Zahra Shafiei, Writer and Director, 'Suffered a Stroke Due to Beatings by Officers'

Zahra Shafiei, a writer and director, 'suffered a stroke' due to the 'severe blows' inflicted on her by officers during her arrest in 2023. Saeed Dehghan, a human rights lawyer, announced this news on Friday, May 21, on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), stating that Ms. Shafiei was hospitalized last Thursday 'for brain surgery and tumor removal.' This artist was arrested on September 16, 2023, coinciding with the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death, while in custody of the Islamic Republic's morality police, and was temporarily released from prison in November of the same year. She had previously described her 'violent' arrest on a call from prison, stating that during her arrest on Enghelab Street in Tehran, several male and female officers 'hit her severely and in a very bad and strange way.' The 26th branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Iman Afshari, sentenced Zahra Shafiei to 9 years and 6 months in prison last year. Human rights activists have previously reported extensively on the extreme violence of security forces during the arrest of citizens. In one case, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported in December 2022 that 'Shadman Ahmadi,' a young man arrested for participating in protests in the city of Dehgolan, died 'due to torture' in the detention center of that city just hours after his arrest.