News

Shadi Sadr, who is a lawyer and journalist, was walking with a group of women's rights activists on a road in Tehran when men in civilian clothes grabbed her and attempted to push her into a car. Shadi Sadr lost her headscarf and coat in the ensuing struggle but managed briefly to escape. She was quickly recaptured and beaten with batons, and was then taken away in the car.

Shadi Sadr and the group of women were on their way to Tehran University to attend the first Friday prayers since the disputed presidential election to be led by former President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani.

Shadi Sadr is the defence lawyer of human rights defender Shiva Nazar Ahari, a blogger and journalist who is a member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, who was arrested at her home in Tehran on 14 June, shortly after the presidential election, by security officials who searched her house and took away personal items. She is now believed to be held in Section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison where Shadi Sadr had not been able to gain access to her.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Persian, Arabic, English, French or your own language:

• calling on the authorities to release Shadi Sadr immediately and unconditionally, as she is a prisoner of conscience, held solely for her human rights activities and the peaceful exercise of her rights to freedom of expression,
• urging them to disclose her whereabouts immediately, and ensur... >>>