Iranian cartoonist Atena Fargadhani sentenced to 6 years in prison

This sentence was pronounced on Monday June 10 by the Revolutionary Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as confirmed by lawyer Mohammad Moghimi via social networks. The maximum sentences demonstrate the Iranian regime's long-standing determination to persecute and silence this courageous rights defender.

Atena Farghadani had been detained since April 13, 2024 after trying to display a drawing in a public space, not far from the presidential palace in Tehran. Over the past decade, she has been regularly monitored and harassed due to her art and activities opposing the repression of rights in Iran, particularly those of women and children.

Previously imprisoned in 2014-2016, then again for a short period last summer, Atena Farghadani risks being put in danger within the penal system. In 2023, she alleged attempted poisoning. At the time of her arrest this year, she said she had been seriously injured by members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

On April 13, Farghadani was attempting to publicly display some of her caricatures on a wall on Pasteur Street in Tehran, near the compound of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, when she was arrested by security agents of the IRGC. According to information Atena shared with her husband (when he visited her in prison on April 21) and relayed to her lawyer, she was first taken to what is called a “safe house” run by the IRGC and was severely beaten. She lost consciousness after being hit several times in the nose and head. When she regained consciousness, she found herself in the prayer room of the Fateb security police detention center. She noticed that she was missing some of the clothes she was wearing when she was arrested. When they were returned to him, they were stained with blood, although they had been washed. On April 14, 2024, she was transferred to the Evin court where she was heard on two charges: “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the sacred”. [the Messiah the twelfth Imam Shia].”

Atena Farghadani's work was recently exhibited in Norway, during the sixteenth Oslo Forum for Freedom (OFF) organized by the Human Rights Foundation, dedicated to “reclaiming democracy”. In the presence of human rights defenders from around the world, Atena Farghadani representative Mohammad Moghimi ensured that his voice was heard, a voice that was both courageous and just, and targeted because it dared to challenge the oppression and injustice in his country.