In July 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, leading to Sepideh’s arrest. An Iranian court ultimately sentenced her to 3 years and 11 months in prison, which authorities have now announced will 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 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 appeared 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.
