Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer in Iran has reportedly been jailed for thirty eight years on account of several national security charges, all of which she profusely denies. Many human rights activists and groups have publicly criticized her arrest calling it a disgrace and an outrage to human rights activists everywhere. Sotoudeh is an award winning activist who has devoted her life to human rights cases in her own country, and she has received notoriety for her work ethic and her passion for maintaining the rights of citizens in Iranian law. She is specifically known for representing women in Iran who have protested wearing headscarves, which gained her national as well as international attention. Besides women’s rights, she has also spoken out strongly against the death penalty, which has made her widely hated in some parts of Iran and within the government. Now, many believe that it is her human rights work and her vocal nature against controversial issues that has warranted her arrest, thought the Iranian government has maintained that she spread information against the state, insulted Iran’s prime minister, and spied on the country’s government. Sotoudeh is not the only human rights lawyer who has faced an arrest under these circumstances in Iran. In fact, in the past year, at least six additional human rights lawyers have been arrested in the country, all of whom pushed boundaries in Iran’s society and in the laws of the Iranian government. This is also not Miss Sotoudeh’s first arrest. She was jailed from 2010 to 2013 as a political prisoner on charges of spreading propaganda and conspiring to harm state security. She however, denies these claims and maintains her innocence in both arrests. Hopefully, her arrest will bring more attention to the oppression of human rights and group activists within Iran.
