Golaleh Vatandoust and Soheila Motaei released under electronic monitoring from Sanandaj prison
Hengaw – Monday, June 22, 2026
Golaleh Vatandoust and Soheila Motaei, two Kurdish women's rights activists and former detainees of the Women, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi) movement, have been released under electronic monitoring from Sanandaj Central Prison.
According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Soheila Motaei, a women's rights activist from Dehgolan (Dewlan), was released under electronic monitoring from Sanandaj Central Prison on Sunday, June 21, 2026, after serving nine days in prison.
Motaei had been arrested on June 13, 2026, after reporting to the sentence enforcement office in Dehgolan to begin serving her prison sentence and was subsequently transferred to the women's ward of Sanandaj Central Prison.
She was previously arrested by agents of the Intelligence Department in Dehgolan on March 10, 2025, following her participation in an International Women's Day (March 8) gathering in Sanandaj. She was released on bail one week later. The Criminal Court of Dehgolan sentenced her in December 2025 to six months in prison and a three-year suspended sentence on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “publishing content through media outlets outside Iran.”
In a separate case, Branch 102 of the Second Criminal Court of Dehgolan sentenced Motaei in June 2025 to three months in prison and a three-year suspended sentence on charges of “propaganda in favor of groups or organizations opposed to the Islamic Republic.”
Motaei was also arrested twice during the Women, Life, Freedom movement and sentenced to a total of 60 months in prison. After serving several months of that sentence, she was released under an amnesty.
Meanwhile, Golaleh Vatandoust, a Kurdish lawyer and women's and children's rights activist from Marivan and a former detainee of the Women, Life, Freedom movement, was recently released under electronic monitoring from Sanandaj Central Prison after serving approximately one month in prison.
Vatandoust had been arrested on May 2, 2026, to begin serving a sentence of six years, seven months, and twenty days and was transferred to Sanandaj Central Prison.
Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj had previously sentenced her to six years, seven months, and twenty days in prison on charges of “propaganda against the state,” “acting against national security,” and “membership in groups opposed to the state.”
Vatandoust was originally arrested in Sanandaj during the Women, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi) movement on October 3, 2022.
