Motehre Ghonei, a Student Protester Deprived of Education, Arrested and Sent to Prison

On Tuesday, October 8, the Judiciary's Public Relations Center of the Islamic Republic announced the arrest and transfer to prison of Motehre Ghonei, a protesting student deprived of education. Her lawyers have confirmed this news. Mostafa Nili, Motehre Ghonei's lawyer, stated that his client was transferred to prison to serve a one-year sentence and is facing new charges simultaneously. This dental student from Tehran University was sentenced to one year in prison on July 2, 2024, for protesting the death sentence of Tomaj Salehi and other writings. In December 2023, she was also sentenced to 24 months of educational deprivation and a change of her study location to Ardabil University of Medical Sciences for participating in the nationwide protests of 2022 in Iran. Motehre Ghonei, a former political secretary of the Islamic Students Association at Tehran University, was also briefly detained during the nationwide uprising "Women, Life, Freedom" in 2022. On Friday, October 5, after attending Friday prayers led by Ali Khamenei, she was accused of 'publishing insulting content,' and the Tehran prosecutor's office filed charges against her. The basis for the 'publication of insulting content' was a post she made on the social media platform X. In this post, she wrote: 'The reformists who today fell into the pot from the heat of the halim and are going to Friday prayers, the conditions for the Friday prayer leader are reason, faith, legitimacy, and justice. Now the decision is up to you, but these conditions are not evident for the majority of the people of Iran, to the extent that they prefer war to you and your leadership.' The appeals court upheld the one-year prison sentence for Motehre Ghonei, a suspended medical student. Motehre Ghonei, a deprived student, stated: 'They have made my life hell; they said I should not stay in Iran.' The disciplinary committee of Alzahra and Tehran universities condemned two female students to educational deprivation. The one-year prison sentence for Motehre Ghonei was due to her protest against the death sentence of Tomaj Salehi. The crackdown on students continues; suspension and exile sentences were issued for four students from Tehran University and Tehran University of Medical Sciences.