Iranian-Kurdish journalist and blogger Zhina Modares Gorji was first arrested on September 21, 2022 during the nationwide protests in Iran following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini. She released on bail after 40 days. The journalist was arrested again on April 10, 2023 in her bookstore and detained for more than 80 days before being released on bail again on July 5, 2023. Authorities also temporarily shut down the bookstore.
On May 25, 2024, Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary court in Sanandaj initially sentenced Modares-Gorji to 21 years in prison on charges of “forming an illegal group and colluding with the intent to overthrow the system,” “collaboration with hostile states,” and “spreading propaganda against the system” for her coverage of Mahsa Amini's case.
On September 25, 2024, her sentence was reduced to two years and four months when she was acquitted from the charge of “collaborating with the hostile states” on appeal, according to Iraqi-Kurdish human rights organization Hengaw. The journalist began serving her sentencing on November 2, 2024, when she was arrested at her bookstore.
In a statement on Instagram before she began serving her sentence, she wrote: "Today, I am going to a prison where marginalization and discrimination are multiplied by three: Women's ward in Sanandaj Prison. Marginalization and discrimination based on gender, class, and nationality. Yet, as I was packing my things for prison, more than anything, I placed hope in my suitcase. I am going there with hope,” exile-based IranWire reported.
Modares-Gorji, Kurdish Feminist Journalist, was released from the women’s ward of Sanandaj Central Prison in Kurdistan province on 22 September 2025 after completing her sentence.
CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York city in December 2024 for comment on the case of Modares Gorji and other imprisoned Iranian journalists but received no response.