Iranian Writer Rashno to Serve Nearly Four-Year Prison Sentence

Sepideh Rashno, an Iranian writer, poet and vocal critic of compulsory hijab, says she will go to prison to serve a three-year-and-11-month term handed to her for "publishing obscene images" on social media.  

Rashno said on her Instagram account that she was also barred from traveling.

"A travel ban for someone who doesn't intend to leave," Rashno wrote.

Rashno was arrested in July 2022 after she was filmed arguing with a woman on a bus over the mandatory headscarf. 

Two weeks later, state TV aired a program showing her giving a forced confession while signs of beatings were visible even on her face.

In June last year, she announced that she was released on bail after being summoned again by the authorities, but was "banned from leaving Tehran."

Previously, she had reported that Al-Zahra University had banned her from studying for two semesters due to the "non-observance of Islamic clothing."

All women in Iran must conceal their hair with a hijab while in public and wear loose fitting trousers under their coats.

Iranian women who refuse to wear a head covering have been arrested and prosecuted amid a wave of protests sparked by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody after being detained by police for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly.