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RFL/RE – Reza Khandan, a civil activist and the husband of prominent Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, says he has been summoned by the judiciary to serve an older suspended sentence of five years in prison.
In an interview with RFE/RL, Khandan said the suspended sentence was issued four years ago after he was found guilty of “propaganda against the Islamic republic.”*
Khandan was arrested along with Iranian activist Farhad Meysami in 2018 for supporting women’s protests against a law that forces them to cover their head in public, known as the hijab law.
The hijab — the head covering worn by Muslim women — became compulsory in public for Iranian women and girls over the age of 9 after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Many Iranian women have flouted the rule over the years in protest and pushed the boundaries of what officials say is acceptable clothing.
“Mr. Meysami and I were arrested [in 2018] for making and distributing pin badges that read, ‘I object to the mandatory hijab.’ This was an example of the crime of propaganda against the Islamic republic,” Khandan told RFE/RL.
The decision to summon Khandan to serve his sentence came amid a wave of protests sparked by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly violating the hijab law.
Iranian authorities have been accused of grave human rights abuses during the current deadly crackdown on protests, including torturing detainees, firing at protesters using live ammunition, and executing protesters following alleged torture and forced confessions.
According to rights groups, around 20,000 people have been arrested in the state’s brutal crackdown on the antiestablishment protests. Many of them have been released on bail.
An unknown number of protesters have been pardoned and freed in recent days following an amnesty announced by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
