Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani is serving a six-year sentence in Tehran's Evin prison on charges of "insulting Islamic principles," "spreading propaganda against the state,” and “disturbing the public order.”
Farghadani was arrested on April 13th, 2024, in downtown Tehran while she was trying to hang one of her comics near the compound of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in protest of what her lawyer described as ongoing pressure against the cartoonist and her family. The lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, told CPJ that prior to her arrest, Farghadani was banned from working or attending university in Iran or traveling abroad and that her phone and family home were surveilled.
Moghimi told BBC Persian service that Farghadani was severely beaten during her arrest, leading to visible injuries to her face. She was sentenced to six years in prison on June 10, 2024, by Judge Iman Afshari of Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court.
CPJ was unable to determine the status of her health in prison.
Farghadani was also detained in 2023 after she published a satirical political cartoon of people with animal and satanic faces, and was imprisoned in 2016 and in 2014.
Cartoonists Rights Network International awarded its 2015 Courage in Editorial Cartooning to Farghadani.
CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York city in late 2024 comment on the case of Farghadani and other imprisoned Iranian journalists but received no response.