A court in Iran has convicted Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights activist and lawyer, due to the fact that she campaigned against the compulsory use of headscarves by women in the country. The judge sentenced her to 33 years imprisonment plus 148 lashes the crime.
Nasrin had been in custody since last year for defending ladies who took off their headscarves in public. The ladies had posted a video recording of the moment they removed their scarves in public, on social media, in a bid to protest the compulsory headscarves rule in the country.
Nasrin was subsequently apprehended and accused of publicizing fake reports, spying, as well as disrespecting the country’s leader.
According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, the activist was on Monday, March 11, sentenced to five years imprisonment for threatening national security by rallying other people to support her cause. She was equally given a 2-year jail sentence for saying negative words against Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Before her most recent conviction, Nasrin had been sentenced to a five-year jail term in 2016.
This takes the years she would spend behind bars to 12. However, her husband explained that she was given a 33-year jail sentence instead.
On his Facebook page, he wrote: “Five years of prison for the first case and 33 years with 148 lashes for the second.”
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has reacted to the news, stating that the verdict was shocking and demanded Nasrin’s immediate release.
A statement by the director in charge of the organization in the Middle East and North Africa, Philip Luther, reads:
It is absolutely shocking that Nasrin Sotoudeh is facing nearly four decades in jail and 148 lashes for her peaceful human rights work, including her defense of women protesting against Iran’s degrading forced hijab laws.
Nasrin Sotoudeh must be released immediately and unconditionally and this obscene sentence quashed without delay.
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