January protest detainee Parnian Hashempour's prison sentence reduced to two years on appeal

Hengaw – Sunday, July 5, 2026

Parnian (Fatemeh) Hashempour, who was detained during eraly this year's protests, has had her five-year prison sentence reduced to two years on appeal. She is currently serving her sentence in the women's ward of Evin Prison.

According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, an appeals court overturned Hashempour's initial five-year prison sentence and sentenced her to two years in prison on charges of “assembly and collusion with the intent to disrupt national security.”

Hashempour was arrested by government forces in Tehran during the January 2026 protests. After several days of interrogation in solitary confinement at security detention facilities, she was transferred to the women's ward of Evin Prison on December 31, 2025, and has remained imprisoned without the right to furlough since then.

Hashempour holds a master's degree in archaeology and was previously arrested by government authorities during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in 2022. She was held for a period at Qarchak Prison before her case was eventually closed under the decree commonly referred to as an “amnesty.”