Nasrin Sotoudeh Langarudi (; 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.
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 وکلای نسرین ستوده از قاضی مقیسه شکایت کردند / اسناد and her mother Safoura Fakhrian.درگذشت بانو صفورا فخریان، مادر نسرین ستوده
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.
In the period just before the June 2009 presidential elections, Sotoudeh co-founded the Coalition of Women's Rights movement, bringing women's demands to the attention of the candidates. She represented Iranian opposition activists and politicians detained after the disputed presidential elections, as well as prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were minors. She represented the families of Ahmad Nejati Kargar and Meysam Ebadi, killed by security forces after the 2009 election. 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. She represented activists and journalists such as Kourosh Zaim, Isa Saharkhiz, Heshmat Tabarzadi, Nahid Keshavarz, Parvin Ardalan, Omid Memarian, and Roya Tolouie, as well as child abuse and criminal cases.
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. On 17 October 2012, Sotoudeh began an indefinite hunger strike to protest new restrictions on her family visits. On the 47th day of strike, her husband stated:Now her health condition is so drastic that I don't expect her steady until our next meeting. Dizziness, impaired vision, unsteadiness in walking and low pressure are alarming signs of deterioration, besides the extreme thinness. On 4 December 2012 Sotoudeh stopped her hunger strike after 49 days following a short visit of some parliament members at Evin prison where they acknowledged and implemented her requests on lifting her daughter's travel ban. On 29 August 2018, Sotoudeh began a hunger strike to protest her detention and government harassment of her family and friends.
International response The international community widely condemned Sotoudeh's imprisonment. In October 2010, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists, the International Federation for Human Rights, the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights, the Union Internationale des Avocats and the World Organisation Against Torture joined Amnesty International in a joint statement denouncing Sotoudeh's arrest and calling for her immediate release. The US condemned what it called the "unjust and harsh verdict" against Sotoudeh, and called her "a strong voice for rule of law and justice in Iran". On 20 December 2010, Amnesty International held a day-long protest at the Iranian embassy in London to protest her imprisonment. In January 2011, the Law Society of England and Wales also issued a call for her release.
On 26 October 2012, Sotoudeh was announced as a co-winner of the Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament. She shared the award with Iranian film director Jafar Panahi. European Parliament President Martin Schulz called the pair "a woman and a man who have not been bowed by fear and intimidation and who have decided to put the fate of their country before their own". European Union High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton stated of the prize, "I am following the case of Nasrin Sotoudeh and other human rights defenders with great concern ... We will continue to campaign for the charges against them to be dropped. We look to Iran to respect the human rights obligations it has signed up to". Human rights defender and freelance journalist William Nicholas Gomes demanded Immediate and unconditional release of Sotoudeh in August 2018.
Release Sotoudeh was released on 18 September 2013 along with ten other political prisoners, including opposition leader Mohsen Aminzadeh, days before an address by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to the United Nations. No explanation was given for her early release.
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".