Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics

Iran Jails Cartoonist For Mocking Members of Parliament

548x331208126_atena_farghadaniIran has continued its assault on free speech this week with the jailing of an artist for simply drawing a cartoon disparaging members of parliament. Atena Farghadani, 28, who is a peaceful activist and artist who sought to mock the decision to restrict birth control for women. Rather than respond to such criticism, the ruling Mullahs sent her to jail.


The Revolutionary Guards raided Farghadani’s house, took her personal belongings, blindfolded her, and threw her into jail. Farghadani was charged with “insulting members of parliament through paintings” for drawing the officials as animals. When she was briefly released in November, she was arrested again for alleging discussion her torture and beatings while incarcerated. Before being sent back to jail, Farghadani posted an open letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to her Facebook page that stated “What you call an ‘insult to representatives of the parliament by means of cartoons’ I consider to be an artistic expression of the home of our nation (parliament), which our nation does not deserve! I, therefore, must pay retribution for defending my beloved defenseless people.”

For that, she was thrown into the hell hole known as Evin prison in solitary confinement. The case shows how blasphemy and religious crimes inevitably feed an insatiable appetite to criminalize and control speech of all kinds.

Farghadani stands as inspiring figure for everyone who values free speech. She has stood her grounds despite torture and cruel confinement in one of the most notorious prisons on Earth. It is embarrassing to call oneself a free speech advocate in the face of such unbridled courage. She is the perfect counterfoil to the morally corrupt regime of Iran’s Mullahs. That is precisely why they felt that they had to bury her deep in the confines of Evin.

Source: Washington Post

48 thoughts on “Iran Jails Cartoonist For Mocking Members of Parliament”

  1. By the way, Progressive’s exist in both major political parties essentially making one Huge Progressive party with two ideological wings; left and right.

  2. Randyjet,
    You throw out CONSERVATIVE as if that makes you sound informed. Others will toss out LIBERAL for the same reason. The correct term for those Big Government statists that have empowered government to strip the rights of the people is PROGRESSIVE.

  3. Speaking of old newspapers, is Professor Turley related to Bullet Bob Turley of Yankee fame from 1955?

  5. randyjet:

    “Karen I see that you have no knowledge of US history if you seriously believe what you wrote.”

    Does that mean that you do not agree that the US has the most robust free speech laws in the world? If so, what country protects free speech more than the US? Not even Canada or the UK has the same protections.

    “The track record of the US is as bad as that of Iran now especially during WWI.” So we stoned people to death in WWI? Beheaded them? Stoned them for adultery? Sentenced homosexuals to death?

    Yes, our laws have evolved. You could have just as easily cited slavery or the eugenics that the Nazis learned in CA. But you would be engaging in anachronistic comparisons.

    Considering my grandmother was a German American during both World Wars, I’m pretty up to speed on what Germans experienced in America when our countries went to war. I am also aware of pretty entrenched spies. I recall a family story where during WWII, my German American grandmother went to the store to buy milk. The Japanese guy bagging her groceries told her that soon, she would be working for him when the Japanese conquered America. She smashed the milk bottle over his head. She had relatives back in Germany, and she also had family fighting the Nazis, but her loyalties were always crystal clear. Unlike what would have happened today, the owner apologized to her and fired him on the spot. One of the classmates of my father was a Japanese American. Her family was interned. There were many tragedies in WWII.

    I also recently acquired a large collection of newspapers from that era. It is interesting reading the headlines, to get a feel for what the public was feeling at that time. Perhaps most traumatic was the headline for Victory, along with an article about the sinking of the Indianapolis, I think it was. After Hiroshima, but shortly before surrender, the Japanese sank that ship with an enormous loss of life. Everyone had friends or family fighting that war, buried, or just MIA. Telegrams were hated. A knock on the door with a chaplain was hated. Fear, grief, and worry were on everyone’s mind. Americans heard about the atrocities the Japanese and Nazis committed in their camps, and they knew that they were fighting for their lives to keep that from happening here. If we lost, we would have concentration camps here. There were slogans everywhere, “loose lips sink ships” for a reason. I disagree with how the internments were handled, especially with how property and businesses were irretrievably lost, but espionage was a real and present danger. That is exactly why the Navajo Code Talkers were instrumental in the war.

    But it’s OK if you dismiss my knowledge of our history. We’ll always have the TSA and Immigration.

    1. Karen, The FACT is that for most of my life I have lived in a country which did NOT allow freedom of speech or political association. That we have that now, is because the courts and American people got tired of the CONSERVATIVES who brought that police state about. So to have conservatives now complain about some penny ante stuff is the height of hypocrisy! THEY were the biggest opponents of freedom of speech and were using the police to beat and jail those who disagreed with them.

  6. It is frustrating for me when activist conflate “access” to birth control with “free”.

    Not all birth control needs to have zero copay to provide access. Insurance companies can offer a range of birth control options, without needing to offer every single solitary one, to be considered satisfying access requirements. Some options have a much higher risk of side effects, for instance.

    Making birth control free of copay, regardless of socioeconomic status, is insulting to women. We are not helpless children unable to pay a copay. Giving free birth control to the Paris Hiltons of the US makes health insurance costs rise for everyone, and not all of us have Paris’ bank account to pay for that. Middle class women are suffering so politicians can get browning points.

    Heart disease, diabetes, and cancer medications are life-saving, yet they have a copay. Somehow, women are expected to scrape up higher and higher copays for medications they need to survive, but a birth control copay is a war on women. 15 choices out of 26 is a war on women.

    Come on, ladies. Stop acting like the thoughtless sheep who cannot add that politicians take us for.

  7. Nick – that is an interesting point about ultrasounds.

    I have a biology degree, and yet I was so moved and awed to see my son as a 10 week old fetus, heart beating like a hummingbird, and moving around. Most mothers say the same thing – they are shocked and surprised by how developed their children look at such early gestation, and how much they move. It adds perspective and information.

    Any woman who does not understand developmental stages – moving, and with a beating heart – is making an uninformed decision. If the woman really does not know how developed her fetus is, then her doctor is withholding information from her, and she is basing her decision on erroneous assumptions. Whether it’s a diagram or a picture or an ultrasound, she should receive a thorough explanation of fetal development. I do not believe in treating women like incompetents, withholding information from them that might be upsetting. If a woman views an ultrasound and says, “I did not know it would be moving around”, then she was not informed with all of her medical information. What if the woman finds out later how development occurs, and blames the abortion provider for not telling her?

    I think there is a valid debate about requiring an ultrasound if the woman adamantly does not want one. There are points on both sides. But if a woman thinks a 10 week old fetus is still in the blastula stage, she is making an uninformed decision, and that is medically unfair to her. When you break an arm, the doctor shows you the X-ray. Cancer, they show you the CAT scan. Does a woman have the right to say she does not want her decision to be informed, or think about it? I suppose an argument could be made on either side. If the sight of an X-ray makes you ill, you can tell your doctor you don’t want to see it, but he’s still supposed to explain to you what’s going on. I personally think if a woman could not bear to have all the facts prior, then she might not be making the best decision. My OB/GYN office has diagrams of fetal development on the walls, but I assume abortion providers do not. Is that misleading patients?

    I did wonder at all those women in Dr Gosnell’s house of horrors, where he performed abortion on 3rd trimester pregnancies. They could feel their babies kicking, and yet he had a booming business. Was it out of sight out of mind? What is strange is that he was so popular, and yet the overwhelming majority of people support banning 3rd trimester abortions in anything but the most extreme circumstances.

  8. This is totally unsurprising, but very sad. Only the US has the most robust free speech laws, which progressives are busily trying to undermine.

    Women like her are very brave.

    1. Karen I see that you have no knowledge of US history if you seriously believe what you wrote. In my lifetime which includes the McCarthy era and the 60s, the US authorities jailed, killed, stole, and violated every bit of the US Constitution in those days. They prosecuted Dr Spock and Sloan Coffin for speeches they gave against the draft and the Vietnam war. I personally know a number of US citizens who had to flee the US during the McCarthy era and many others lost jobs, homes, etc… The US imprisoned over 50 members of the CPUSA some of who were murdered in prison. The track record of the US is as bad as that of Iran now especially during WWI. In Texas it was against the law to speak German and a person could be imprisoned for doing it. Mobs lynched and burned persons suspected of being German ancestry. My paternal grandfather had his home and business burned down in Boston because he had a German name. He could not even speak a word of German. So I suggest you learn more about our checked history here. It is only recently with the Warren Court that the first amendment started being enforced for a change.

      1. randyjet – I want a cite on the deaths of those members of the CPUSA in prison (and don’t count the Rosenbergs).

  9. Inga – if they are good little boys and girls for x time the judge will expunge the record.

    1. Inga – having been thru a lot of graduations I know how both sides feel about this. It is a touchy issue. On the one hand you want an orderly graduation that has the least fuss. On the other you want to support your kid.

      Here is the way it probably will play out. It is a school function. The state probably has a law about disturbing school functions. They can plead guilty or not guilty. There are enough witnesses to put them away for life. However, the judge will probably give them probation. And they better hope that kid did not have younger siblings.

  11. This is what you get in a society that believes there are no inalienable rights; government (mob rule) gets to decide what rights you have.

  12. Inquiring minds want to know. Has this Bruce Caitlyn Jenner gal had his/her weeny cut off?
    If not then he/she should not front his/her self off as a girl. I wonder too how many newborn kids will be named Caitlyn this month. Will the name be shoved aside? Because there could be fear that if you had a female child and named her that name that she might later grow a weeny. And how did Bruce grow the titties? Were they implanted? Who paid for that? What doctor would waste her time sewing some titties on Bruce? And how would Bruce fair in Iran? Maybe he needs to wear a veil.

  13. “Cartoon Incarceration”

    “Crazy Abe” Lincoln, religious zealot, did exactly the same thing in his precedent setting “Reign of Terror” 152 years ago.

    The Constitution required the impeachment of Lincoln for “High crimes and misdemeanors” as he engaged in abuse of power against the people.

    Next we’ll be required to believe the Warren Report, WMD in Iraq and that Mossad/CIA didn’t have foreknowledge of 9/11.

    The radical collectivist “Spinners” have taken over the government.

    The inmates have taken over the asylum.

  14. I’d guess it’s about 50/50 if the Democratic anointed one wins in 2016.
    I think I understand the perceived need to defeat the Republican nominee and put Slick Willy &Co. back in the White House.
    Good for you, feminists.

  15. @NickS

    What amuses me is all the people who I suspect want to come out and call Jenner a friggin’ nut, are instead telling him how happy they are for him. They are scared to death that somebody is going to call them transphobic or something. Personally, I think he is a friggin’ nut. I don’t think he has had his weenie whacked off yet, sooo don’t be surprised if he changes back.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  19. Squeek, People collect Wheaties boxes as memorabilia. I bet Wheaties would love to buy up all their boxes w/ Jenner on the front and burn them. It’s not the “Breakfast of Champions” anymore.

  20. John Smith does make some very good points. The one that interests me the most is our complacency. We westerners have become fat and self absorbed, and self indulgent. Sorta like the Romans prior to the fall of their Empire.

    Yesterday I heard the great novelist, Nelson DeMille interviewed on NPR. He is a Viet Nam vet and a down to earth, smart guy. DeMille touched on this topic of our complacency and the non complacency of much of the rest of the world. He drew parallels between Hitler and Putin. Two, short, evil, men who saw an opening in their formerly great countries. Both Germany and Russia were humiliated by their defeats in WW1 and Afghanistan/Cold War respectively. Both Hitler and Putin have manipulated their people into thinking they can lead them back to being world dominating forces. This dovetails w/ what John Smith spoke of in his comment. Putin smells weakness and will do anything, including but not limited to working w/ terrorists, to defeat the West.

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