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Atena Farghadani Freed From Prison May 3, 2016

Atena Farghadani, CRNI’s 2015 Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award winner, was freed from Evin prison on Tuesday, May 3, 2016.

Speaking to CRNI, Ms. Farghadani expressed her utmost appreciation of Cartoonists Rights Network International and all organizations, cartoonists and activists who have supported her throughout her incarceration and given a voice to her and her cause.

Dr. Robert Russell

Everybody at Cartoonist Rights Network International is elated at the news that Atena has been at last freed.  From the beginning her incarceration and the insults and indignities she has been subjected to have been illegal and unwarranted.  Personally, I suspect she will rise above the trauma and continue to present her opinions as freely and independently as ever.

We celebrate her courage in the face of adversity.

 

As well we congratulate and thank all other organizations, especially Amnesty International, for having done such a wonderful job of bringing pressure onto the appropriate Iranian authorities to revisit and nullify her unfair convictions.

 

We also thank those Iranian authorities whose good judgment and commitment to justice led to her eventual release.

 

Robert Russell

Executive Director

Cartoonists Rights Network International

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Artist/Activist Atena Farghadani has had her 12-year, nine-month prison sentence reduced, CRNI Deputy-Director Nik Kowsar has learned.  Appeal Court No. 54 of the Province of Tehran has reduced the artist’s sentence to 18 months — which, by her lawyer’s calculation, means Atena Farghadani should be out of prison sometime in May.

Cartoon by Fadi Abou Hassan, courtesy of FadiToOn

Nik writes: Ms. Farghadani “has been acquitted from charges of undermining national security, and her three year imprisonment for insulting the Supreme Leader has been suspended for four years.

“The 9 month sentence of insulting the President, Members of Parliament and the guards of ward 2-A of Evin prison has changed to a monetary fine (not yet determined).  The 18 months prison for ‘propaganda against the regime’ has been confirmed by the appelate court.

“I have not been able to talk to Atena’s father yet, but I thanked her lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, on CRNI’s behalf for his great work and devotion.”

Atena Farghadani’s trial stemmed from a cartoon she drew and posted on Facebook, which protested a move by Iran’s Parliament to reduce womens’ rights.  Ms. Farghadani was presented CRNI’s Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award in absentia in 2015.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network

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Iranian authorities have confirmed to UN investigators that imprisoned artist/activist Atena Farghadani was forcibly subjected to “virginity and pregnancy tests.”   The admissions are reported in the just-published UN Human Rights Council report on Iran.

The UN’s Special Rapporteurs on Torture and Violence Against Women classify enforced virginity testing of prisoners a “violation of the right to dignity, the right not to be subjected to ill-treatment and constitute a particularly gross form of discrimination and of custodial violence.”

Excerpts from the Report of the Secretary-General on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran:

“On 10 January 2015, Atena Farghdani, a peaceful activist and artist, was arrested and beaten in front of her parents and later in front of a court judge.  In June 2015, she received a sentence of 12 years and six months of imprisonment.  While in prison, she was reportedly subject to torture, sexual harassment and degrading detention conditions.  Furthermore, she was reportedly forced to take virginity and pregnancy tests, and held in prolonged solitary confinement for 20 days.

“In their comments on this report, the [Iranian] authorities stated that prison authorities carried out tests to respond to allegations of sexual assault against her on some websites.“

Atena Farghadani contradicts the official Iranian account that the enforced procedures were in response to Internet reports of sexual assault.  In a letter smuggled from her cell, Ms. Farghadani says she was subjected to the enforced virginity testing after being charged with “improper sexual contact” for shaking hands with her lawyer during a monitored prison visit in June, 2015.

CRNI’s founder and chief executive Robert Russell has called for Atena Farghadani’s immediate release in an open letter to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network

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