Hengameh Shahidi

Who is Hengameh Shahidi?

Hengameh Shahidi is an Iranian journalist, political activist, and political prisoner currently serving a six-year sentence for “gathering and colluding with intent to harm state security” and “propaganda against the system”.

Earlier in her career, Shahidi worked for Nowrooz newspaper before it was closed down, and was the candidate for the Sazandegi Party.

Shahidi is/was a PhD student at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the United Kingdom. She returned to Iran for the 2009 presidential election and acted as an adviser on women’s issues to presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, whose party, she was a member of.

On 30 June, following the eruption of mass protests against the officially announced re-election of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, she was arrested. She was detained for over four months without charge during which time she states that she was tortured and otherwise ill-treated, threatened with execution, and subjected to a mock execution. She also says that her interrogators threatened to arrest other members of her family. In November 2009 she was released on bail. Her trial began shortly thereafter.