'Nasrin' Documentary Spotlights Life And Work Of Jailed Iranian Human Rights Lawyer
A new film focuses on Nasrin Sotoudeh, a leading human rights lawyer whose health is declining in prison. "She is the closest thing that Iran has to Nelson Mandela," says analyst Karim Sadjadpour.
After a five-week hunger strike, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Iran's best-known human rights lawyer, faces a grave health crisis in Qarchak prison, a notoriously harsh facility south of Tehran.
For more than two decades, Sotoudeh, 57, fought for some of Iran's most sensitive causes — the rights of women, children on death row, endangered minorities. She has won international acclaim, but her defiance has come at a heavy personal price: She is serving a 38-year prison sentence for "national security" crimes, after defending women who protested Iran's compulsory head-covering law.
