Iranian authorities have summoned and arrested cartoonist and activist Atena Farghadani on undisclosed charges. The arrest was made following her latest social media post on Wednesday, June 7, showing people with animal and satanic faces.
According to her lawyer, Farghadani, who was no stranger to imprisonment for her political posts on Instagram, was summoned to the Evin courthouse in Tehran.
The artist was first arrested in 2016 after she portrayed Iranian lawmakers as animals to criticize a draft law restricting contraception and criminalizing voluntary sterilization.
Read Also: US, UK Navies Respond to 'Distressed Call' as Iran Revolutionary Guard Allegedly Harassed Ship
Journalist Rights Group Calls for Farghadani's Release
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a statement Thursday that Iranian authorities must release Farghadani and stop efforts to silence commentators and members of the press.
"This cycling of journalists and commentators through prison is a continuation of authorities' long-standing revolving door policy and a hallmark of Iran's failure to respect the rule of law," said CPJ MENA program coordinator Sherif Mansour.
In August 2015, Farghadani was honored by the Cartoonist Rights Network International with its Courage in Editorial Cartooning award.
Her detention was the latest of a string of arrests involving Iranian journalists, which started in mid-April.
In addition, Iran was named the worst jailer of journalists during CPJ's December 2022 prison census.
