Authorities threatened women, warning them against gathering for International Women’s Day

Since 8 March, five women’s rights activists arrested, arbitrarily detained in solitary confinement and interrogated without their lawyers

Journalists and singers also targeted - a male singer was flogged 74 times for performing a protest song

‘Women in Iran are held captive by authorities who fear the power of women…The women’s movement has passed the point of no return…’ - Leila Pashaei, activist

‘Instead of addressing systemic discrimination and violence against women and girls, they are attempting to crush Iran’s women’s rights movement’ - Diana Eltahawy

Iranian authorities have escalated their crackdown on women’s rights defenders, journalists, singers and other activists demanding equality or who defy compulsory veiling using arbitrary detention, unjust prosecution, flogging, and even the death penalty in a bid to quash Iran’s women’s rights movement, Amnesty International said today.

Since International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March, the Iranian authorities have arbitrarily arrested at least five women’s rights activists. These arrests come amid an intensified crackdown that has included summoning women’s rights activists and journalists for interrogation, and arresting women singers for performing without the mandatory hijab while shutting down their social media accounts. In the lead up to IWD, the authorities flogged a male singer 74 times for performing a protest song against Iran’s discriminatory compulsory veiling laws and, in February, a women’s rights activist was sentenced to death.

Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Middle East and North Africa Regional, said:

“In the wake of the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022, the Iranian authorities consider the widespread defiance of women and girls demanding their rights as an existential threat to the political and security establishment. Instead of addressing systemic discrimination and violence against women and girls, they are attempting to crush Iran’s women’s rights movement.

“The international community must use their leverage to press the Iranian authorities to stop harassing women’s rights activists and immediately release those arbitrarily detained. They must also pursue legal pathways to hold accountable Iranian officials reasonably suspected of committing widespread and systematic human rights violations against women and girls, including through the implementation of compulsory veiling.”

The mandates of the Fact-Finding Mission and the Special Rapporteur are set for renewal at the ongoing 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council (24 February to 4 April). On 18 March, the Council is set to hold a joint interactive dialogue with both mandates.

Women’s rights activists arrested for participating in IWD events

In the lead up to IWD, the Iranian authorities threatened women, warning them against gathering and demanding their rights.

Since 10 March 2025, Ministry of Intelligence agents arrested four Kurdish women’s rights activists, namely Leila Pashaei, Baran Saedi, Sohaila Motaei and Souma Mohammadrezaei after they participated in IWD events in Kurdistan province. They are being arbitrarily detained in solitary confinement cells at a detention centre in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, and have been interrogated without their lawyers.

Baran Saedi was arrested from her family home in Sanandaj on 10 March. She was previously detained during the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022 and released on bail after two months.

Mohammadrezaei was arrested at her workplace in Sanandaj on 10 March. Security forces had previously summoned and threatened her on multiple occasions in relation to her women’s rights activism.

Sohaila Motaei was arrested in Dehgolan on the evening of 10 March. She was previously briefly arrested in January for protesting death sentences against women prisoners. She was also detained during the Woman Life Freedom uprising and sentenced to five years in prison for charges including “spreading propaganda against the system.”

Leila Pashaei was arrested from her home in Sanandaj on 10 March after speaking against compulsory veiling, child marriage, violence against women, and executions of women in Iran during an event on IWD. During the speech she said:

“Women in Iran are held captive by authorities who fear the power of women…The women’s movement has passed the point of no return…. Women worldwide, especially in the Middle East, will never be silenced again.”

Pattern of Suppression and Intimidation

The recent arrests occurred within the context of a broader campaign to suppress women’s rights activism and defiance of compulsory veiling through a range of coercive measures. Activists, journalists, singers and other public figures are among those targeted through arbitrary detention, torture through flogging, coercive interrogations and threats, and shutting down social media accounts.

On 11 March, Nina Golestani, a writer and women’s rights activist, was arbitrarily arrested at her parents’ home in Gilan province by the Intelligence Unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). According to a statement by her husband, Javad Sajadi Rad, on Instagram, IRGC agents stormed her parents’ home, searched it and confiscated her personal belongings. They then took her away for interrogations and subsequently transferred her to Lakan prison in Rasht, Gilan province. She was released on bail on 16 March.

On 7 March, a day after several women journalists participated at a media event in Tehran without headscarves, the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency issued a statement calling their actions “contrary to public decency”. The journalists were interrogated at the office of the prosecutor in Tehran’s Evin prison and judicial cases were opened against them.

On 5 March, singer Mehdi Yarrahi’s flogging sentence of 74 lashes was carried out in connection to his song called “Your Headscarf (Roosarito)” commemorating the first anniversary of the Woman Life Freedom uprising.

On 27 February, singer Hiwa Seyfizade was arrested during a live performance in Tehran. An official announced that she was arrested for “unauthorised solo singing”, which is banned for women in Iran. She was released on bail on 1 March 2025. Her Instagram account has since been closed, with two posts from the Public Security Police on her page stating: “This page has been blocked [by order of the judicial authorities] due to the production of criminal content.”

In February, imprisoned women’s rights activist Sharifeh Mohammadi was sentenced to death for a second time on the charge of “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi), solely in relation to her human rights activities, including supporting women’s rights. The Supreme Court had overturned a prior death sentence by a Revolutionary Court in October 2024, sending the case back to lower courts.

On 14 December 2024, singer Parastoo Ahmadi was detained after she livestreamed a concert in which she appeared unveiled in public in a shoulder-baring dress. The video went viral, amassing two and a half million views. She was released on bail several hours later.

On 13 December 2024, Reza Khandan, a human rights defender, was arrested to serve an unjust prison sentence in relation to his campaigning against compulsory veiling. Reza Khandan, who is the husband of lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, was sentenced to six years in prison by a Revolutionary Court in January 2019.

Compulsory veiling laws

Iran’s compulsory veiling laws, which apply to girls as young as seven, violate a whole host of rights, including the rights to equality, freedom of expression, religion and belief, privacy, equality and non-discrimination, personal and bodily autonomy. These laws also inflict severe pain and suffering amounting to torture or other forms of ill-treatment.

In its March 2024 report, the Fact-Finding Mission found that the Iranian authorities have “committed a series of extensive, sustained and continuing acts that individually constitute human rights violations, directed against women [and] girls…and, cumulatively, constitute what the mission assesses to be persecution.”