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Iranian Cartoonist Atena Farghadani’s Sentenced Reduced (Update: Atena is Released)

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Alan Gardner Updated: December 12, 2024 at 1:29 pm EST 1 minute 0 comments

Iranian activist and cartoonist Atena Farghadani, originally sentenced to six years in prison for “insulting sacred values” and “propagating against the ruling system,” has been released after serving eight months. Her sentence was first reduced to 18 months, but a December 9 appeals court ruling acquitted her of the blasphemy charges, reducing her sentence to 8 months. Farghadani was arrested last April for attempting to post a caricature on a wall near Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s compound on Pasteur Street in Tehran.

This is not Atena’s first run-in with the Iranian government. In 2014 she was arrested and sentenced to 12 years and nine for depicting Iranian leaders as goats. While in prison she was forced to take a virginity test and a pregnancy test for shaking the hand of her lawyer and then charged with illegitimate relations as a result. That charge was thrown out. Her 12 year sentence was later reduced to 18 months, but she was fined 100,000 rials (about $2.38 USD as of today) for insulting the supreme leader, the president, members of the Parliament, and the prison guards who interrogated her. 

Update (Dec 11): Story updated to include news that Atena has been released after serving eight months.