A young writer and human rights activists faces six years in prison after Iranian authorities charged her for penning an unpublished short story about stoning.
Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee was found guilty of insulting Islamic sanctities and spreading propaganda against the system, according to Amnesty International. Iraee received a five-year sentence for the latter charge and one year for the former.
The fictional story is about woman who watches “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” a film based on a true story and best-selling novel about an Iranian woman who was stoned to death for adultery, a practice still legal in the country. The woman in Iraee’s story is so outraged after watching it that she burns a Qu’ran.
Iraee received a phone call Tuesday ordering her to Evin Prison — a facility north of Tehran that houses political prisoners — to serve her sentence.
“She is facing years behind bars simply for writing a story, and one which was not even published,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s director of research and advocacy for the Middle East and North Africa.
“She is effectively being punished for using her imagination.”
Authorities found Iraee’s story back in September 2014, when she was arrested with her husband, Arash Sadegh. Four men, believed to be Revolutionary Guards — a division of the military that upholds Islamic law — searched their home without a warrant and seized laptops, notebooks and CDs. It was not immediately clear why the couple was targeted.
Sadegh, also a human rights activist, was found guilty of charges that included spreading propaganda against the system, gathering and colluding against national security and insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic. He is currently serving a 15-year sentence.
Both Iraee and Sadegh were denied lawyers, according to the report. Iraee was placed in solitary confinement for three days before being moved to a cell where, for 20 days, she was interrogated and threatened with execution for “insulting Islam,” Amnesty International reported. She said she could hear her husband being beaten in the next cell.
Amnesty International is urging Iranian authorities to immediately overturn the couple’s convictions, calling Iraee’s trial “farcical.”
“This is just the latest example of the Iranian authorities’ utter contempt for justice and human rights,” Luther told Amnesty. “The Iranian government is on the verge of stamping out a whole generation of young activists with its ruthless and repressive tactics.”
Approximately 500 human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and students are believed to be imprisoned in Iran. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports that at least 6,000 people have been arrested since 2009 for opposing the government.