{"id":2751,"date":"2020-12-17T16:29:47","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T16:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=140477"},"modified":"2020-12-17T16:29:47","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T16:29:47","slug":"nasrin-sotoudeh-irans-courtroom-gladiator-for-the-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/17\/nasrin-sotoudeh-irans-courtroom-gladiator-for-the-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Nasrin Sotoudeh, Iran\u2019s Courtroom Gladiator, for the Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The film and television industry is nothing if not image-conscious, so it speaks volumes that the camera crews who shot footage inside Iran for Nasrin<\/em> are, by design, uncredited. This is being done to keep them out of prison, which is where its protagonist, Nasrin Sotoudeh, now resides.<\/p>\n

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Sotoudeh herself objects to wearing what she perceives to be intrusive headgear, proclaiming in the film: \u201cIf women are forced to wear the hijab, they can do anything to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sotoudeh, this documentary\u2019s embattled titular character, received<\/a> the esteemed Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2012 and on December 3 was just awarded<\/a>, in absentia, the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the \u201cAlternative Nobel Peace Prize.\u201d The crusading Iranian human rights attorney was charged<\/a> with collusion, disseminating propaganda, and insulting the Islamic Republic\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei.<\/p>\n

In November, Sotoudeh, who had staged a lengthy hunger strike, was temporarily furloughed from Qarchak women\u2019s prison due to health issues. But on December 3, she was ordered back<\/a> to serve her sentence – and Sotoudeh\u2019s acceptance speech<\/a> for the Right Livelihood Award was delivered via a pre-recorded audio message.<\/p>\n

The ninety-minute Nasrin<\/em>, written, directed, and produced by Emmy Award-nominee Jeff Kaufman, cleverly opens with titles regarding women\u2019s status in Iran throughout the centuries. Most of the film is in Farsi, with English subtitles, and it\u2019s narrated by Olivia Colman, the Englishwoman who won the Best Actress Oscar for 2018\u2019s The Favourite<\/em> and now portrays Queen Elizabeth II in the third and fourth seasons of the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Netflix series, The Crown<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sotoudeh, an independent thinker and voracious reader since childhood, married her husband, Reza Khandan, in 1995. They had two children, a daughter and a son; both seem to be nurturing parents. She uses her law degree to represent juveniles on death row and members of persecuted minorities, such as Bah\u00e1\u02bc\u00eds, but she specializes in the defense of women who stand up to the Islamic Republic\u2019s post-1979 theocratic laws that stripped women of their rights.    <\/p>\n

Sotoudeh herself objects to wearing what she perceives to be intrusive headgear, proclaiming in the film: \u201cIf women are forced to wear the hijab, they can do anything to us.\u201d She has defended women who strip off their hijabs, attach the head scarves to sticks<\/a>, and wave them in acts of public defiance.<\/p>\n

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Sotoudeh\u2019s advocacy in and out of court inevitably puts her on a collision course with the mullahs\u2019 regime. In 2010, her law office was closed and searched, and Sotoudeh was arrested<\/a> and imprisoned at the notorious<\/a> Evin Prison, where some inmates were allegedly tortured. Sotoudeh spent two and a half months in solitary confinement; her children were allowed to visit after fifty-eight days.<\/p>\n

In a moving scene, Sotoudeh appears in court and, despite handcuffs, manages to hug Reza. But Reza, too, is subjected to intimidation, receiving anonymous phone calls from Qom, a holy city where many of Iran\u2019s fatwas originate. In 2018, Reza was arrested<\/a> and \u201ccharged with acting against Iran\u2019s national security and supporting \u2018anti-hijab\u2019 action.\u201d He was released after spending more than three months in jail.<\/p>\n

Sotoudeh\u2019s incarceration for defending political prisoners inspired international protests and actions. After Sotoudeh is sentenced to a lengthy prison term and to receive lashings, Nasrin<\/em> depicts footage of rallies across the world, including Europe, the United States, Armenia, and Turkey.<\/p>\n

At one demonstration, barebacked women display faux \u201cbloody\u201d scars; at another, women wear masks emblazoned with photos of Sotoudeh. Using vintage footage, Kaufman\u2019s film also touches upon vignettes from Iranian history, including the CIA-backed<\/a> coup that overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.       <\/p>\n

Nasrin<\/em>\u2019s protagonist is devoted to the causes of human rights, gender equity, and individual freedom. \u201cArt is the best way to take on tyranny,\u201d she says in the film. Her daughter, on the other hand, has decided to study art.<\/p>\n

Suppressed<\/a> Iranian filmmaker Jafar Pahani, co-awardee with Sotoudeh of the 2012 Sakharov Prize, appears throughout this documentary. Nasrin includes a scene from a filmed stage performance of  Death and the Maiden<\/em> originally<\/a> by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman, arguably a kindred spirit for Sotoudeh.<\/p>\n

Nasrin<\/em> is an often gripping, poignant chronicle of a truly admirable struggle for women\u2019s rights and against religious persecution and dogma. Hopefully someday soon, prisoner of conscience Nasrin Sotoudeh will be free and reunited with her family, and the people who filmed Nasrin<\/em> under the radar will get the credit and recognition they deserve.<\/p>\n

Nasrin opens December 18 in <\/em>virtual cinemas<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The film and television industry is nothing if not image-conscious, so it speaks volumes that the camera crews who shot footage inside Iran for Nasrin are, by design,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2752,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions\/2752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}