CARTOONISTS RIGHTS welcomes the news that activist, cartoonist, and visual artist Atena Farghadani has been freed from Evin Prison, Tehran where she was held since mid-April following her arrest over a cartoon poster placed on Pasteur Street, near government buildings, as an act of protest.
As we reported in June, Atena Farghadani had been sentenced to six years for crimes related to insulting religious sensibilities and propagandizing against the state, a prison term characterized by her lawyer as the “harshest punishment” following a “sham trial”. Earlier in the year, Ms Farghadani had been informed by officials that if she traveled to attend a planned exhibit of her artwork at the Oslo Freedom Forum she would be arrested upon her return. It was this that prompted her act of protest, and that led to her third period in prison after the notorious and well-publicized stretch in 2014-16 (winning our Courage in Cartooning Award in 2015) and a brief spell in the summer of 2023.
While held this year Ms Farghadani had refused to recognize the legitimacy of the prosecution mounted against her and did not participate in court hearings. A recent and successful appeal saw June’s convictions overturned, and a guilty verdict handed down on a lesser charge related to another piece of artwork, a cartoon about class inequality. This carried a prison sentence of eight months, evidently backdated to her arrest as she was released Tuesday, December 10th (happily, the date marked internationally as Human Rights Day). This action comes days after the release of activist and rap artist Toomaj Salehi, previously sentenced to death for his involvement in the feminist protest movement that ensued after the 2022 killing of Mahsa Amini.
It is our understanding that Atena Farghadani was subjected to violence at the time of her arrest, and she has always given accounts of poor treatment while a prisoner, up to an including attempts to poison her. We await details on the status of her health after these eight months inside Evin Prison.
CARTOONISTS RIGHTS takes the view that Atena Farghadani has been subjected to systematic, protracted judicial harassment and lasting harm by the Islamic Republic of Iran; this abuse must end now, and henceforth she must be permitted to live in peace.
