Iranian artist Atena Farghadani sentenced to six years after arrest for protest art

Atena Farghadani, an Iranian artist and activist, has been sentenced to six years in prison by Branch 26 of the court on charges of insulting holy elements and preaching against the regime, as confirmed by her lawyer Mohammad Moghimi on 10 June. The sentencing follows her detention on 12 April after she attempted to hang one of her works on walls surrounding Tehran's presidential palace. During her arrest, intelligence officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards severely beat Farghadani, causing facial injuries, according to Moghimi. She was protesting ongoing harassment by security forces that has restricted her political artmaking, primarily satirical cartoons, and led to banned exhibitions. Farghadani has been transferred to Tehran's notorious Evin prison, a facility she knows well from a three-month incarceration in 2014 on charges of spreading propaganda and insulting Iran's Supreme Leader and members of parliament. Previously imprisoned from 2015-16 for drawing Iranian Parliament members as monkeys to protest birth control legislation, she also spent a brief period in detention last summer. Artists at Risk Connection's managing director Julie Trebault called for Iranian authorities to cease their campaign against artistic freedom and drop charges immediately. ARC later expressed dismay at the six-year sentence, noting maximum penalties indicate the regime's determination to silence this rights defender.