February 18, 2022
Narges Mohammadi, the human rights activist and vice president of the Tehran-based Defenders of Human Rights Center, has been handed a 30-month prison sentence, fined and ordered to undergo 80 lashes; defiantly, she has said she will seize the whip out of the hand of anyone sent to lash her.
Weeks later, she faced another trial and was sentenced to another eight years in prison—and an additional 70 lashes.
Mohammadi was arrested September 8 while attending an anti-Taliban protest outside the Pakistani embassy in Tehran. She had only been released from prison after completing a previous sentence days earlier.
Responding to the first of her latest convictions, Mohammadi wrote on Instagram, “Since the start of the case against me, I have attended no trial proceedings and court hearings and have never been represented by a lawyer.
“I will not allow the agents of this despotic religious state to whip me even once. I will resist as long as I can, and I will take the whip out of their hands.
“I will also ignore their summons and will not report to prison, and if they take me to prison by force, I will continue to protest from inside my cell….
“Through official notices and unofficial sources, I have found out that during the 10 months I have been out of prison, several cases have been compiled against me at the Evin [Prison] security branch, which is part of illegal and oppressive actions taken against civil rights activists by the security agencies.
“However, I state that all my activities in the Defenders of Human Rights Center and taking part in marches have been in line with citizens’ rights guaranteed by the Constitution. No one can deprive us of these rights. Since being released [from prison] 10 months ago, I have been arrested five times by security forces and physically assaulted each time. These were illegal arrests.”
On December 31, her husband, Taghi Rahmani, who lives in France with their children, tweeted that the regime had just added a new charge against his wife—accusing her of spying for Saudi Arabia. There was no explanation of how she could spy for anyone when she has spent so much of her recent life either in prison or under surveillance.
Rahmani said the charges against her are for such actions as:
- Attending memorial services for victims of the November 2019 protests over the tripling of gasoline prices;
- Lighting candles for those who perished in the downing of the Ukrainian commercial jet in January 2020;
- Publishing her book “White Torture;”
- Disseminating reports on the abuse of women prisoners;
- Singing the song “Tulips Grow Where the Blood of the Country’s Youth Has Fallen” in memory of those who died in the November 2019 protests; and
- Being a member of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, which was founded by Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.
With regard to the second conviction, Narges wrote a letter from prison in which she said the ruling by the court specifically says on the second page that one of her crimes was being recommended for the Nobel Prize by Amnesty International’s branch in Norway.
