Leila Hosseinzadeh

Age: 35
Activism/rights: Civil activist
Status: Released
Judicial status: 
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of a fair trial and due process; denial of access to a lawyer; prolonged solitary confinement; failure to observe the principle of separation of offences; denial of medical care; deprivation of education

Leila Hosseinzadeh, former secretary of the University of Tehran Students’ Union Council, was first arrested in December 2017 for participating in protests at the University of Tehran and was released on bail two weeks later. Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced her on 7 March 2018 to six years’ imprisonment and a two-year ban on leaving Iran on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” and “propaganda against the system”. This sentence was reduced on appeal to three and a half years’ imprisonment and a two-year travel ban. She was arrested on 28 July 2019 and transferred to Evin Prison to serve her sentence. In March 2020, Leila was granted furlough and, due to a serious illness, was released after being deemed medically unfit to serve her sentence. One year later, Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced her to an additional five years’ imprisonment on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” and a two-year ban on online activities. Among the charges against her were holding a birthday celebration for Mohammad Sharifi-Moghaddam, a Gonabadi dervish, and singing the song “Khun-e Arghavanha” in front of Sharif University of Technology. This sentence was upheld on appeal, and on 7 December 2021, agents arrested this civil activist with the use of force, without regard for her medical condition, and transferred her to Ward 20 of Evin Prison, while she was denied access to her required medication. She was released on bail after 26 days behind bars.

One year later, on 20 August 2022, Leila was rearrested on the order of the Shiraz Prosecutor’s Office and initially transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison. She was then transferred to a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Shiraz, known as Ward 100. One month later, she was transferred to the quarantine ward and the narcotics ward of Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison, where she was held incommunicado. In early January 2023, without prior notice and with the use of force by prison officials, she was transferred back to Evin Prison.

In September 2024, Leila announced that, following confirmation by the Forensic Medical Commission that she was permanently unable to serve her sentence, the remainder of her sentence had been converted into a fine of 100 million tomans.

In January 2025, Leila was sentenced by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court to one year’s imprisonment on charges of “propaganda against the system” and “women appearing in public thoroughfares and public spaces without the Islamic hijab”, after attending her Master’s thesis defence in anthropology at the University of Tehran without a headscarf. Following the issuance of this sentence, she stated that, during an in-person visit to the central administration of the University of Tehran, she learned that, in addition to her Master’s programme, she had also been unlawfully expelled from her Bachelor’s programme six years after graduation.

In November 2025, Leila revealed that she had left Iran in a television interview.²²³