TEHRAN – The Iranian artist Atena Farghadani, famously sentenced to over 12 years in prison for a cartoon depicting the country’s parliament as animals, is facing yet another charge – that of indecency, raised over the woman shaking her male lawyer’s hand.
The handshake itself was described by the court as “indecent conduct” representing an “illegitimate sexual relationship short of adultery.”
Imprisoned artist Atena Farghadani has been charged further with indecency, potentially adding to a twelve-and-a-half-year prison sentence, after shaking the hand of her male lawyer (The Daily Mail.)
Farghadani is currently serving her sentence, set at 5 years more than the legal limit of seven-and-a-half years for such a case, in Iran’s highest-security prison.
It is in Tehran’s Evin Prison that the female artist met with her male lawyer Mohammad Moghimi with whom she shook hands following her sentencing. Moghimi was arrested on June 13th, and the two were charged with indecency, a crime in Iran which deals with public sexual misconduct.
Moghimi himself was able to meet the bail of roughly $60,000, and is currently awaiting a trial.
Atena Farghadani, 29, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for drawing a picture of Iran’s parliament as animals and posting it to Facebook. Her precise charge was, “insulting members of parliament through paintings” and “spreading propaganda against the system” (Facebook.)
Farghadani has publicly denounced the harmful and humiliating conditions in Evin Prison since her original arrest in August of 2014. It is there that she was beaten by guards and suffered a heart attack during a hunger strike protesting the prison’s abuse of inmates.
On December 29, she posted a video to YouTube in which she described being interrogated for 9 hours each day for six weeks, as well as the beatings and torture to which she was subjected. This led to the artist’s rearrest in January.
In prison Farghadani took to drawing on cups, paper towels, and any other materials that she could find in order to continue her art. These things have been confiscated by guards and had their use banned from Farghadani in order to silence the artist, leading to a popular campaign among online communities of artists in support of her.
Artists have been showing their support for Farghadani under the #Draw4Atena campaign starting two weeks before her unsuccessful appeal last month. Submissions like the above have continually arisen online since (Tumblr.)
Since her case garnered national and international attention, Farghadani’s family has received death threats. Nonetheless, Farghadani’s parents have stated that she intends to file another appeal to the harsh sentence handed down to her by Judge Pir-Abassi, known as Iran’s “hanging judge” for his history of severe punishment of political dissent.
Pir-Abassi earned his reputation as “the judge of death” after his sentencing of journalists, artists, bloggers, and political activists involved in 2009’s street protests following a disputed general election.
Under Article 687 of Iran’s Penal Code the maximum sentence for indecency is 99 lashes. Because their handshake was in a public place, Farghadani and her lawyer could each face an additional 74 lashes, making a potential total of 173 apiece.