{"id":2340,"date":"2020-03-19T06:14:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T12:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/?p=2340"},"modified":"2024-04-22T02:46:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T02:46:09","slug":"nasrin-sotoudeh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/2020\/03\/19\/nasrin-sotoudeh\/","title":{"rendered":"Nasrin Sotoudeh"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She has fought most of her life for equal treatment of women in Iran. Even today, as she remains behind bars for fighting for justice, she is thinking of others and continues to stand for what she believes is right, despite the enormous toll it has taken on her life.<\/p>\n

Forty million women in Iran are forced to follow laws<\/a> put into place which repress and oppress them. Nasrin Sotoudeh<\/a> is a human rights lawyer and activist fighting to change Iranian law and customs.<\/p>\n

She grew up in Tehran, but has been an activist since she was young. She began her career as a journalist for reformist newspapers.<\/p>\n

Nasrin is now a prominent human rights lawyer, but, after receiving her master’s degree in International Law and passing the bar exam in 1995, she was not permitted to practice law for eight years. She did not receive her license to practice law until 2003.<\/p>\n

With her license secured, she went to work<\/a> for the Center for the Defense of Human Rights and the Society for the Protection of the Rights of Children.<\/p>\n

She defended children held on death row \u2013 although it\u2019s illegal under international law to execute those under 18, some 73 children have been put to death in Iran between 2005 and 2015 \u2013 and actively campaigned against the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Nasrin also was a signatory to the Campaign for One Million Signatures<\/a>, which called for the elimination of laws discriminating against women, and defended many of its members when they were arrested. She stood up as well for those arrested in a state crackdown after Iran\u2019s disputed 2009 election<\/a> that brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power\u00a0(electoral irregularities brought millions of Iranians out in protest).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nasrin has also received many international awards for her work, including the PEN\/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award<\/a> and the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the rest of the world recognized her work, she and her family were continually harassed in Iran. When she was arrested in 2008, the government also imposed a travel ban on her then 12-year old daughter.<\/p>\n

Her son and daughter were only allowed to visit with her through a glass screen and when Nasrin refused to wear the ch\u0101dor<\/a> all future visits were denied.<\/p>\n

She was released in 2013. Newly-elected President Hassan Rouhani did so as a sign of good faith, but Nasrin was forbidden to practice law. She told the world, \u201cI was released, but I was not freed.\u201d<\/p>\n

She defended a group of women in Tehran in February 2018, when they removed their hijabs in a street protest. The women were arrested for \u201cviolating public prudency\u201d and \u201cencouraging immorality of prostitution.\u201d Nasrin saw it as a civil disobedience movement.<\/p>\n

Nasrin planned a sit-in to protest a new government rule that would, \u201crestrict the right of dissidents to hire independent lawyers.\u201d She was arrested soon after, on June 13, 2018, for representing opponents of the mandatory hijab law.<\/p>\n

A short time later, she heard her family and friends were being harassed and she began a hunger strike on Aug. 26, 2018. She wrote a message that her husband, Reza, shared on his Facebook page. She had no choice but to begin the hunger strike. Reza was arrested<\/a> on Sept. 4, 2018.<\/p>\n

Reza Khandan was taken to the Office of the Prosecutor in Tehran\u2019s Evin prison where he was charged with \u201cspreading propaganda against the system\u201d and \u201ccolluding to commit crimes against national security.\u201d He has also been accused of \u201cpromoting the practice of appearing in public without a veil\u201d because of his support for the Iranian women\u2019s campaign against forced veiling (hijab).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On Sept. 19, three hundred forty Iranian civil and political activists wrote her an open letter<\/a>, pleading for her to end her hunger strike.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 28, 2018, while still in prison, Nasrin wrote a letter to her then 12-year old son, explained to him<\/a> why she had to miss his first day of school.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow could I witness the execution of juveniles in my country and be silent? How could I close my eyes to child abuse cases \u2026 to be able to accompany you to school on the start of the new academic year along with your father? I just couldn\u2019t, my son. That was my sin,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese days, I think about you more than ever. I think about you and your dear sister Mehraveh and how lonely you are\u2026 I shed tears of love so that these cruel times become more bearable for you,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In March, 2019, Reza wrote<\/a> on his Facebook page<\/a> to explain Nasrin was handed a sentence of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes.<\/p>\n

According to the Center for Human Rights statement, however, the first case in which Ms. Sotoudeh had been sentenced appeared to relate to a 2015 trial conducted in her absence. Her husband told the center that she had faced at least seven charges in the second case, among them propaganda against the state, disturbing public peace and order, appearing in court without a head scarf, and encouraging corruption and prostitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how many years she got for each of the charges because my conversation with Nasrin only lasted a few minutes and we didn\u2019t get to the details,\u201d the center quoted Mr. Khandan as saying. \u201cI only know that the biggest sentence was 12 years,\u201d he said, for the charge of encouraging corruption and prostitution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reza was given a six-year sentence in January 2019 for posting updates about his wife on Facebook, but has yet to be called to report to prison. On March 17, 2020, 85,000 prisoners were temporarily released due to concerns over the corona virus.<\/p>\n

Nasrin remains in prison and has begun a new hunger strike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sotoudeh\u2019s husband, Reza Khandan, who lives in Tehran with their two children, told CHRI that his wife is aware of the dangers of going on hunger strike amid a deadly viral outbreak when Iranian prisons are lacking crucial medicines and sanitary supplies<\/a>\u00a0and that she had started the hunger strike only as a \u201clast resort.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNasrin says, \u2018If we\u2019re going to die, let us be by our families\u2019 sides, can\u2019t you let us go even under these circumstances?\u2019\u201d he said, quoting his wife.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nasrim wrote a plea to peace<\/a> letter this year on International Women’s Day. She describes what daily life is like there and her hopes for the future.<\/p>\n

None of the Girls of Enghelab Street<\/a>, the women who protested Iran\u2019s compulsory hijab law by publicly removing their headscarves and waving them on a stick, are here. But a few of my cellmates are the young women who on International Woman\u2019s Day last year went onto the subway in Tehran, spoke to passengers, and handed out flowers. In another move, this group had supported me by holding up my pictures in the subway. Because of this, they received heavy sentences, which deepens my sense of responsibility.<\/p>\n

Iran is a country where violations of women\u2019s rights are systemic. This makes it even more important to honor and commemorate International Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

On this day, I am thinking about the years that have passed. The years of our silence and captivity; years of protest, bondage and the walls behind which we are trapped. However, I also am thinking about this year \u2014 a year of tragedy and illness for Iranian people. It\u2019s the consequence of hostility and enmity coming back around to us. I keep looking back and reviewing the path we\u2019ve taken. Where did we go wrong? Why didn\u2019t we succeed? Why couldn\u2019t our government govern properly? Why didn\u2019t we know how to resist effectively and peacefully?<\/p>\n

I specifically extend my hand to American citizens. Our governments have been rivals for years, with little regards for us. On this day of March 8, I also ask every Iranian around the world to help us in our pursuit of peace, this fundamental aspect of survival.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nasrin remains in jail. Her crime: defending women and freedom. Nasrin has paid an enormous cost for speaking the trust. It’s time to set her free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She has fought most of her life for equal treatment of women in Iran. Even today, as she remains behind bars for fighting for justice, she is thinking of others and continues to stand for what she believes is right, despite the enormous toll it has taken on her life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[179,185,192,402],"class_list":["post-2340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women","tag-history","tag-human-rights","tag-iran","tag-women"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3692,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions\/3692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}