Leila Hosseinzadeh, who defended her thesis without mandatory hijab, sentenced to prison

Leila Hosseinzadeh, a student activist and former secretary of the Central Student Council at the University of Tehran, has been sentenced to one year in prison for defending her thesis without the mandatory hijab in a court she was unaware of. On Friday, December 2, she posted an image of the court ruling against her on Instagram, stating, 'Since I have not been informed of the charges nor aware of the court session, I am completely unaware of the details of the ruling.' The ruling issued by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran cites the charges against this student activist as 'attending the University of Tehran without observing the legal hijab' and 'propaganda against the regime.' Hosseinzadeh concluded by stating that she would not appeal the ruling, saying, 'I have no hope for a review, nor for other legal avenues.' This master's student in anthropology at the University of Tehran defended her thesis on 'National Identity and Ethnic Identity in Contemporary Iranian Cities; A Case Study of the City of Naqdeh' last September without wearing the mandatory hijab. Following this, the University of Tehran issued a statement declaring her defense session 'illegal' and announced the 'suspension' of two faculty members for this reason. The statement, without naming Hosseinzadeh, indicated that she 'is not a student at the University of Tehran' and has been 'disqualified' from studying due to 'exceeding the allowed study period' and 'not registering for the second semester of the academic year 1401-1402.' Eight students at the University of Tehran were also disqualified from studying due to participating in 'a defense session' of Hosseinzadeh's thesis. In this context, dozens of students from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Tehran announced in a statement in December 1402 that eight students from this faculty faced disqualification from studying due to 'participating in a master's thesis defense session' of Leila Hosseinzadeh. The statement mentioned that these students were summoned to the disciplinary committee on charges of 'participating in an illegal and separatist session' and faced a total of eight semesters of disqualification. Hosseinzadeh has previously faced judicial rulings; in December 1400, she was sentenced to five years in prison and two years of social media prohibition for 'gathering and colluding to act against national security.' She was also among the detained students during the protests in December 2017, who was released on bail after two weeks and later sentenced to six years in prison and additional penalties in the same year.