In July of 2022, Sepideh Rashnu, an Iranian writer and graduate student, was riding a bus bareheaded in Tehran when another woman tried to force her to wear a hijab. Their altercation went viral online, and Sepideh was arrested. An Iranian court ultimately sentenced her to 3 years and 11 months in prison, which the authorities have now announced is to begin on July 27.

With just a couple of days left before her forced summons to Evin prison, Sepideh shared the following message with PEN America and gave us permission for it to be widely distributed:

The literature of struggle is sometimes a poem by Mohammad Mokhtari murmured under one’s breath, sometimes a song sung by Víctor Jara, sometimes the carvings of a former prisoner on the walls of a solitary cell so that the new inmate knows someone has been here before. 

In a totalitarian regime like the Islamic Republic, the literature of struggle is sometimes a “simple narrative.” In such regimes, where media, press, and books are always censored to present a false image as truth, narratives play a significant role in the struggle these days. 

The Islamic Republic, like any other totalitarian regime, greatly fears the narrators, and even more so, the fighters who narrate. 

Narratives draw a red line through all these lies, especially in a regime that denies the disappearances and imprisonments of dissidents. 

The fighter records everything that has happened to them honestly, to serve as a document in history. 

To serve as evidence of decades of human efforts against tyranny and totalitarianism. Narration is always a part of the struggle, and the narrator is a fighter. Narration is a great “no” to lies. A great “no” to silence. 

As a writer, I have never thought that literature and narration are separate from the struggle and resistance for human rights.

 

Weeks after Sepideh’s arrest, the Islamic Republic’s state TV (IRIB) aired a purportedly coerced “confession.” She was distressed, with signs of physical abuse in the video. Sepideh was later released on bail and charged with offenses relating to “propaganda” and “encouraging promiscuity.” Her lawyer had worked to delay the execution of her sentence by appealing to Iran’s Supreme Court. Even though one case against her was converted to a fine, she is now ordered to serve four months in prison this Saturday.

Dissidents like Sepideh embody the role that writers and artists often play in defending human rights. PEN America urges writers and their allies around the world to share Sepideh’s words online and to speak out against the Iranian government’s unjust imprisonment of her and the dozens of writers who have been held in Iranian custody for their free expression.  

The 2023 Freedom to Write Index shows that Iran continues to be the world’s second-largest jailer of writers, second only to China. While the number of incarcerated writers has decreased from a high of 57 in 2022 to 49 in 2023, the repeat incarceration of writers like Sepideh, many linked to activities associated with the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, highlights the persistent suppression of free expression and dissent in Iran. Even when writers are released from custody, they face a range of restrictive conditions, including potential re-arrest and limited employment options.