A Queensland government minister has urged Peter Dutton to “open his heart” and free a detained asylum seeker who fled sexual abuse and forced marriage in Iran.

Mark Bailey said the immigration minister would “do himself and the federal government much credit” by intervening in the “special case” of Mojgan Shamsalipoor.

Shamsalipoor, 22, was told by immigration officials last week that Dutton had declined to intervene in her unsuccessful asylum claim, despite a department referral flagging the option she be put into community detention after 21 months in detention centres.

Bailey said there was “absolutely no doubt” that the campaign for her release, led by her former Brisbane high school community and her husband, Milad Jafari, would not end until she was freed.

Shamsalipoor’s case, which involved her alleged rape by her stepfather – a retired member of the Iranian military – and forced marriage as a teenager to a 60-year-old man, had been detailed in Iranian media, Jafari said, which guaranteed she could not safely return.

Jafari is a refugee from Iran with permanent Australian residency who applied this month for citizenship. The couple, who married after meeting at Yeronga state high school in Bailey’s electorate of Yeerongpilly, are both of the Bahá’í faith.

“As soon as goes back, she will be arrested at the airport and she will be questioned and tortured,” Jafari said.

“One of the Islamic laws about a woman who has been raped, they will be stoned in their country. That is the law of living in Iran. That means death.

“Honestly that is the reality of what’s happening in Iran. Why the officials are ignoring it?”

Bailey said there was “no safe option at all for Mojgan to return to Iran” and Jafari said Iran would not accept forced repatriations in any case.



This left her with only the prospect of permanent detention in Australia unless Dutton – to whom he has repeatedly written on her behalf – acted, Bailey said.

“Given that she has done absolutely nothing wrong, in fact she’s done a lot of things that are very courageous and very right, this is a particular case that [Dutton] needs to re-examine,” Bailey told Guardian Australia.

“And I do respectfully [say to] him, in a very compassionate way, that this is a special case that requires some more attention from him as the minister.

“I hope that he can open his heart and realise that in fact the current ruling that’s been made is wrong, should be stood aside and he will do himself and the federal government much credit by taking some extra time and attention to this case.”

A spokesman for Dutton has told the ABC program Australian Story, which was due to air an episode on Shamsalipoor on Monday night, that “her claims were thoroughly assessed”.

The decision against granting her asylum “has been affirmed by the refugee review tribunal and in a subsequent judicial review in the federal court”, the spokesman said.

“Once these legal options have been exhausted and the courts have ruled an individual is not owed protection, the person is expected to leave the country.”

Bailey, who shed tears during an emotional plea on Shamsalipoor’s behalf in state parliament in March, is the MP for Yeerongpilly, which takes in Yeronga, where Shamsalipoor went to high school and was “part of our community already”.

“When you look at the level of support of Yeronga state high – the students, staff, parents – there are a huge number of people who know her, who respect her, who will not lie down until she’s granted her freedom,” Bailey said.

Shamsalipoor was previously held in detention in Darwin but has since been returned to Brisbane, where her husband is allowed to visit her no more than once a week.

Jafari said she had suffered from severe depression, weight and hair loss in detention during “the worst time in our lives”.

Opening up in the media about their private lives was intensely uncomfortable for the Bahá’í couple but the “only way” to seek justice for his wife, he said.

Jafari said immigration’s referral of the case to Dutton was “an opportunity to let Mojgan out and process her outside” and the minister’s refusal to do so was a deeply upsetting blow to his family.

Jafari, who witnessed state-sanctioned executions on the street in Iran, is the son of a political activist whose family has been granted asylum.



Dutton’s office had repeatedly refused requests to meet Jafari, the young man said.

Jafari works near Dutton’s office in Brisbane’s north. Each time he passed it to visit his wife in detention was an upsetting reminder that “the minister at any time, with one signature, can change my life”.