Kameel Ahmady
Ahmady has written about female genital mutilation and child marriage in Iran and was arrested in 2019. He was arbitrarily detained for 100 days, then released conditionally. In December… More
Keyvan Bajan
Novelist-journalist Bajan was imprisoned on September 27, 2020 and sentenced to three-and-a-half years for his peaceful opposition of state censorship, leadership of the Iranian Writers’ Association, and commemoration of… More
Arash Ganji
Ganji, a writer, translator, and secretary of the Iranian Writers Association, was detained for 29 days in late 2019. He was sentenced in 2020 to 11 years in prison… More
Reza Khandan Mahabadi
Khandan Mahabadi, with two other members of the Iranian Writers’ Association, was arrested in May 2019 for opposing state censorship. An appeals judge upheld his six-year sentence, and the… More
Roland Marchal
French sociologist Dr. Marchal was detained in June 2019 when he traveled to Iran to visit his colleague Dr. Fariba Adelkhah. Both were charged with “collusion against national security”… More
Mohammad Bamm
Bamm, whose writing focuses on workers' rights, was detained in December 2017 and held incommunicado, unable to access lawyers or his family, and charged with anti-state propaganda. In 2018,… More
Arzhang Davoodi
Davoodi was arrested in 2003 after participating in the production of a documentary entitled Forbidden Iran. After a series of sham trials and convictions, he faced the death penalty… More
Iran Bans Print Media in Response to COVID-19
(New York, NY) – In response to an Iranian coronavirus task force's wholesale ban on print media, Summer Lopez, PEN America's senior director of free expression programs, issued the following… More
Arrest of Writer and Translator Arash Ganji Is an Unwarranted Attack on Freedom of Expression in Iran
“The Iranian authorities have blatantly targeted Arash Ganji for his writing and work to foster free expression and cross-cultural literary understanding." More
Iran’s Abusive Internet Shutdown Illustrates Dangers of ‘National Internet’
“The Iranian government’s decision to impose a nationwide blackout on global Internet access in order to suppress news of anti-government protests is deeply abusive, completely unjustifiable, and clearly self-serving." More