JINHA

NEWS CENTER – Iranian artist Atena Farghadani has been sentenced to 12 years and nine months in jail for a cartoon she drew criticizing reproductive health restrictions in Iran.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard arrested 28-year-old Atena Farghadani in August 2014. The arrest came soon after she shared a cartoon that depicted members of Iran's Parliament as animals for their vote to restrict access to birth control methods in the country. She was held in the notorious Evin Prison for months, where she was tortured and beaten for secretly painting on the backs of flattened paper cups.

Atena was released in December 2014. When she publicly shared the torture she had experienced, she was arrested once more. Atena went on hunger strike for around a month in February, at one point experiencing a heart attack, until she was transferred to another prison in March.

Atena's trial began on May 19. Among the evidence against her were the birth control cartoon and the fact that families of political prisoners attended one of her exhibitions. On Wednesday, the court sentenced Atena to 12 years and 9 months of prison time for "insulting members of Parliament with paintings" and "insulting the Supreme Leader."

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