Leila Hossein Zadeh sentenced arbitrarily in absentia
On 21 November 2024, woman human rights defender Leila Hossein Zadeh received a notification from the online Iranian Judiciary platform stating that Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court had issued a sentence for the woman human rights defender on the charge of “being present without sharia abiding hijab in public avenues”, in her case in the University of Tehran, and “propaganda against state.” However, the details of the sentence were not communicated with the woman human rights defender, nor was she given a court hearing, nor an opportunity to provide her final defence regarding these two charges, which is required under the Code of Criminal Procedures of Iran.
On 18 November 2024, woman human rights defender Leila Hoseinzadeh was sentenced to one year of imprisonment to one year of imprisonment on the charges of “propaganda against the State” and “being present without sharia abiding hijab in public avenues” at the University of Tehran. This sentence is related to her viva session for her post-graduate studies in Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Science, held in the University of Tehran in September 2023. During the session, she defended her thesis titled “National Identity versus Ethnic Identity in an Iranian modern city; the case study of the city of Naqadeh”. On the day in question, the woman human rights defender published several pictures of herself on social media, together with excerpts of her dissertation. Following this, the woman human rights defender became the target of a social media smear campaign, with users attacking her for having focused her research on minority rights, and for appearing without a veil and in what appeared to be a Kurdish outfit.
On 27 October 2023, the woman human rights defender Leila Hossein Zadeh will be summoned by Branch 4 of the Evin Court to plead her innocence against the charge of “gathering and collusion with the intention of acting against national and external security of the country”. The woman human rights defender received notice of this on 15 October 2023.
Leila Hossein Zadeh is a woman human rights defender and student activist, who has been advocating for women's rights and the rights of disadvantaged people to employment, freedom of speech, association, and assembly. She has been prosecuted many times in Iran, and has been sentenced and imprisoned for her human rights work.
On 21 November 2024, woman human rights defender Leila Hossein Zadeh received a notification from the online Iranian Judiciary platform stating that Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court had issued a sentence for the woman human rights defender on the charge of “being present without sharia abiding hijab in public avenues”, in her case in the University of Tehran, and “propaganda against state.” However, the details of the sentence were not communicated with the woman human rights defender, nor was she given a court hearing, nor an opportunity to provide her final defence regarding these two charges, which is required under the Code of Criminal Procedures of Iran.
On 18 November 2024, woman human rights defender Leila Hoseinzadeh was sentenced to one year of imprisonment to one year of imprisonment on the charges of “propaganda against the State” and “being present without sharia abiding hijab in public avenues” at the University of Tehran. This sentence is related to her viva session for her post-graduate studies in Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Science, held in the University of Tehran in September 2023. During the session, she defended her thesis titled “National Identity versus Ethnic Identity in an Iranian modern city; the case study of the city of Naqadeh”. On the day in question, the woman human rights defender published several pictures of herself on social media, together with excerpts of her dissertation. Following this, the woman human rights defender became the target of a social media smear campaign, with users attacking her for having focused her research on minority rights, and for appearing without a veil and in what appeared to be a Kurdish outfit.
On 27 October 2023, the woman human rights defender was summoned by Branch 4 of the Evin Court on the charge of “gathering and collusion with the intention of acting against national and external security of the country.” In this summons, she was not given a date for the court hearing and was informed that she would be summoned at a later date. This did not happen until 21 November 2024 when she received a notification from the online Iranian Judiciary platform stating that she had been sentenced on the basis of two new charges, “being present without sharia abiding hijab in public avenues” and “propaganda against state.” In issuing this sentence without informing Leila Hossein Zadeh of the hearing or giving the woman human rights defender an opportunity to provide her defence against the charges, Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court failed to follow due process. The details of the sentence remain unknown in the absence of access to the court proceedings, and the woman rights defender has been given twenty days to appeal. Leila Hossein Zadeh has announced that she has no intention of appealing the sentence.
Leila Hossein Zadeh believes this sentence is related to her viva session for her post-graduate studies in Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Science, held in the University of Tehran in September 2023. She defended her thesis, titled “National Identity versus Ethnic Identity in an Iranian modern city; the case study of the city of Naqadeh”. On the day in question, the woman human rights defender published several pictures of herself on social media, together with snippets of her dissertation. In reaction to this, the woman human rights defender was targeted by a social media smear campaign, attacking her for the focus of her research on minority’s rights, and for appearing without veil and in what appeared to be a Kurdish outfit.
On 18 November 2024, woman human rights defender Leila Hoseinzadeh was sentenced to one year of imprisonment to one year of imprisonment on the charges of “propaganda against the State” and “being present without sharia abiding hijab in public avenues” at the University of Tehran. This sentence is related to her viva session for her post-graduate studies in Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Science, held in the University of Tehran in September 2023. During the session, she defended her thesis titled “National Identity versus Ethnic Identity in an Iranian modern city; the case study of the city of Naqadeh”. On the day in question, the woman human rights defender published several pictures of herself on social media, together with excerpts of her dissertation. Following this, the woman human rights defender became the target of a social media smear campaign, with users attacking her for having focused her research on minority rights, and for appearing without a veil and in what appeared to be a Kurdish outfit.
On 22 October 2023, Leila Hosseinzadeh was expelled from the University of Tehran via a letter which claimed that she had “surpass[ed] the academic years allowed for the programme”. Subsequently, she was consecutively denied access to her masters degree and a transcript of her master’s results. On 19 August 2023, two months prior to this letter and a few days after her viva session, which she passed with an excellent mark, the state run media announced that the woman human rights defender had been expelled and was not allowed to graduate. Leila Hosseinzadeh was also unlawfully expelled from her undergraduate studies in Anthropology, even though she had successfully completed them in 2018. She has also been denied access to her university degree. When the defender followed up with the university’s administration, she was told they are prohibited from offering their services to her due to “security” reasons.
On 27 October 2023, the woman human rights defender Leila Hossein Zadeh will be summoned by Branch 4 of the Evin Court to plead her innocence against the charge of “gathering and collusion with the intention of acting against national and external security of the country”. The woman human rights defender received notice of this on 15 October 2023.
Leila Hossein Zadeh is a woman human rights defender and student activist, who has been advocating for women's rights, and the rights of disadvantaged people, to employment, freedom of speech, association and assembly. She has been prosecuted many times in Iran, and has been sentenced and imprisoned for her human rights work.
On 27 October 2023, the woman human rights defender Leila Hossein Zadeh will appear before Branch 4 of the Evin Court to be trialled on the charge of “gathering and collusion with the intention of acting against national and external security of the country.”
On 26 September 2023, a case was opened against the woman human rights defender on charges of “gathering and collusion with the intention of acting against national and external security of the country” in the Iranian judicial platform, of which the woman human rights defender was notified on 15 October 2023.
On 17 September 2023, Leila Hossein Zadeh attended a viva session for her post-graduate studies in Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Science, in the University of Tehran. She was defending her thesis which was titled “National Identity versus Ethnic Identity in an Iranian modern city; the case study of the city of Naqadeh”. On the day in question, the woman human rights defender published several pictures of herself on social media, together with snippets of her dissertation. In reaction to this, the woman human rights defender was targeted by a social media smear campaign, attacking her for the focus of her research, and for appearing without veil and in what appeared to be a Kurdish outfit.
This is not the first time that Leila Houssein Zadeh has been targeted for her human rights work and advocacy for the rights of students and women in Iran. Since January 2018, she has faced charges related to “acting against national security” five times. The woman human rights defender was arrested in January 2018 for the first time, in the context of a protest against the rising fuel prices which was broken up, and was sentenced to five years in prison on the charge of “gathering and colluding against the national security” and one year in prison on the charge of “propaganda activity against the state” by Tehran Revolutionary Court. These sentences were reduced to two and a half years in the court of appeal and the woman human rights defender was released in May 2020, after her status as an immuno-compromised person was confirmed amid the COVID pandemic, when she was already on medical furlough.
Additionally, the woman human rights defender still has five years of her prison sentence, awarded by Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court, pending. This concerned the charge of “gathering and colluding against the national security” in reprisal for organising a number of student activists to come together to commemorate a fellow activist and friend, who was then being detained. Furthermore, she has two cases open at Shiraz Revolutionary courts on the same charge. The most recent incident occurred on 20 August 2022 when she was arrested violently in front of her house in Tehran. The woman human rights defender was detained arbitrarily for five months in Ward 209 of Evin Prison, in two detention facilities in Shiraz, known as Soroush and House No. 100, in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz. She was eventually transferred back to Evin prison where she was released after she went on hunger strike.
In March 2021, the women human rights defender was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, which causes eye inflammation and severe pains, as well as another immuno-compromising disease which has been confirmed by doctors certified by the Iranian Organization of Prisons. It is on these medical grounds that the woman human rights defender has been granted release.
Front Line Defenders is concerned about the multiple court cases and national security charges which have been brought against woman human rights defender Leila Hossein Zadeh as a means to silence her human rights work. Front Line Defenders is particularly concerned by the health condition of the woman human rights defender as a result of her previous detentions and psycho-social well-being, owing to the continuous judicial harassments and social media smear campaigns against her which target her for her legitimate and peaceful human rights work in Iran.
