Initial Reports: Atena Farghadani Receives 14-Year Sentence



It took a little more than the promised week, but some wire reports are surfacing this morning that say back on May 28 Atena Farghadani was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. I don't see the widespread confirmation on English-language news organization sites that I would guess might come with a story like this one, but there has been some stop and start reporting on the story as I've come across it.

Farghadani was arrested and jailed in 2014 after publishing a cartoon in which lawmakers voting against women's health rights were depicted as animals. She went on a hunger and then a thirst strike while jailed (she was at one point kept in the notorious Evin Prison). When released, she criticized the way she was treated and imprisoned again. A trial May 19 was criticized by Farghadani and others for the aggressive treatment by Judge Abu'l-Qasim Salavati, which didn't anyone much hope for a positive outcome.

Farghadani is 28 years old.

As is the case with a lot of people, this strikes me as an appalling decison, a combination of any number of things including a system that has judges like Salivati ensconced within it as little eddies of despair for anyone that gets caught in their pull (Farghadani and her circle were never convinced of a happy result) and laws that remove sitting politicians -- who already have pull over the court system in a lot of countries -- from any kind of criticism for their actions or behavior. She seems to have great potential as the focuse of international outrage, and I hope that whatever needs to happen on her behalf for her to have a better life happens.
 
posted 7:55 pm PST | Permalink
 

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