Jailed Women's Rights Defender Barred from Retrial

A 22-year-old Iranian civil rights activist is facing a decade and a half in prison after her request for a retrial was rejected by the judiciary, while her mother has also been jailed for trying to follow up on her case.

Saba Kord Afshari, a civil rights activist and opponent of compulsory hijab in Iran, was first arrested in August 2018 for attending a protest in downtown Iran. The student was later released in February 2019 on a pardon, but then rearrested in June. This time she was taken to Evin Prison and pressured into giving a false confession.

In August last year, Kord Afshari was sentenced by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to 24 years in prison, the bulk of which related to “spreading corruption and prostitution by taking off her hijab and walking without a veil” – of which, she was told, she would have to serve at least 15.

The Court of Appeal reduced Kord Afshari’s sentence to nine years in December 2019, but her additional 15-year sentence was later reinstated, unlawfully and in secret, earlier this year. Now, a source close to the case has told IranWire that Kord Afshari’s lawyers have been blocked from requesting a retrial.

Representatives of Kord Afshari were notified of the decision by Branch 28 of the Supreme Court on November 4. The court did not give a reason for the rejection and the lawyers have since re-issued their request for a fair trial again, citing “violations” committed in Kord Afshari’s case.

"Based on the law itself,” the source said, “there is no proportionality between Saba's crime and the punishment issued to her. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison on the charge of "spreading corruption and prostitution" for removing her hijab in the street and posting photos on social media. Judges have issued much milder punishments in similar cases."

Lawyers had intended to challenge the illegal process by which Kord Afshari was first re-arrested in mid-2019, and then had her longer sentence reinstated after the Court of Appeal’s decision. It has taken five months for the Supreme Court to respond to their initial request for a retrial.

Amnesty International has issued repeated calls for Kord Afshari’s release. In its latest statement, the charity insisted that Kord Ashfari “must be immediately and unconditionally released as she is held solely for her human rights work including campaigning against Iran’s discriminatory forced veiling laws.”

In September this year Kord Ashfari was briefly transferred from Evin Prison to Taleghani Hospital, suffering from a severe stomach problem that required medical treatment. But she only underwent an ultrasound, when she also needed a colonoscopy and an endoscopy, before being returned to prison. According to the regulations of Iran’s Prisons Organization, the prison authorities are required to foot the bill for any and all medical needs of prisoners. "No action has been taken since then,” the source told IranWire, “and Saba is still on the women's ward of Evin Prison while bleeding and in pain.”

Saba Kord Afshari’s mother, Raheleh Ahmadi, is also being held in Evin Prison. She was arrested on going to Evin Prison Court to follow up on her daughter’s condition. Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Ahmadi to three years and six months in jail on charges of "conspiracy and collusion against national security" for speaking to “dissident” media. She had posted videos on social media about her daughter’s arrest, which had in turn been republished by Persian-language outlets abroad.

"Saba's mother was also very upset to hear that her daughter's sentence was upheld," the source said. "But it seems we cannot expect anything from the Iranian judiciary other than the confirmation of the previously-issued verdicts.”

Saba Kord-Afshari and Raheleh Ahmadi are not the only mother-and-daughter pair behind bars for defending their civil rights. Monireh Arabshahi and Yasaman Aryani were also imprisoned in 2019 for taking part in a peaceful protest on the Tehran underground against mandatory veiling in Iran.

Public gestures of defiance against compulsory hijab in Iran became widespread from 2017 in response to Masih Alinejad’s White Wednesdays campaign, which encouraged women in Iran to wear white headscarves or other pieces of white clothing in protest against the arcane law.

It culminated in a young woman named Vida Mohaved, who became known as the Girl of Enghelab Street, symbolically removing her white headscarf in the middle of a public highway in Iran and tying it to a wooden stick, waving it before onlookers like a flag. For this Mohaved was arrested and jailed, and the then-prosecuter of Tehran, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, later claimed that she had been suffering from mental illness.

Since then more and more women have joined the cause – and in some cases have also been supported by men. Dozens of women, including Maryam Shariatmadari, Hamraz Sadeghi, Narges Hosseini, Azam Jangravi, Mojgan Keshavarz and Shaparak Shajarizadeh, were arrested and jailed for removing their headscarves in public as an act of peaceful civil disobedience. The lawyer who represented some of them, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was subsequently arrested herself and sentenced to 38 years in prison in March 2019.

Related coverage:

Civil Activist, 21, Sentenced to 24 Years in Prison

The Women’s Ward at Evin: Prisoners Denied Medical Treatment and Family Visits

Activists Arrested for Handing out Flowers

The Woman Who Stood Up Against Forced Hijab

More Women Protest by Removing their Hijabs

Human Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh Sentenced to 38 Years in Prison