Past Cases

Background

Nasrin Sotoudeh (b. May 30, 1963) is an Iranian writer, journalist, and human rights lawyer known for her defense of women’s and children’s rights. She spent most of a decade in prison, serving multiple sentences related to her activism. 

Included in those multiple sentences were charges laid against her that were related to her outspoken advocacy of clients arrested after a disputed 2009 presidential election, as well as critical interviews she gave to overseas media following that same election. She has also been targeted for her membership in the Association of Human Rights Defenders and for defending children facing death sentences, and women who flout mandatory hijab laws. 

In October 2023, Sotoudeh was severely beaten and arrested at the funeral of Armita Geravand, 17, who died after being assaulted by the Tehran morality police. Reflecting on this arrest in March 2024, Sotoudeh told Ms. Magazine that “I made the trip to her funeral without wearing a veil, and it was quite a long trip. I wanted to say that we women are everywhere—we’re in the metro, in restaurants, stadiums, streets, homes, everywhere, and we refuse to wear the veil, and you’re not going to erase us.”

She was released from Qarchak prison on November 15, 2023. PEN considers the release temporary and continues to call for her unconditional release.

Nasrin Sotoudeh received PEN Canada’s One Humanity Award in 2011 and 2019.