From The Sunday Times , January 10, 2010 – One of Iran’s most respected television presenters is resisting official pressure to deny claims her son was deliberately run over by security forces during an Opposition protest.
Shahin Mahinfar, 61, who has been introducing programmes since the days of the Shah, was banned from state television premises after her 25-year-old son Amir Tajmir, a TV technician, was killed on December 27.
Witnesses said he was run over twice by a police armoured personnel carrier in Tehran’s Vali Asr square during anti-government demonstrations marking the Ashura holy festival. Mobile phone footage appeared to support the allegations.
According to Opposition websites, Mahinfar has refused to return to the screen to issue a denial. News of her son’s death sent a wave of rage through Tehran. The footage of the alleged killing was downloaded by tens of thousands of Iranians.
On Friday Iranian secret police arrested two of the main witnesses.
One, a young woman calling herself “Sadaf” was interviewed by the Voice of America Farsi service and described what happened in front of her.
The Iranian authorities have not referred directly to Tajmir, but said most of those who died were killed either by accident or by Opposition groups in order to provoke further unrest.
Mahinfar has worked for state television for 41 years. She was so popular that she was allowed to remain in her job after the 1979 Islamic revolution, but forced to exchange her western clothes for the hijab.
She was at the TV station when news arrived that her son had been killed. According to Opposition sites, she rushed from the building, but his body had already been taken by the security services.
Mahinfar was ordered to stay away from work. A week later she was told by telephone that her son’s funeral would take place at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran. The funeral took place on January 2 but only Tajmir’s family was allowed to attend.
His death has demonstrated again how children of the Iranian elite have joined the protests. Seyed Ali Mousavi, a nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the Opposition leader, was also killed in the protests.
