choice but to publicize these travesties of justice widely, as it has become clear that the authorities are not prioritizing her health and do not intend to respect Homa’s due process rights under Iranian law,” said Amanda Ghahremani, Hoodfar’s niece and legal representative in Canada.
WATCH: Academics hope speaking out will free Homa Hoodfar
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Michael O’Shaughnessy told Global News “(Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion) and Parliamentary Secretary Omar Alghabra, indeed the whole government, are very concerned about the health, well-being and continued detention of Dr. Hoodfar.
O’Shaughnessy said Dion and Alghabra have met with Ghahremani and the family to do “everything we can to support” them and acknowledged that not having an embassy complicated matters. Italy has protected Canada’s interests in Iran since 2012.
“In the absence of diplomatic representation of our own, we are working with countries of influence and pursuing the best course of action to press the case and secure her safe return to her family, friends and colleagues,” O’Shaughnessy said. “The challenges posed by the absence of a diplomatic presence cannot be underestimated.”
— With files from Nicole Bogart and The Canadian Press