Iranian Poet Chaharmahalian to Serve Suspended Sentence

An Iranian court has ordered the execution of a suspended prison sentence handed to poet and civil activist Atefeh Chaharmahalian.

Chaharmahalian, a former board member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, was arrested in Tehran on October 3 last year amid nationwide protests against the country’s clerical establishment.

She was initially incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin prison and subsequently given a suspended prison sentence of two years and eight months. 

On November 21, Chaharmahalian announced on Instagram that her lawyer received an order requiring her to serve the sentence.

She explained that the suspended sentence will be carried out because she “neither accepted amnesty (I never considered writing and defending people's rights as a crime that requires amnesty) nor put down the pen."