12 December 2024
Release of Atena Farghadani: a relief after months of injustice
Atena Farghadani was violently arrested on 13 April 2024 by intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) when she tried to display a drawing near the presidential palace in Tehran. Since then, she was held in Evin prison, infamous for its detention conditions. She has just been released after nearly 8 months in prison.
On 10 June, she was sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Revolutionary Court, including 5 years for “insulting the sacred” and one year for “propaganda against the State”. These charges were clearly motivated by her commitment and opinions.
On 10 December 2024, her lawyer announced her release, following a decision by the Court of Appeal. On 9 December, a post on the cartoonist’s Instagram account stated that Atena Farghadani ‘was acquitted of the charge of insulting the sacred, and was sentenced to 8 months for her cartoon on class disparity.’ This new 8-month prison sentence, which appears to have been issued retrospectively, relates to a cartoon entitled ‘Class inequality’.
This appeal decision comes in a context in which other figures imprisoned for their stance, such as the rapper Toomaj Saleh, arrested in October 2022 and whose death sentence was overturned in June 2024 by the Supreme Court, and Narges Mohammadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 and imprisoned since November 2021, have also seen their situation change.
Cartooning for Peace welcomes the release of Atena Farghadani, who was unjustly arrested, beaten and sentenced because of her commitment to human rights and freedom of expression, but reiterates that no one should be imprisoned for expressing their beliefs. While her release is a relief, it also underlines the need to continue to denounce the injustices rampant in Iran.
PRESS RELEASE – 13 June 2024
Facing “harshest punishment” for her activism, Atena Farghadani must be released immediately
We are dismayed to learn that the Iranian activist, artist, and cartoonist Atena Farghadani has been sentenced to a total of six years in prison; five years for “insulting the sacred” and one year for “propaganda against the State”. This sentence was handed down by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Revolutionary Court on Monday, June 10, as confirmed by lawyer Mohammad Moghimi via social media. The maximum penalties are indicative of the Iranian regime’s long-standing determination to persecute and silence this courageous rights defender.
Atena Farghadani had been detained since April 13 2024 after attempting to display a drawing in a public space, not far from the presidential palace in Tehran. Over the past decade, she has been regularly monitored and harassed due to her art and activities opposing the repression of rights in Iran, especially those of women and children.
Previously jailed in 2014-16, and again for a short period last summer, Atena Farghadani risks coming to harm within the penal system. In 2023 she alleged an attempted poisoning. At the time of her arrest this year she reported that she suffered severe injuries from Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel.
Artwork by Atena Farghadani was recently exhibited in Norway, at the sixteenth Oslo Forum for Freedom (OFF) organized by the Human Rights Foundation, dedicated to “reclaiming democracy”. In the presence of human rights defenders from around the world, Atena Farghadani’s representative Mohammad Moghimi ensured that her voice was heard, a voice that is both brave and righteous, and is targeted because she dares to defy oppression and injustice in her country.
Our organizations call for her immediate release and that she be returned to her family unharmed.
22 April 2024
Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), PEN America, Cartooning for Peace, Cartoonists Rights, and Freedom Cartoonists Foundation Condemn the Arrest and Mistreatment of Iranian Cartoonist Atena Farghadani and Call for her Immediate Release
(NEW YORK) — Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), PEN America, Cartooning for Peace, Cartoonists Rights, and the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation condemn the violent arrest of Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani and call for her immediate release from Evin prison. Farghadani was arrested by intelligence agents from the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) on April 13, 2024, while attempting to post one of her drawings on the Pasteur Avenue wall, where the presidential palace is located. According to her lawyer, she suffered severe mistreatment during her arrest, leaving visible scarring on her face.
On April 13, Farghadani was attempting to post some of her caricature artwork in public on a wall on Pasteur Street in Tehran, near the compound of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, when she was detained by security agents from the IRGC. According to information Atena shared with her husband (when he visited her in prison on April 21) and passed on to her lawyer, she was initially taken to a so-called “safe house” run by the IRGC and was severely beaten. She became unconscious after being struck several times on her nose and head. When she regained consciousness she found herself in the prayer room of the Fateb security police detention center. She noticed that she was missing some pieces of clothing that she had been wearing during the arrest. When they were returned to her, they were stained with blood, though they had been washed. On April 14, 2024 she was transferred to Evin court where she had a hearing on two charges: “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the sacred [the Messiah the twelfth Imam Shia].” According to her lawyer, she is being held in Evin Prison and will be brought to a Revolutionary Court.
Farghadani was last arrested in June 2023 after posting a satirical cartoon on her Instagram account earlier that day. She was later released on bail. In August 2014, Farghadani was sentenced to 12 years and nine months imprisonment for “spreading propaganda against the system,” “insulting members of the parliament through paintings,” and “gathering and colluding against national security.” Following public pressure and a joint letter signed by dozens of leading cartoonists, human rights groups, and other supporters calling for Farghadani’s immediate release, an appeals court reduced her sentence to 18 months in April 2016. She was released from Evin Prison on May 3, 2016.
Read the full Joint Statement on Atena Farghadani
15 April 2024
On 15 April 2024, the non-governmental organisation HRANA published an article drawing attention to the situation of the Iranian press cartoonist and former political prisoner Atena Farghadani. Arrested on 13 April and detained in Evin prison, she was clearly ill-treated during her arrest. She was allegedly arrested for trying to display one of her drawings on the wall of Avenue Pastor, where the presidential palace is located. The criminal charges against her have yet to be confirmed.
Cartooning for Peace has been working in support of Atena Farghadani since her first arrest in 2014 and her conviction in June 2015, followed by her arrest on 9 June 2023 (see below). We share the concerns of her family and her lawyer and call for her immediate release.
Text updated on 22 April 2024
19 December 2023
Atena Farghadani (Iran) awaiting the verdict of her trial.
A press release from Cartoonists Rights sheds light on the circumstances and motive behind the arrest of cartoonist Atena Farghadani in June 2023 (see below).
Arrested and then released on bail, cartoonist Atena Farghadani has been brought before a court and is awaiting a verdict. She is accused of insulting the Supreme Leader, Ministry of Intelligence officials and the Minister of Intelligence in the cartoon opposite.
According to Cartoonists Rights, which spoke to the artist’s lawyer, Atena has been unfairly accused of disturbing the peace. After being intimidated by intelligence agents while running a painting workshop in a Tehran public park last February, Atena and her husband were followed home and, according to her, her husband was physically assaulted.
Following this episode, she was summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence and, instead of showing identification, she presented the cartoon opposite, which was also posted on her Instagram account shortly before her arrest in June.
Cartooning for Peace is awaiting the verdict and is calling for all charges against the artist to be dropped, in the name of respect for her freedom of expression.
19 July 2023
Atena Farghadana finally released on bail.
Cartoonists rights shared news of Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani. After being admitted in an intensive care unit, she was finally released on bail. However, the risks of her appearing in court again remain.
Cartooning for Peace continues to monitor the evolving situation and, like Cartoonists Rights, calls for an immediate end to the abuse of the cartoonist.
30 June 2023
Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani has been transferred to an intensive care unit in a Tehran hospital.
According to the latest information provided by her lawyer and shared by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Cartoonists Rights , the cartoonist was admitted to intensive care on
21 June 2023 after being assaulted in prison and going on hunger strike because her food had been poisoned.
Atena Farghadani was arrested on 07 June 2023 and has since been held in Qarchak women’s prison. Charged with disturbing public order, this is not the first time she has faced Iranian justice. Between 2014 and 2016 , she had already been imprisoned for eighteen months on various charges.
In light of this worrying announcement, Cartooning for Peace is following the situation very closely.
12 June 2023
Following widespread press reports of the arrest and detention of Iranian artist, activist and cartoonist Atena Farghadani in Tehran on June 7th 2023, CARTOONISTS RIGHTS, Cartooning For Peace, and the FREEDOM CARTOONISTS Foundation call for prosecutors in the Islamic Republic of Iran to drop the charges of “disturbing public order” and release Ms. Farghadani immediately.
According to her lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi: “Since her release in 2016, intelligence and security agents have harassed her many times, including prevention from employment, tapping her phone and disturbing her private life. These cases have caused her to protest against the agencies responsible and that has become the basis for her detention.”
It was Mr Moghimi who on June 8th and via Twitter confirmed her arrest after a summons to the courthouse at Evin Prison. The next day he further stated: “A bail in the amount of [$4,200] has been issued for my client Atena Farghdani, and she refused to accept the bail with the argument that she has not committed a crime and that her summons and charges are illegal and arbitrary, and for this reason, she was transferred to [the Qarchak Prison for women, outside Tehran].
From a trusted source we have learned the charges articulated so far relate to disturbance of the public order. After an absence of some three years and three months, Ms Farghadani took to her Instagram account last week and prior to her court summons had posted images of a new coloured pencil drawing. Despite much speculation online, at this time we have no reason to believe she was arrested because of this social media post.
Ms Farghadani was awarded the Courage in Cartooning Award by Cartoonists Rights in 2015, after a 2014 drawing posted to Facebook and depicting parliamentarians as animals, an objection to laws restricting women’s reproductive choices, led to a series of criminal charges including “spreading propaganda against the system”, “insulting members of parliament through paintings”, “gathering and colluding against national security”, “insulting the President”, and “insulting prison officials”.
After eighteen months in prison, all sentences were commuted or reduced, save one; over the following four years of her life Farghadani could have gone to prison again at any time under a suspended sentence of “insulting the Iranian Supreme Leader”.
Whilst a prisoner Ms Farghadani was severely abused and subjected to virginity and pregnancy tests against her will, practices that are designated torture by international human rights standards. She spent a period on hunger strike and suffered a heart attack. After a handshake between herself and Mr Moghimi she faced additional criminal charges of “’illicit sexual relations falling short of adultery”.
Hence, now that the same authorities have Ms Farghadani in custody again, there is good cause to fear escalation and further charges to come, as well as dire mistreatment.
In our view, Atena Farghadani is a prisoner of conscience, there is no justification for her detention, and we demand her immediate and unconditional release.
9 June 2023
Cartoonist Atena Farghadani detained in Iran
Iranian cartoonist Atena Faghadani, winner of the Cartoonists Rights Courage in Editorial cartoon Award in 2015 and who had already been imprisoned in 2014 and 2015, was re-arrested on 7 June 2023 without any charges having been revealed to date.
The cartoonist’s lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, announced her summons to the Evin courthouse (Tehran) on Twitter on 7 June.
امروز ۱۷ خرداد، موکلم آتنا فرقدانی نقاش، کاریکاتوریست و زندانی سیاسی سابق به دادسرای اوین احضار و بازداشت شد.#آتنا_فرقدانی#کارتونیست#زندانی_سیاسی pic.twitter.com/8udCWJzE7h
— Mohammad Moghimi (@Moghimi_Lawyer) June 7, 2023
“Today, 17 June, my client Atena Farghdani, painter, cartoonist and former political prisoner, was summoned to Evin courthouse and arrested.” (Translation into english of the tweet)
Today, the lawyer reported that the cartoonist had refused to be released on bail of approximately 4,000 € (EUR), on the grounds that she had committed no crime and that the charges against her were illegal and arbitrary.
برای موکلم آتنا فرقدانی قرار وثیقه به میزان ۲ میلیارد ریال صادر شده و ایشان با این استدلال که جرمی مرتکب نشدهاند و احضار و تفهیم اتهام وی غیرقانونی و خودسرانه است، از پذیرش قرار وثیقه خودداری کردند و به همین علت به زندان شهرری منتقل شدند#آتنا_فرقدانی #زندانی_سیاسی #کارتونیست pic.twitter.com/siFovHF3Fe
— Mohammad Moghimi (@Moghimi_Lawyer) June 9, 2023
“Bail in the sum of approximately 2 billion rials was issued for my client Athena Farghdani, but she refused to accept the bail, arguing that she had committed no crime and that her summons and charges were illegal and arbitrary, and for this reason she was transferred to Shahreri prison.” (Translation into english of the tweet)
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Atena published a cartoon for the first time since 2020 on her Instagram account on 7 June 2023.
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
Cartooning for Peace will continue to monitor developments in the case.
