Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Iranian cartoonist smiles…

Atena Farghadani, 29, is due to go on trial in Iran. Atena is being held in Tehran’s Evin prison for her cartoons of Iran’s elite and for criticising plans to restrict contraception.
Three weeks after being rearrested, Ms Farghadani went on hunger strike to protest against conditions at the prison. She was taken to hospital in late February after suffering a heart attack and briefly losing consciousness.


She was initially arrested in August 2014 and held in solitary confinement for two weeks without access to her lawyer or her family.

Atena described by Amnesty as a prisoner of conscience, is currently being kept in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

Farghadani is just one of a number of cartoonists around the world who have faced legal problems for criticizing or mocking politicians. 
However, activists warn that new proposals, if passed, would reinforce discrimination against women and restrict women’s rights.


If found guilty of the crimes she is alleged to have committed, the 28-year-old could face years in prison.




What are those crimes?
spreading propaganda against the system
insulting members of parliament through paintings.
Two decades after Iran initiated progressive family planning programmes, MPs announced last year that they were seeking a U-turn in order to boost the population.
Atena is also facing the charge of “gathering and colluding with anti-revolutionary individuals and deviant sects” because of her art exhibition Parandegan-e Khak (Birds of earth), held in commemoration of those killed in the bloody post-election crackdown in 2009, and attended by families of political prisoners as well as members of the Baha’i community, the most persecuted religious minority in Iran.

Raha Bahreini, an Iran researcher for Amnesty International, told the BBC: "We are very concerned that Atena has even been put on trial.
"She is a prisoner of conscience and she has been held solely because of her opinions and for exercising the right to free expression.
"From our point of view, she must be released immediately and unconditionally."
Ms Bahreini said that the trial might be as short as just one day. If convicted of all charges, Ms Farghadani could face up to two years' imprisonment and lashes.

Responding to the charges laid against her in an open letter to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ms Farghadani said: "What you call an 'insult to representatives of the parliament by means of cartoons' I consider to be an artistic expression of the home of our nation (parliament), which our nation does not deserve!"

Ms Farghadani's cartoon has been shared on Twitter and Facebook since her arrest using the hashtag #freeatena, and a Facebook page set up to document her case has attracted messaged of support from around the world.

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