Nasrin Sotoudeh
| Nasrin Sotoudeh | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
30 May 1963 Tehran, Iran |
| Nationality | Iranian |
| Alma mater | Shahid Beheshti University |
| Occupation | Human rights lawyer |
| Spouse(s) | Reza Khandan |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards |
Freedom to Write Award (2011) Sakharov Prize (2012) |
| Website | nasrinsotoudeh |
Nasrin Sotoudeh (also spelled Sotoodeh; Persian: نسرین ستوده) is a human rights lawyer in Iran. She has represented imprisoned Iranian opposition activists and politicians following the disputed June 2009 Iranian presidential elections as well as prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were minors. Her clients have included journalist Isa Saharkhiz, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, and Heshmat Tabarzadi, the head of the banned opposition group Democratic Front of Iran.
Sotoudeh was arrested in September 2010 on charges of spreading propaganda and conspiring to harm state security and was imprisoned in solitary confinement in Evin Prison. In January 2011, Iranian authorities sentenced Sotoudeh to 11 years in prison, in addition to barring her from practicing law and from leaving the country for 20 years. An appeals court later reduced Sotoudeh's prison sentence to six years, and her ban from working as a lawyer to ten years.
Nasrin Sotoudeh was born in 1963 in a "religious, middle-class" Iranian family. She had hoped to study philosophy in college and ranked 53rd in the Iranian national university entrance exam but lacked high enough marks to get a place and ended up studying law at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. After completing her degree in international law from the university, Sotoudeh took and passed the bar exam successfully in 1995 but had to wait another eight years to be given her permit to practice law.
Sotoudeh is married to Reza Khandan. They have two children together. Sotoudeh has emphasized that Reza is "truly a modern man," standing beside her and her work during her struggles.
Sotoudeh started her career at the Iranian Ministry of Housing legal office and after two years joined the legal section of the state-owned Bank Tejarat. During her tenure at the bank she was "heavily involved with preparing the legal case and the legal arguments for many of the cases that Iran presented at The Hague" in its dispute with the United States during "the Algeria court summons there".
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Wikipedia