UPDATE: following a successful appeal in the first week of December 2024, the criminal charges of “insulting the sacred” against Atena Farghadani were dropped. Found guilty on a lesser charge, she was sentenced to eight months imprisonment. Therefore CARTOONISTS RIGHTS and its counterparts around the world eagerly anticipate Ms Farghadani’s release in 2025 and, in the meantime, remain very concerned about her health and well-being.
CARTOONISTS RIGHTS and our partner organizations around the world have reacted with horror as it emerged this week that the Revolutionary Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran sentenced Atena Farghadani to six years in prison.
Iranian activist, artist, and cartoonist Atena Farghadani has been held since April, when allegations of serious violence were made following her arrest as she attempted to post artwork on a wall in Pasteur Street, Tehran, in close proximity to governmental buildings.
Today, the following organizations call for her immediate release, and safe return to her family:
- Africartoons
- Artists at Risk Connection (ARC)
- Association of Canadian Cartoonists (ACC)
- Cartoon Movement
- Cartooning for Peace
- Cartoonists Rights
- Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
- Forum for Humor and the Law (FORHUM)
- Freedom Cartoonists Foundation
- Freemuse
- Index on Censorship
- Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation (PCO)
On Monday, it was stated by lawyer Mohammad Moghimi that Ms Farghadani had been sentenced to six years for crimes related to insulting religious sensibilities and propagandizing against the state, a prison term he characterized as the “harshest punishment” following a “sham trial”. He had previously stated that Farghadani was refusing to present herself in court and did not acknowledge the legitimacy of the proceedings against her. In addition, he said she had her rights to visitation withdrawn after attempting to protect a fellow inmate from a guard.
In recent days Farghadani’s work has been exhibited at the Human Rights Foundation’s 16th Oslo Freedom Forum.
Credit: Mohammad Moghimi via Instagram
“It is sadly ironic that this sentencing should have come within a week of Atena Faghadani’s stunning, evocative artwork having been showcased before the world’s leading human rights defenders. The last time she was imprisoned Atena earned our Courage in Cartooning Award. I see that the past decade has not changed her character; she is as undaunted an advocate for the rights of all in Iran as ever. This latest and grotesquely disproportionate attempt by the Islamic Republic’s regime to silence her cannot go unopposed. We will keep campaigning until she is released.”
Terry Anderson – Executive Director, Cartoonists Rights
