IWAC – Follow-up report on Zhina (or Jina) Modares Gorji; women’s rights activist and journalist who was once arrested in the course of Zhina (Mahsa) Movement before after which she published on social media the details of her pardon-related court hearing and her refusal to sign a letter of commitment as a pre-condition to be qualified pardonable for this public pardon, along with the statements and claims of the judge who had her case under supervision, hence revealing certain important aspects of the so-called judiciary public pardon which was meant to result in the mass release of the former political prisoners and arrested protestors; however, according to reports of the Kurdish human rights news agencies, she is now arrested again on Apr. 10, 2023 by the security forces in one of the streets of Sanandaj and then got transferred to Sanandaj Correctional Facility. This is the second time she gets arrested since the outbreak of Zhina (Mahsa) Movement, and before it, she had reported receiving arrest warning by the security forces both via phone contact and through written notices. However, her arrest coincides with the new rising tide of arresting artists, journalists, and media, cultural, and social activists, including two other arrests as such made on Apr. 8, Sat., that is, Yasser Eskandari, the national “radif” singer and instructor whose arrest took place with battery and assault and also Zeynab Zaman, feminist and Muhammad Zaman, the renowned Iranian singer’s daughter who, according to the news published on social media and Farsi-speaking mass media, was arrested by the IRGC intelligence division after attending its office in Niyayesh St., Tehran and got transferred to an unknown location afterwards; In addition, Said Seyf’Ali, an agricultural engineering graduate and managing editor of “Dideban-eh Iran” news website, was arrested upon attendance in the Persecution Office over “case follow-up” and then got transferred to an unknown location on Apr. 11, 2023.
