Dehgolan: Kurdish women’s rights activist Sohaila Motaei sentenced to prison

Hengaw – Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Sohaila Motaei, a prominent women’s rights activist from Dehgolan (Dewlan) and a former detainee from the March 8 International Women’s Day demonstrations and the “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi”  (Woman, Life, Freedom) movement, has been sentenced to three months in prison and three years of suspended imprisonment by the Iranian court.

According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, on Sunday, June 15, 2025, Branch 102 of the Second Criminal Court in Dehgolan convicted Motaei on charges of “propaganda in favor of groups opposed to the Islamic Republic.”

She had been officially summoned to appear in court by June 15 to receive her verdict in person but did not appear. The ruling was later communicated via a phone call from the court. She now has 20 days to file an appeal before the sentence is finalized in her absence.

Motaei had previously been summoned on May 24, 2025, for the same charges and was denied legal counsel during the hearing. She was arrested on Monday night, March 10, 2025, by the Ministry of Intelligence in Dehgolan for participating in International Women’s Day events in Sanandaj and was released one week later on bail.

Earlier this year, on Wednesday, January 24, she was violently arrested in Sa’at Square, Dehgolan, and later released after several hours of interrogation on 200 million toman bail.

Motaei has been arrested two times during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. She was previously sentenced by the Dehgolan Revolutionary Court to a total of 60 months in prison but was later granted amnesty and released after serving part of her sentence.