On Wednesday, Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian female human rights lawyer who has fought the Iranian despotic regime on behalf of women who refused to wear a hijab was arrested and taken to Iran’s notorious Evin Prison.
According to the Telegraph, “No official charges were announced but the arrest came shortly after Ms. Sotoudeh spoke out against efforts by Iran’s judiciary to force its own candidates onto the board of Iranian Bar Association.” Sotoudeh had said, “This action will erode the half-baked defense rights of those who have been accused of political and security offences and means a final farewell to the profession of independent attorney in Iran.”
After she was arrested on Wednesday, Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan wrote on Facebook, “Of all the functions that governments of the world are expected to do, the Iranian one is only good in arresting and imprisoning innocent people.”
As The New York Times notes, Sotoudeh has been in prison numerous times before; she recently defended women arrested for removing their hijabs during public protests.
Sotoudeh was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2012.