Nasrin
Sotoudeh

Nasrin Sotoudeh, is a world-renowned Iranian human rights attorney, who has represented imprisoned Iranians like Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi—and has herself been imprisoned for her defense of freedom. In 2012, Sotoudeh won the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize, sharing the award with Iranian film director Jafar Panahi. Martin Schulz, the EU Parliament’s President, called her and Pahahi “a woman and a man who have not been bowed by fear and intimidation and who have decided to put the fate of their country before their own.” In 2011, she won the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award for her work on behalf of the freedom of expression, and also won the Geneva Institute for Democracy and Development’s Giuseppe Motta Medal for exceptional achievement in the promotion of human rights. The Iranian government arrested her in September of 2010 on charges of “spreading propaganda and conspiring to harm state security.” She was subsequently placed in solitary confinement in Evin Prison and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Despite her long sentence the government released her and ten other prisoners of conscience in 2013, just days before an address by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to the United Nations.