Laureen Harper is stepping out of her comfort zone and into the complicated world of human rights.
Like the prime ministerial wives who preceded her, Mrs. Harper has tread carefully, avoiding contentious issues and controversial causes.
Instead, she is seen lending her name and considerable energies to arts galas, animal welfare issues – and the farm girl from Turner Valley, Alta., has been known to milk cows for charity and carve a mean pumpkin for the local kids' trick or treating at 24 Sussex Dr. on Halloween.
But the plight of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery, was different. Her circumstances compelled Mrs. Harper to move out from behind the curtain of safe causes and into the realm of geopolitics.
On Tuesday, Mrs. Harper played host at the Prime Minister's official residence to a roundtable of activists from the Iranian community, human-rights experts and a handful of journalists. She was joined by Heather Reisman, the CEO of Indigo Books and Music, who launched a petition last summer to save Ms. Ashtiani.
For two hours, the 14-member group brainstormed about ways to keep the spotlight on Ms. Ashtiani's case.
"Laureen has strong views on all sorts of issues, but she normally suppresses them so as not to give rise to media stories," said Tom Flanagan, a political science professor at the University of Calgary and former chief of staff to Stephen Harper. "It's wonderful to see her out front on this issue."
Of course, she wouldn't do it without the Prime Minister's approval, he added.
For Mrs. Harper, this issue is "apolitical," Ms. Reisman said. "Her engagement was just a belief at a deep, deep gut level of the travesty of the notion that a person could be stoned to death," she said. "There is no politics in this at all. It's from-the-heart concern for something which is truly a crime against humanity."
Mrs. Harper will not be interviewed about her involvement, telling The Globe and Mail only that Ms. Reisman is "amazing."
"This is about her, not me," she said. "I only jumped on the bandwagon after lots of other people did a lot of work."
Since last summer, the two women have collaborated on efforts to keep a focus on the 43-year-old Iranian woman's situation. Earlier this month, when it appeared Ms. Ashtiani's execution was imminent, they issued a strongly worded joint letter calling on the Iranian government to release her. Iran has suspended the sentence and it is being reviewed by the country's Supreme Court, but the government has said Ms. Ashtiani could still be executed by hanging for her husband's murder.
What emerged on Tuesday was an open letter to the Iranian President in which the two women implored Iran to change its laws to "forbid this cruel and inhuman punishment forever."
"We remain deeply concerned by Iran's failure to follow due process, as shown by the unfair and unjust legal process faced by Ms. Ashtiani, and women in general in Iran," they write in their letter.
"By adding our voices to the international outrage, it is our hope that women in Iran may one day enjoy the same benefits, rights and freedoms that we are so fortunate to have here in Canada."
Others who know Mrs. Harper are not surprised by her involvement with this issue.
The Government House Leader in the Senate, Marjory LeBreton, said that whenever Mrs. Harper supports an initiative – behind the scenes or in the public view – "she is totally involved."