Friday, September 20, 2024

Prison for punctuation

From NPR:

An Iranian writer and activist has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after replying with a single dot, or period, in response to a post on the social platform X by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Hossein Shanbehzadeh, a longtime critic of Iran’s leadership, was active on social media, supporting political prisoners and the removal of mandatory headscarves for women.
Shanbehzadeh was arrested shortly after posting his response, which received many more likes than Khamenei’s tweet. The sentence:
Five years for alleged pro-Israel propaganda activity, four years for insulting Islamic sanctities, two years for spreading lies online and an additional year for anti-regime propaganda.
Despots and wanna-be despots everywhere hate being mocked, don’t they?

comments: 3

Geo-B said...

Reminds me of the 1969 Costa-Gavras movie Z.

Michael Leddy said...

I should see it — I never have, but I understand the point. I’ve read that the semicolon has also become a gesture of protest in Iran.

Michael Leddy said...

Source: https://x.com/IranIntl_En/status/1799484661585904036