Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi” lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was arrested while attending the funeral in the Tehran metro. Dead teenager

Prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested while attending the funeral of teenager Armita Geravand, who died after she was allegedly attacked by morality police in Tehran’s subway system for not wearing Iran’s mandatory headscarf.

Geravand (16) was admitted to hospital on 1 October, where she fell into a coma and reportedly died on 28 October.

The incident has parallels with the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022 after she was arrested for not covering her hair properly, which led to the ongoing Woman Life Freedom protests.

The protests have subsided from their initial violence amid a crackdown by Iran’s Islamist hardliners, but there are indications that Geravand’s death could become a new flashpoint.

In a statement denouncing Sotoudeh’s detention, New York-based free speech advocate PEN America said the lawyer was arrested for not wearing a hijab at Geravand’s memorial service.

The body reported that she was being held at the Vozara detention center, which holds women accused of not wearing the mandatory hijab, and where Amini was taken before her death.

Sotoudeh has been in and out of prison since 2010 because she is a human rights lawyer and, among other things, represents political activists and women who campaigned for the abolition of the headscarf.

The lawyer is also known in the film world for her performance in Jafar Panahi’s film, which won the Golden Bear at the 2015 Berlinale. taxiIn it, she gets into his vehicle on her way to meet her then-client Ghoncheh Ghavami, a British-Iranian woman who was arrested in 2014 for participating in a men’s volleyball match.

Sotoudeh and Panahi previously shared the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize, which is dedicated to people who have championed human rights in various ways.

The lawyer has since been the subject of Jeff Kaufman’s documentary Nisrin.

In March 2019, Sotoudeh was sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes, which was later reduced to ten years. She has been released from prison on medical grounds since July 2021.

“Nasrin is one of the most prominent and fearless heroines in the fight for human rights in Iran,” said Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America.

“That Nasrin is back in jail for expressing solidarity with the family of a teenager who lost her life, apparently because she covered her hair, is yet another example of the Iranian government’s callous indifference to the humanity of their women and girls.” We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Nasrin.”