Nasrin Sotoudeh Langarudi (Persian: نسرین ستوده لنگرودی; born 1963) is an Iranian human rights lawyer known for her defense of activists, opposition politicians, and individuals facing human rights violations. She has represented Iranian opposition activists and politicians detained after the disputed June 2009 presidential elections and prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were minors. Her clients have included journalist Isa Saharkhiz, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, and Heshmat Tabarzadi. She has also represented women arrested for appearing in public without a hijab, which is a punishable offense in Iran. Her work has led to several arrests and periods of prison in Iran, and punishment by lashing, the latest being in April 2026, during the 2026 Iran war.
Sotoudeh was the subject of Nasrin, a 2020 documentary filmed in secret in Iran about her life and work.
Contents
Early life and education
Nasrin Sotoudeh was born in 1963 in Tehran, Iran, into a "religious, middle-class" Iranian family. Her father is Aghajan Sotoudeh and her mother Safoura Fakhrian.
She had hoped to study philosophy in college and ranked 53rd in the Iranian national university entrance exam, but lacked high enough marks to get a place and ended up studying law at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. After completing her master's degree in international law from the university in 1989,
Sotoudeh took and passed the bar exam (Kanoon Vokala) successfully in 1995 but had to wait another eight years to be given her permit to practice law.
Work and activism
In 1991, Sotoudeh, along with some friends, began publishing the monthly magazine Daricheh Goftegoo (Conversation Hatch). She was the only woman on the editorial board. Those involved included religious nationalists as well as secular leftists, with opposition to the hardliners in common, and Sotoudeh oversaw the pages on social developments. However, the editor would not publish the articles she had assembled for International Women's Day in March 1991. She met her future husband, Reza Khandan, while working on the magazine.
In the 1990s she wrote about the rights of political detainees and prisoners, as well as the "chain murders", with dissidents being killed throughout the decade. The more liberal Khatami presidency (1997–2005) allowed a freer press, and Soutoudeh published many articles about women's and children's rights, and other rights under the law in general. In 2000, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused reformist newspapers of being under foreign influence, and two of them were closed down.
Sotoudeh worked closely with Shirin Ebadi and her Defenders of Human Rights Center, after receiving her licence to practice law in 2003. She started her legal career at the Iranian Ministry of Housing legal office and, after two years, joined the legal section of the state-owned Bank Tejarat. During her tenure at the bank, she was "heavily involved with preparing the legal case and the legal arguments for many of the cases that Iran presented at The Hague" in its dispute with the United States during "the Algeria court summons there".
She was an early joiner of the Campaign for One Million Signatures in 2006, dedicated to the abolition of laws that discriminate against Iranian women, and later represented some of its members, such as Nahid Keshavarz and Nasim Khosravi. Her work has also included defending abused children and mothers and working to protect abused children from returning to their abusive fathers. She believes many abusers are ill or past victims of mistreatment and need professional care and medication. She wanted the courts to use child specialists and psychologists in verifying abuse cases to protect innocent children better. In she defended Arash Rahmanipour, who was 17 when he was arrested on charges of moharebeh (warring against God) and plotting to overthrow the regime, and executed in January 2010 at the age of 19. Sotoudeh revealed his poor treatment in prison.
Arrests and imprisonment
First arrest
In June 2008, along with other female activists preparing to commemorate a national day of solidarity for Iranian women, Sotoudeh was briefly detained. She was tried in February 2009 for disturbing the public and disobeying the police, but was not sentenced.
Second arrest and trial
On 28 August 2010, Iranian authorities raided Sotoudeh's office. At the time, Sotoudeh was representing Zahra Bahrami, a Dutch-Iranian dual citizen charged with security offenses; it was unclear whether the raid was related to Bahrami. The authorities had also been warning her that she would be imprisoned if she continued to represent Shirin Ebadi.
On 4 or 5 September 2010, Iranian authorities arrested Sotoudeh on charges of spreading propaganda and conspiring to harm state security, and she was imprisoned in solitary confinement in Evin Prison. The Washington Post described the arrest as "highlighting an intensifying crackdown on lawyers who defend influential opposition politicians, activists and journalists."
Following Sotoudeh's arrest, Shirin Ebadi called for her release and expressed concern regarding her health. In the statement, Ebadi said, "Ms. Sotoudeh is one of the last remaining courageous human rights lawyers who has accepted all risks for defending the victims of human rights violations in Iran". Former Czech President Václav Havel and Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, also called for Sotoudeh's release.
Amnesty International launched an urgent call for her release, designating her a prisoner of conscience and noting that she was "at risk of torture or other ill-treatment." Sotoudeh, who was imprisoned in Evin Prison, was reportedly held in solitary confinement.
On 9 January 2011, Iranian authorities sentenced Sotoudeh to 11 years in jail for "activities against national security" and "propaganda against the regime." Additionally, she was barred from practicing law and leaving the country for 20 years. In mid-September 2011, an appeals court reduced Sotoudeh's prison sentence to six years; her ban from working as a lawyer was reduced to ten years.
During her period of detention, Sotoudeh went on three hunger strikes.
On 25 September 2010, she began a hunger strike to protest being denied visits and phone calls from her family. According to her husband, Sotoudeh ended her hunger strike four weeks later, on 23 October.
Third arrest and sentencing
Sotoudeh was arrested again in June 2018. According to her lawyer, she was charged with espionage, dissemination of propaganda and disparaging the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei.
On 22 August 2018, 60 members of the European Parliament called on Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to forcefully work for Sotoudeh's "unconditional release."
On 6 March 2019, she was convicted in absentia, after refusing to attend the trial before Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Court because she was unable to select her counsel. She was charged with several offenses, including being a member of a human rights organization and stoking "corruption and prostitution".
On 11 March, Judge Mohammad Moqiseh told the Islamic Republic News Agency she was sentenced to five years for endangering the country's security through assembly and two years for insulting Khamenei. Later, in January 2025, Moqiseh was assassinated by an assailant. On 12 March 2019 she was sentenced to jail in Tehran, after being charged with several national security-related offenses. While a Tehran judge told the Islamic Republic News Agency she was imprisoned for seven years, it was reported by other sources that the maximum sentence included 10 years in prison and 148 lashes, along with six other verdicts and sentences totaling 38 years bundled together. However, the sentence was reduced later to 10 years total. Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, said that only the longest sentence of these would be served, which is 10 years imprisonment (for "encouraging corruption and debauchery and providing the means"), out of a total 33 years for seven charges bundled together; this was in addition to five years for another case, bringing the total to 38 years, plus 148 lashes.
On 28 July 2020, Khandan reported that Sotoudeh's bank accounts had been frozen on the orders of the Prosecutor's Office despite none of the charges against her being finance related.
On 11 August 2020, Sotoudeh went on hunger strike, publishing a letter demanding the release of political prisoners, reading: "The appellate process, parole, suspending execution sentences and a new law intent on issuing minimum sentences were all promised, but the enforcement of all these legal rights are assigned to interrogators who apply them extrajudicially, closing the last door on political prisoners." Sotoudeh ended her hunger strike on September 26 due to deteriorating health.
Fourth arrest
Sotoudeh was again arrested in 2023. She was later released.
Fifth arrest
On 2 April 2026, during the 2026 Iran war with the U.S. and Israel, Sotoudeh's daughter announced that her mother had been arrested again. It was not clear which branch of the security forces had taken her, but they had also removed all of her and her husband's electronic devices from their home. Iranian activists have reported that the government had been increasing their repression of civil society during this war.
Personal life
Sotoudeh married Reza Khandan in 1994. They have two children together, including Mehraveh Khandan. Sotoudeh has emphasized that Reza is "truly a modern man," standing beside her and her work during her struggles.
On 13 December 2024, Khandan was arrested for his work for women's rights in Iran, and was held in Evin Prison. The family reported that their son was beaten by officials while attempting to visit her. He was still being held as of April 2026.
January 2026 public statement and arrest
On 28 January 2026, Sotoudeh, along with several other Iranian intellectuals, including Amirsalar Davoudi, Hatam Ghaderi, Abolfazl Ghadyani, Mehdi Mahmoudian, Abdollah Momeni, Mohammad Najafi, Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof, and Sedigheh Vasmaghi, and the Narges Mohammadi Human Rights Foundation, published a statement on Instagram asserting that the 2026 Iran massacres were a crime against humanity, accusing Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei of holding principal responsibility.
On 13 April 2026, HRANA reported that human rights lawyer Sotoudeh has been missing for 12 days following her arrest. On 13 May 2026, she was released on bail following a court appearance.
Recognition and awards
2008: International Human Rights Organization of Italy's Human Rights Prize (but barred from leaving the country to accept the honor; received by her husband on her behalf)
2011: PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award
2011: Southern Illinois University School of Law Rule of Law Citation
2011: Giuseppe Motta Medal
2012: Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament
2018: Kurt Tucholsky Prize
2018: Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize, an annual tribute for a lawyer (Nelson Mandela being the first recipient in 1986)
2019: Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, accepted on her behalf by fellow human rights lawyer Saeid Dehghan
2019: Franz Werfel Human Rights Award
2019: Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe Human Rights Award
2020: Human Rights Prize of the German Judges Association
2020: Right Livelihood Award
2020: Keys to the City of Florence
2020: Listed on the BBC's 100 Women list
2021: Named as one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World
2023: Heroine Award from the Alice Schwarzer Foundation in Germany, received by Sotoudeh's friend Mansoureh Shojaee on her behalf
Film appearances
Sotoudeh makes an appearance in filmmaker Jafar Panahi's 2015 film Taxi, when she sits in Panahi's car on her way to visit an imprisoned client.
She was the subject of a 2020 documentary film, Nasrin, filmed in secret in Iran about her ongoing activism and her professional and personal life leading up to her second arrest in 2018. Advised by Sotoudeh's husband, Nasrin was made by American filmmakers Jeff Kaufman and his wife Marcia Ross, and narrated by Olivia Colman.
