- 2020-10-01 —
The release of the documentary film Nasrin, about the Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, in the USA. [IMDB; Wikipedia]
The American screenwriter, director and producer Jeff Kaufman and his co-producer, Marcia S. Ross, were unable to get visas to travel to Iran themselves. They relied on their on-the-ground film crew as well as calls with Sotoudeh and her husband Khandan. The film took four years to make and is essential viewing. Everyone involved, including Sotoudeh, put themselves in jeopardy by agreeing to participate in the project, but clearly, for them, the importance of its message outweighed the risk of arrest. The project also had to forego crowdfunding or fundraising of any kind in order to keep the film secret and protect those involved.
Sotoudeh has been called "the Nelson Mandela of Iran."
[Forbes]
,
- The film was released for VOD on the 26th of January 2012. See an interview with the director, Jeff Kaufman and the producer, Marcia Ross in Awards Daily 26 January 2021.
- Reza Khandan, the husband of prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, has detailed conditions inside Tehran’s Evin Prison in a letter to American filmmakers who previously documented his wife’s human rights work. [Iranwire 16Jan25]
- In December 2024, human rights defender Reza Khandan was arrested at his home and taken into custody at a police station in Tehran. His crime? Advocating against Iran’s compulsory veiling laws and the death penalty. At the time of this writing he was in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison facing a three-and-a-half-year sentence (on top of time already served) for supporting women’s rights in Iran. [Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights 21Jan25]
- 2024-12-13 — The arrest of Reza Khandan by the Iranian security forces. An activist, artist, father he is the husband of the Sakharov Prize for the Freedom of Thought laureate Nasrin Sotoudeh. He faced three-and-a-half more years of an existing sentence (on top of time already served) for supporting women’s rights in Iran.
In 2018, a few months after Nasrin was imprisoned for her legal work representing women who protested Iran’s compulsory hijab laws, Reza and fellow activist Farhad Meysami were arrested for making thousands of buttons that said in Farsi, “I Oppose the Mandatory Hijab.” Reza was charged with “spreading propaganda against the system” and “colluding to commit crimes against national security,” for speaking out about Nasrin’s arrest, and for challenging the country’s compulsory hijab law. He was released on bail after 111 days while Nasrin remained in prison until she received a medical furlough in July 2021. Farhad was released in February 2023. [Iran Wire 13 Dec 2024]
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