Shadi Sadr
Iran
As a lawyer, journalist and investigator, Shadi Sadr stands up especially for women in difficulties. The organization she founded, Raahi, defends these women pro bono and investigates how the human rights situation can be improved for women in general in Iran.
She received various human rights awards for her work, including the Human Rights Defenders Tulip in 2009. Because of her work, however, she had to flee from Iran. While living in Europe she was charged, as expected. Together with another human rights activist, she stood trial for “acting against national security” and “causing harm to the public order”, for which she was sentenced in absentia to a prison term of six years and 74 lashes on 16 May 2010. The revolutionary court that handed out the sentence believed that the women had committed these acts during a peaceful demonstration outside the same court on 4 March 2007, where four female human rights activists stood trial.
In 2010 Shadi Sadr, at the invitation of L4L, attended the Annual Congress of the Dutch Bar Association, where she talked about the ways in which lawyers in Iran are hindered in the performance of their work, her own collisions with the regime and how she is trying to continue her work from Europe.
News aboutShadi Sadr
13 December 2010 Iran Lawyers fight for their prosecuted colleagues15 November 2010 Iran Shadi Sadr receives another human rights prize
31 May 2010 Iran Shadi Sadr convicted to 6 years and 74 lashes
10 November 2009 Iran Dutch ‘Human Rights Tulip’ 2009 awarded to Shadi Sadr