JINHA

NEWS CENTER – AtenaFarghadani, the painter being tried for a cartoon she drew criticizing proposed restrictions on birth control in Iran, had the first hearing in her trial yesterday.

28-year-old Atena drew a cartoon caricaturing the Iran representatives voting on a law that would restrict contraception and shared it on Facebook. In August 2014, Revolutionary Guards searched Atena's house, arrested her and brought her to Evin Prison, where she was held in solitary confinement without access to her lawyers.

Yesterday was the first hearing in Atena's trial for crimes including "propaganda against the system." The evidence against her includes the cartoon and the fact that she met with families of political prisoners.

According to Amnesty International, Atena refuse to give up her art in prison, where she secretly continued painting on the backs of paper cups. After guards cut off her access to the paper cups, Atena found a new supply in the prison bathroom, which she smuggled into her cell in order to continue making art. Guards, who had followed Atena's action using hidden cameras, beat her.

Atena was released in November 2014, but was arrested once again because she made statements to the press that she had been subjected to nine-hour interrogation sessions every day for six weeks and that guards had beaten her and subjected her to humiliating naked searches. Soon thereafter, Atena was arrested again. Atena started a hunger strike against her conditions and demanding to be transferred to a prison with a political prisoners' section, experiencing a heart attack and fainting in February as a result of the hunger strike.

Activists are continuing to work for Atena's freedom as her trial continues.

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