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Is Rafsanjani’s daughter headed for more legal trouble?

Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani faces possible legal action after appearing in a photo with leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community.
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Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former member of parliament and seasoned political activist, has come under fierce criticism for meeting with leaders of Iran’s Baha’i religious community. Political activism rarely makes Iranian news, but with Faezeh being the daughter of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former president of Iran and a pillar of the Islamic Republic, this story is especially scandalous in Iran.

The controversy began when Faezeh appeared in a picture with Fariba Kamalabadi, her former cellmate at Tehran’s Evin prison and a Baha’i activist, sitting among other activists and leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community. Kamalabadi was on furlough from prison when the picture was taken last week. Faezeh had spent six months in Evin for protesting the 2009 presidential election results. She later defiantly described her imprisonment as the “best time of my life” because it had “opened another world” to her.

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