(NEW YORK)—PEN America today condemned the arrest of PEN America’s 2011 Freedom To Write Awardee, prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and writer, Nasrin Sotoudeh.
Sotoudeh’s daughter, Mehraveh Khandan, posted that her mother was arrested while alone at home on the night of April 1, and that her electronic devices were confiscated. Thus far, there is no update on her location or the reason for the arrest, but it appears from reports that it was at the orders of the Ministry of Intelligence.
“Nasrin has an unwavering commitment to human rights and free expression, and it is that commitment that has made her and her family the target of relentless harassment and repeated arrest by the Iranian authorities,” said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, director of writers at risk at the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center at PEN America. “Those responsible must release Nasrin immediately, and release all writers unjustly detained for their words in Iran.”
This is the latest in a decades-long campaign of harassment against Sotoudeh because of her free expression and her lifelong work to uphold human rights in Iran. In 2010 she was arrested on several charges including “spreading propaganda” and initially sentenced to 11 years in detention, later reduced to six. In 2018, she was arrested again and sentenced on multiple charges to 38 years and 148 lashes under a bundle of at least seven separate verdicts.
After undergoing a grueling hunger strike to protest prison conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was eventually released in 2022 on a medical furlough and then, in October 2023 she was briefly re-arrested while attending the funeral of a 17-year-old girl, Armita Geravand, who died at the hands of Iran’s so-called “morality police” during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
Her husband, Reza Khandan, has also been targeted by authorities. In 2018, he was arrested and charged for posting updates about his wife’s arrest and printing buttons in support of women’s rights, and in December 2024, he was detained related to these old charges in a move condemned by PEN America as “petty and retaliatory.”
Sotoudeh’s arrest is part of an alarming and escalating crackdown on free expression in Iran. Since the 12-day June 2025 military conflict between Iran and Israel, an increasing number of writers, scholars, poets, creative artists, social media commentators, and activists have been detained or received summonses, while others have faced extrajudicial threats or additional charges.
The barrage of airstrikes by the U.S. and Israeli armed forces during the current war, which started on February 28, has also raised severe concerns over the safety of writers and other political prisoners held in Iranian prisons. Reports of airstrikes near detention facilities and disruptions to communication channels have heightened fears for detainees—including political prisoners who are imprisoned solely for exercising their freedom of expression. Prison conditions have also worsened, with food, water, and medical supplies being rationed, and prisoners’ contact with family members also further restricted.
In PEN America’s 2024 Freedom to Write Index, Iran ranked second globally, jailing a total of 43 writers during the year.
“The risk to writers, journalists, activists, and other political prisoners currently detained in Iran is wholly unacceptable,” said Karlekar. “The fact that a state agency has arrested a peaceful human rights defender and prominent voice of conscience would be intolerable at the best of times, but now, during dangerous wartime conditions, it poses an unconscionable risk to Nasrin’s safety and life.”
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.