Tuesday, May 03, 2016
Iranian Cartoonist Atena Farghadani Released
A legal victory in Iran means a cartoonist
sentenced to 12 years will be released early
Fadi Abou Hassan, a Palestinian cartoonist in exile in
Norway, drew this cartoon to celebrate the impending release of Iranian artist
and activist Atena Farghadani.
FadiToOnCourtesy
Iranian artist Atena Farghadani had been languishing
in Evin Prison serving a 12-year-sentence for a 2014 cartoon she posted on
Facebook that portrayed Iranian lawmakers as humans with the faces of monkeys
and goats.
Atena Farghadani posted this cartoon to Facebook in
2014. She was protesting the Iranian parliament's then plan to not allow
Iranian women to buy birth control in order to increase the population of Iran.
Atena Farghadani
The cartoon was mocking the members of Iran's
parliament, who at the time were calling for bans on women acquiring birth
control as a way to increase the population of Iran. But last week Farghadani's sentence was drastically reduced and she'll be
eligible to be released in a few weeks.
Iranian cartoonist Nik Kowsar credits Farghadani's
lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, for finding a way through Iran's legal thicket.
"I believe her lawyer did a
very good job defending her," Kowsar says, "not making the case
political but doing a legal battle with the court."
Instead of making Farghadani an international cause
célèbre, Moghimi focused on the intention of her cartoon. In the end, he
was able to get the Iranian appeals court to acquit Farghadani
of "assembly and collusion against the state" and he also had
her sentence for "insulting the Supreme Leader" suspended.
A nine-month sentence for
"insulting" the current president and other Iranian officials
was reduced to a fine. That left just an 18-month prison sentence for "propaganda
against the state" and that term is up as of early May.
Kowsar also spent time in Evin Prison in
2000 for a cartoon that offended Iranian authorities.
Eventually he resettled in the United States and now
works with the human rights group Cartoonists Rights Network International to
help cartoonists around the world who are persecuted for their craft.
He says 29-year-old Farghadani is not strictly a
cartoonist but that didn't matter.
"We had not seen any cartoons from Atena in the
past but this specific artwork was a cartoon so that's why CRNI started
supporting her," he says. In 2015, CRNI awarded Atena Farghadani their
annual Courage in Cartooning Award.
CRNI, led by Kowsar, also wrote an open letter to the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani. "Though we knew that the Iranian president does not have
anything to do with the judiciary, we thought maybe his office was able to
possibly lobby on behalf of all the organizations that were signatories to that
campaign."
Kowsar and CRNI sought out IFEX, a clearinghouse of
more than 80 freedom of speech organizations around the globe. "Through IFEX we were able to get lots of signatures and also many
cartoonists — well-known artists — actually signed that letter and it was
sent to the Iranian president."
A separate "drawing" campaign began as
well. In 2015, visual storyteller and Washington Post
columnist Michael Cavna created the hashtag #Draw4Atena. Cartoonists around the world responded. See some of those responses here.
Atena Farghadani, the Iranian cartoonist and
activist who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for drawing a politically
sensitive cartoon, was released from Evin Prison today, May 3, 2016.
Speaking to Journalism Is Not A
Crime, Farghadani’s lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, confirmed the news of her
release.
The 29-year-old cartoonist has been held
in Tehran’s brutal Evin Prison since she was arrested on January 10,
2015. She was initially sentenced to 12 years and nine months in
prison by the notorious Judge Salavati of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary
Court.
Her sentence was based on a wide
range of charges for drawing a cartoon that depicted members of the Iranian
Parliament as animals. The cartoon was drawn in protest against two
proposed bills that would outlaw voluntary sterilization, restrict access to
contraceptives, and tighten divorce laws.
But an appeals court reduced her
sentence to 18 months, her lawyer said on April 25, 2016.
“The appeals court has made it
possible for Miss Farghadani to return to a normal life and normal society,”
Moghimi wrote on his Facebook page on April 25. “Thanks to the judge of
the appeals court and to everyone who supported her.”
He also detailed the appeals
court’s decision:
“Miss Farghadani has been
acquitted of the charges of ‘gathering and colluding with counter-revolutionary
elements’ and ‘acting against national security.’ The three-year prison
sentence for ‘Insulting the Supreme Leader’ has been replaced by a four-year
suspended sentence. Moreover, she has received a fine for ‘insulting members of
parliament and the president’ and ‘insulting prison guards.’ She has been
sentenced to 18 months in prison on the charge of ‘propaganda
against the regime’,” he wrote.
Farghadani was originally
arrested in August 2014 and detained for two months – most of which she served
in solitary confinement. Following her release, she posted a video on YouTube
describing how prison guards had mistreated her physically, which was shared in
the press and on social media. Instead of investigating the allegations,
authorities re-arrested her in January 2015.
In October 2015, the news emerged
that Farghadani faced additional charges, including “indecent conduct” and
“illegitimate relations,” after shaking hands with her lawyer during a
prison visit. Under Iranian law, it is illegal to shake hands with a person of
the opposite sex who is not a family member. Farghadani was later acquitted of
these charges.
In addition to imposing new
charges on Farghadani, the young artist was also subjected to a “virginity test” in
prison, a move that was condemned by human rights groups.
Read more about Atena
Farghadani on her profile.
