Jina Modarres-Gorji released from Sanandaj Central Prison after completing sentence
Hengaw – Monday, September 22, 2025
Jina Modarres-Gorji, a Kurdish journalist and women’s rights activist who was detained during the Woman, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi) movement, has been released from the women’s ward of Sanandaj Central Prison after completing her sentence.
According to reports obtained by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Modarres-Gorji, from Sanandaj, was freed on September 22, 2025, after serving her term. She had been taken into custody on November 3, 2024, to begin her prison sentence.
She was initially handed a total of 21 years in prison and exile to Hamedan, of which 10 years were enforceable. Following an appeal, the sentence was reduced to 28 months, with four months of pre-trial detention credited, leaving 16 months to serve.
Branch 4 of the Sanandaj Court of Appeal sentenced her to 16 months for “forming an illegal group with the intent to overthrow the state” and one year for “propaganda against the state.” She was acquitted of “collaboration with hostile groups and governments,” and her exile to Hamedan Central Prison was overturned.
An earlier verdict by Branch 1 of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Karami, had imposed 10 years for “forming an illegal group with the aim of overthrowing the state,” 10 years for “collaboration with hostile groups and governments,” one year for “propaganda against the state,” and exile to Alvand Prison in Hamedan.
The charges cited against her included “founding the Zhivano Association with a feminist ideology aimed at overthrowing the state; attending protests and chanting anti-government slogans; maintaining contact with opposition elements; taking part in international conferences and training workshops; and publishing content on social media and giving interviews to foreign media to portray the country negatively after the death of Mahsa Amini.”
On May 10, 2023, after a month in solitary confinement, Modarres-Gorji was moved to the general ward of Sanandaj Central Prison. She had been abducted by Intelligence Department agents on April 10, 2023, while returning home from work, and was released on July 3, 2023, after 84 days in detention, on bail of 5 billion rials.
She had also been arrested on September 22, 2022, during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Sanandaj. After 40 days in custody in the prison’s women’s ward, she was released on November 8, 2022, on bail of 100 million tomans pending trial.
