Iranian regime’s absurd charge to pressure a female caricaturist in prison

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran announced in a 

statement: Iranian regime misogynic regime has arbitrarily sent Atena Farghadani, a young caricaturist, to court on October 3 to issue another verdict against her and bring her under added pressure. Ms. Farghadani has been in prison since January 2015 for her cartoon of regime’s parliamentarians. The Iranian regime is ludicrously alleging that she has “illegitimate sub-adultery relationship” with her lawyer for shaking hands with him.

In a statement one day prior to the sham court, Amnesty International said: “The trial of satirical cartoonist Atena Farghadani and her lawyer on a charge of ‘illegitimate sexual relations falling short of adultery’ after they shook hands is not only absurd and extreme but clearly politically motivated… Both Atena Farghadani, whom Amnesty International regards as a prisoner of conscience, and her lawyer Mohammad Moghimi may face up to 99 lashes if found guilty. The organization believes the cartoonist and activist has been detained solely for exercising her right to freedom of expression.”

Atena Farghadani was first arrested in August 2014 for drawing a cartoon depicting Iranian regime’s parliamentarians as animals who ratify misogynic laws. This cartoon was published after laws were adopted to increase the population as envisioned and ordered by regime’s supreme leader. She was released in two months on bail. After her release, she posted a video on YouTube where she described mistreatment and aggression against women in regime’s prisons.

Ms. Farghadani was once again arrested in January 2015 on the charge of “assembling and collaborating against national security”, “propaganda activity against the system” and “insulting the supreme leader, President, parliamentarians, and agents in IRGC Ward 2A during interrogation” and was condemned to 12 years and 9 months in prison. This female cartoonist won the “Cartoonists Rights Network International” Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning on September 5, 2015.

Ms. Sarvnaz Shitsaz, Women’s Committee Chair of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, condemned the absurd and dirty charge of the Iranian regime against Ms. Atena Farghadani and her lawyer and urged all human rights, women’s rights, and defenders of freedom of expression institutions to act to gain the freedom of this young Iranian caricaturist.