Farideh Goudarzi beamed with pride as she held up a photo of her son Iman, a slight young man sporting a white martial arts uniform.
“This is when he was a university student. He was one of the champions of the country in Taekwondo,” she told me over a video call. “But in the end, on the charge of wanting freedom, he was put in prison.
Charlotte Lawson is an editor at The Dispatch, currently based in Florida. She previously reported from Turkey and Israel. Prior to joining the company in 2020, she studied history and global security at the University of Virginia. When Charlotte is not keeping up with world affairs, she is probably trying her hand at oil painting.
