1-Seeing this picture is very painful for me. My brother & my mum (left) & Ali Rezvani (right), the pro-regime journalist who extracts forced confessions on the Iranian state TV. Last year, he & his crew forced their way into my family’s home to force them to badmouth me on TV. 
2-When they knocked on my family’s door, my poor mother, who has little education & is illiterate, didn't give in to their coercion. She stood firm & refused to appear on state TV to badmouth me despite the pressure. She told the crew: “Leave this house or I’ll burn myself here"
3-My brother, too, refused to give in to their pressure. He informed me that the interrogators had forced my sister & her husband to plot against me, by urging me to travel to Turkey, where the regime could then kidnap me & take me back to Iran. He detailed all this on Instagram.
4-This year, in an intricate scheme, the Islamic Republic of Iran lured a leading journalist, Rouhallah Zam, who was living in Paris, France, into Iraq, where they subsequently kidnapped him. Zam had been the manager of Amad News Telegram Channel with 2 million followers.
5-Since the kidnapping, Zam had been kept in prison. Last week, in a kangaroo court, he was sentenced to death. Later, he was forced to appear on State TV, and was interviewed by the very same Ali Rezvani. In front of state TV cameras, Zam was forced to make false confessions
6-When they had forced their way into my parents' home, I pleaded with Iranian journalists working for New York Times & Washington post to give me a chance to detail my ordeal. Yet, none of them agreed. A non-Iranian journalist from New York Times helped me get my story published
7-As pro-regime interrogators couldn't extract forced confessions from my parents, they tried my sister & her husband, who talked against me on State TV. They produced a 20-minute program denouncing my activities. Officials were angry that my parents refused to appear on TV.
8-They were also angrier with my brother after he revealed that the regime wanted to have me kidnapped in Turkey. If my brother hadn’t exposed their plot, I would have certainly given in to the temptation to go & see my family, & would surely have suffered the same fate as Zam’s.
9-Now, to take their revenge from my brother as authorities have jailed him for the past 10 months. My brother is innocent. He doesn’t deserve to be in jail. He has not even been allowed to see his family since.
10-At time, the thought of what heavy price my family has been made to pay for my activism saddened me deeply. Yet, when I think of my mom and my brother and their courage, I feel a burst energy which spurs me to carry on so that I can make their sacrifices worthwhile.
11-The Islamic Republic of Iran is a regime that takes families hostage. They have taken my family hostage as well in order to stop me from continuing my activism for human rights. But I will not give in to their threats.
12-It's frustrating that Islamic Republic of Iran has de facto lobbies in the West who have managed to sell the narrative that there're actually moderates in the regime. Hence, they downplay the pain of families like mine, claiming that it’s because hardliners are against Rouhani
13-These lobbies are still defending this regime & strictly refrain from criticizing it. They refuse to tell people the truth about moderates and hardliners. It’s a myth that this regime can be reformed. Even so-called moderates haven’t repented for their human rights violations.
