{"id":50110,"date":"2026-04-03T13:51:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/50110\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:51:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:51:06","slug":"who-is-nasrin-sotoudeh-award-winning-iranian-human-rights-lawyer-and-activist-detained-in-tehran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/50110\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Nasrin Sotoudeh? Award-winning Iranian human rights lawyer and activist detained in Tehran"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of Nasrin Sotoudeh, a leading human rights lawyer, has alleged that she has been detained by the authorities in Iran. According to her daughter, Mehraveh Khandan, Sotoudeh was detained by Iranian intelligence<\/a> agents at her house in Tehran overnight on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Who is Nasrin Sotoudeh?Who is Nasrin Sotoudeh?<\/p>\n

64-year-old Sotoudeh is renowned for defending activists, opposition politicians and women prosecuted for removing their headscarves. She has been imprisoned multiple times and is currently out on bail for health reasons.<\/p>\n

Also Read | Who is Kamal Kharazi? Ex-Iranian minister injured in US-Israeli strike<\/a><\/p>\n

Her husband, Reza Khandan, also a well-known activist, is currently imprisoned in Tehran\u2019s infamous Evin prison.<\/p>\n

Sotoudeh has for years campaigned on some of the most sensitive issues in the Islamic Republic, notably working to prevent the execution of youths convicted of crimes committed while minors.<\/p>\n

As a lawyer, she has represented the Iranian regime\u2019s critics, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi<\/a>, journalists, and protesters detained after the 2009 “Green Revolution”.<\/p>\n

Sentenced to 38 years in prison in 2019Arrested in 2019<\/p>\n

Sotoudeh\u2019s activism has come at a great personal cost, with her being arrested multiple times. In 2019, she was sentenced to a combined 38 years in prison and 148 lashes for her advocacy.<\/p>\n

Charges against her included having membership in human rights organizations and women\u2019s rights activism, for which she was accused of \u201cpropaganda against the state\u201d and \u201cencouraging prostitution.\u201d She was also accused of \u201cappearing at the judiciary without Islamic hijab<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also Read | Trump delays strikes on Iranian power plants by 10 days<\/a>Sakharov Prize winner<\/p>\n

Sotoudeh\u2019s efforts have been widely recognized internationally, and she was the winner of the European Parliament<\/a>‘s prestigious Sakharov Prize in 2012 and the Right Livelihood Award in 2020.<\/p>\n

Vocal critic of Iranian regime<\/p>\n

Days before her arrest, Sotoudeh gave an interview published on Monday to a Persian media outlet abroad in which she commented on the war, saying the Islamic Republic\u2019s policies \u201chave exposed us to death.\u201d She also spoke out against the government’s crackdown on protests in January.<\/p>\n

What family said<\/p>\n

Confirming Sotoudeh\u2019s detention, her daughter Khandan told The Associated Press that she is worried about her mother, who has a heart condition, because of possible US-Israeli attacks on detention facilities and because \u201cour regime became even more brutal after this war started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also Read | US-Iran war fallout: Investors lose over \u20b941 lakh crore since Feb 28<\/a><\/p>\n

Khandan said she is concerned that the news of the crackdown on dissent would be drowned out as the war rages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hard for our voice to be heard in this time,\u201d Khandan said. \u201cThe regime had (some) limits before. They don\u2019t have (them) anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

International criticismFrance calls for Sotoudeh\u2019s release<\/p>\n

Responding to reports of Sotoudeh\u2019s arrest, France on Friday called on Iran to free her.<\/p>\n

“France calls for the immediate release of Nasrin Sotoudeh and all those arbitrarily detained in Iran,” a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said.<\/p>\n

“This arrest is yet another illustration of the Iranian regime’s systematic policy of persecuting and intimidating human rights defenders, which must stop,” the spokesman added.<\/p>\n

Key Takeaways<\/p>\n

Sotoudeh’s arrest underscores the Iranian government’s intensified crackdown on human rights defenders.International responses, such as France’s call for her release, emphasize the need for global solidarity against oppression.Sotoudeh’s history of activism illustrates the personal risks faced by those who challenge authoritarian regimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of Nasrin Sotoudeh, a leading human rights lawyer, has alleged that she has been detained by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20387,20384,10875,20385,1722,7085,20386,34,3591,20383,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-50110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-arrested","9":"tag-detained","10":"tag-evin-prison","11":"tag-french-foreign-ministry","12":"tag-human-rights","13":"tag-human-rights-defenders","14":"tag-human-rights-lawyer","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-iranian-regime","17":"tag-nasrin-sotoudeh","18":"tag-tehran"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116341105180310021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}