38 years in prison. 148 lashes. Denied visits from her children and unable to choose her own lawyer. This is what faces Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer and activist in Iran. What many of us in the UK don’t understand is that the protection of human rights is something we are privileged to call a reality. Rightfully, when we see human rights violations we are shocked. But for billions of people around the world their human rights are in constant threat.
Nasrin Sotoudeh
To speak of our rights and protest our complaints is gift from a healthy democracy. Your freedom of speech, freedom of religion and your freedom to life even. In other parts of the world these are debatable. Feminism is not over. There - the ugly word. Feminism. In our own comfortable worlds gender inequality and violations to women's rights are minimal. However, there are still billions of women around the world who can only dream of the freedom we British women in many ways have. In Iran, a woman being arrested for protesting compulsory headcoverings is not a one-time isolated event. It happens frequently and forcefully.
Writing from prision Sotoudeh wrote a plea for peace on International women's day. She says:
'Currently, I am in the women’s ward which consists of three rooms and forty inmates. Most have been arrested for political reasons. The occupants of Evin Prison’s women’s ward are human right activists, women’s rights activists, civil and environmental activists, religious minorities and mystics, members of labor movements, and individuals with dual citizenship who are accused of spying.'
Read her full plea: https://time.com/5797828/nasrin-sotoudeh-iran-evin-prison/
She has spent years defending children on death row. Campaigned against the death penalty in Iran where 73 under 18s have been put to death between 2005-2015.
To protest for choice and freedom is an act against the state. Out of her many charges Sotoudeh was charged 12 years for 'promoting immorality and indecency.'
Sotoudeh was charged in June 2018 for spying, spreading propaganda and insulting Iran’s supreme leader. Sotoudeh is not a criminal or a villain. She is a renowned human rights activist, lawyer and a champion for women and children’s rights. Caring for women and children’s rights cannot extend only to your communities, if you claim to care about women - you must use your voice to protect the rights of women on the other side of the world.
Evin Prision, Iran, where Sotoudeh is currently imprisioned.
What lies ahead for Sotoudeh? Join me in signing this petition by Amnesty International in demanding her freedom. No one should face 38 years for defending human rights.
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