Activist Sepideh Gholian is Released

Iranian activist and political prisoner Sepideh Gholian was released from Evin prison on Wednesday, her brother announced.

“My sister Sepideh was freed today after a months-long pause,” her brother Mehdi Gholian wrote on social media.

He said her release came amid grief over the execution of Mojahed Kourkour, referring to the protester executed earlier on Wednesday.

“Although we waited years for this moment… sadly it coincided with losing our brother,” he wrote.

Gholian had completed her two-year sentence and was held for nearly three additional months without legal explanation.

She was convicted of Supreme Leader “insulting Ali Khamenei” and sentenced to two years in prison.

According to her sentence, she should have been released in March, but authorities delayed her release for several months without providing a specific reason.

One relative said, “They suddenly released her… they didn’t allow her to return to the ward to say goodbye. We were also shocked.”

She has written a kbook from inside Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, documenting how female inmates bake cakes and pastries as acts of defiance against the Islamic Republic.

“The Evin Prison Bakers’ Club: Surviving Iran’s Most Notorious Prison in 16 Recipes” was smuggled out of the prison.

Gholian has spent most of the past six and a half years in jail for labor activism.

She was last arrested in 2023 after posting a video removing her hijab and denouncing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.