Who is Nasrin Sotoudeh? Award-winning Iranian human rights lawyer and activist detained in Tehran

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 agents at her house in Tehran overnight on Thursday.

Who is Nasrin Sotoudeh?

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.

Her husband, Reza Khandan, also a well-known activist, is currently imprisoned in Tehran’s infamous Evin prison.

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.

As a lawyer, she has represented the Iranian regime’s critics, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, journalists, and protesters detained after the 2009 "Green Revolution".

Arrested in 2019

Sotoudeh’s 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.

Charges against her included having membership in human rights organizations and women’s rights activism, for which she was accused of “propaganda against the state” and “encouraging prostitution.” She was also accused of “appearing at the judiciary without Islamic hijab.”

Sakharov Prize winner

Sotoudeh’s efforts have been widely recognized internationally, and she was the winner of the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov Prize in 2012 and the Right Livelihood Award in 2020.

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’s policies “have exposed us to death.” She also spoke out against the government's crackdown on protests in January.

What family said

Confirming Sotoudeh’s 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 “our regime became even more brutal after this war started.”

Khandan said she is concerned that the news of the crackdown on dissent would be drowned out as the war rages.

“It is hard for our voice to be heard in this time,” Khandan said. “The regime had (some) limits before. They don’t have (them) anymore.”

France calls for Sotoudeh’s release

Responding to reports of Sotoudeh’s arrest, France on Friday called on Iran to free her.

"France calls for the immediate release of Nasrin Sotoudeh and all those arbitrarily detained in Iran," a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

"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.