Iran: Female Blogger Receives 50 Lashes

These are the words Iranian blogger Somayeh Tohidloo wrote [fa] in her blog after receiving 50 whip lashes in Evin Prison on September 14, 2011:

Be happy, for if you wanted to humiliate me, I confess that I feel my entire body is suffering with degradation.

Somayeh Tohidloo

Somayeh Tohidloo

Somayeh was active during the 2009 presidential election in the campaign for Mir Hussein Mousavi, and she was jailed for 70 days in 2009, after a mass protest movement erupted in Iran. She was released after paying bail, but the flogging sentence was eventually upheld.

Green City writes [fa]:

Here is Iran, where Somayeh Tohidloo, a PhD-graduate is lashed while a $3 billion dollar fraud [over a Lake Urmia] happens, and nothing is done to punish the fraudulent acts.

Gomnamian blog writes [fa]:

Somayeh was accused of insulting Ahmadinejad… I was appalled to see a human being lashed for writing a post about a criminal.

Azarmehr writes:

Today, Somayeh's facebook page was inundated with messages of support. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former advisor to Khatami, wrote: “Everyone who knows Somayeh Tohidlou, regard her as a symbol of reasonableness, moderation and character. Today when I learned she had received 50 lashes for having insulted the ‘very respectable president’, I felt it was the Iranian pride which had been flagellated and not Somayeh's body. Somayeh, you are the only one who has not been humiliated as a result of this sentence”

The Islamic Republic has jailed several bloggers in recent years. Omid Reza MirSayafi, an Iranian blogger, died in prison on March 18, 2009, under suspicious circumstances.

14 comments

  • Suparnaa

    Appalled to say the least!
    Are we all living in the same world?

  • As goes Iran, so goes Syria

    Let’s recap the situation;
    For six months Baher al-Assad has been slaughtering sunni muslims
    At month five, Obama has said next to nothing about Syria while touting his success in Libya
    In contrast, he signed an executive order banning financial transactions, business deals between the US/US Persons and the government of Syria
    Yesterday the State Department tells US Citizens to leave

    Is this plausible deniability?
    http://msmignoresit.blogspot.com/2011/09/army-of-lions-lead-by-lamb.html

  • Felipe Noguera

    We are with you in solidarity my sister. May Allah grant you strength and forbearance.

  • […] de Global Voices publicado originalmente en inglés por Fred Petrossian, traducido al español por Elizabeth […]

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  • patrick Lynch

    of honor and nobility is all that I see in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria,…the powerless,the oppressed carry themselves with great dignity…They are a blessing to their God…their heavenly father could only be proud…the courage and composure against injustice is exemplary …the world is with you my Arabian friends…The war of hearts and minds will be won…and once you taste freedom there will no going back…it is more beautiful than you can imagine… to live free…never give up…never, your American allies are helping …the best we can!

  • 5nChange

    While it is terrible to see this occur, history tends to bestow honor on those who accepted suffering to speak the truth.

  • […] Somayeh Tohidlou,talks about the storming of British Embassy compounds by Iranian protesters. She wrote [Fa] in Friendfeed: “Are they wrong about the date? This is 2011, not 1979 [when protesters took the US embassy in Tehran]and the regime is 32 years old now, not new-born one.” Tweet Somayeh Tohidlou,talks about the storming of British Embassy compounds by Iranian protesters. She wrote [Fa] in Friendfeed: “Are they wrong about the date? This is 2011, not 1979 [when protesters took the US embassy in Tehran]and the regime is 32 years old now, not new-born one.” […]

  • […] Tohidlou, an Iranian activist who received 50 whip lashes in Tehran in September 2011, wrote [fa] on Friendfeed: “Are they wrong about […]

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