Since her youth, Shirin Nariman has been going to demonstrations, dpa reported.
But while with 16, the Iranian woman was sent to prison because of her political activism, today, more than 20 years later, she can speak freely. Her concerns have remained the same: the overthrow of the Iranian government in favour of a secular democracy.
On Friday, she attended a small rally in front of the White House in Washington, with a few dozen others to protest the planned closure of a refugee camp in Iraq for refugees of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.
For the Iranians in exile, it was a shock when in January Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki announced he intended to close Camp Ashraf within two months.
"We fear that the refugees at the camp will be sent back to Iran, be prosecuted and executed," Majid Roshan, spokesperson for the US Committee Camp Ashraf in Washington told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
About 35 protesters tried to bring attention to the camp about 60 kilometres north of Baghdad that houses 3,500 Iranians. The camp is the headquarters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI), a party which opposes the regime in Iran and which Tehran and others have dubbed a terrorist group.
Founded in 1965, the PMOI operated a military wing in its early years, but says it renounced violence in June 2001 and now advocates the political overthrow of Iran's current government. Iran accuses it of involvement in the assassinations of several high-ranking Iranian officials, including the president and prime minister in 1980.
"Ashraf protection is a US obligation," the protesters shouted, holding up posters that said the camp's residents were protected by the Geneva Convention. They also claimed that the US had promised to protect the refugees.
Though the camp was set up over 20 years ago under Saddam Hussein to give shelter to opponents of the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini, even today it holds appeal to dissidents, demonstrators said.
"Nobody in Iran can talk against the mullahs," Eskandar Filabi said at the rally. He was a famous Iranian wrestler in the 1970s and fled Iran in the early 1980s after his brother-in-law and two of his nephews were killed.
"If the world appeases with the current Iranian regime, people inside and outside of Iran will pay for it," he said pointing out to the country's nuclear programme, which the West fears is aimed at acquiring a nuclear weapon, but which Tehran claims is for peaceful purposes.
During the past months, the protesters' relatives and friends in Camp Ashraf told them of worsening conditions: only occasional water and gas supply, little or no access to medication and refugees are not allowed to leave the camp.
The protesters link the conditions to the US handover of the responsibility for the camp to Iraqi authorities, which they claim have been undermined by the Iranian government.
The protesters urged the US government to step up support for camp Ashraf's inmates and to not withdraw the troops, who still secure the camp. The issue is contentious, while the protesters claim the camp was a symbol for democracy, the PMOI has been listed as a terrorist group by many countries and was removed from the European Union's list of terrorist organizations less than a month ago.
For the protesters in front of the White House, the issue is not just political but also personal. Nariman fears for a cousin, who is a resident of the camp, as well as friends from her time in prison.
"I was sent to prison because I attended several demonstrations," she told dpa. "I was only 16 years old by then. A 16-year-old student - how much damage can she do?"
In prison, Nariman was tortured and said she saw several executions, of a 70-year-old woman, a child who was only 13, a pregnant woman.
She claimed the Iranian government today was as violent as it was 20 years ago - which to her underscores the need for the camp. "The inmates of Camp Ashraf have dedicated their life to the fight for democracy," she said.
If the United States chooses to leave troops at Camp Ashraf, it could be seen as a provocation of the government in Tehran which strongly opposes any support for the PMOI. The Iranian government had spoken out strongly against the European Union's decision to remove the PMOI from its list of terrorist organizations.
Nariman hopes though, that the camp will remain open to give people the hope for change in Iran. "Obama promised change," she said, pointing towards the White House. "We want change for the rest of the world, for our country, too."
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