Jina Modares-Gorji, journalist and women’s rights activist, was released from Sanandaj Central Prison after serving her sentence.
According to Kolbarnews, today, Tuesday, September 22, 2025, Jina Modares-Gorji, journalist, women’s rights activist, and one of those arrested during the “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” revolutionary uprising, was freed from Sanandaj Central Prison after completing her prison term.
This women’s rights activist had been imprisoned in Sanandaj for a total of 325 days, during which she was granted only one furlough. She had previously been arrested twice during the uprising and held for 124 days under detention and interrogation.
In her initial trial, Modares-Gorji was sentenced to 21 years in prison, but on appeal, the sentence was reduced to two years and four months. According to the final ruling issued in October 2024 by Branch 4 of the Sanandaj Appeals Court, she was acquitted of the charge of “collaboration with a hostile state” but sentenced to one year in prison for “propaganda against the regime” and 16 months in prison for “forming an illegal group with the aim of overthrowing the regime.” Under Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, the most severe sentence 16 months was enforced.
On November 3, 2024, Jina Modares-Gorji was sent to Sanandaj Prison to serve her sentence. Before entering prison, she wrote on Instagram:
“Today I go to a prison where marginalization and discrimination are multiplied by three; the women’s prison of Sanandaj. Discrimination of gender, class, and nationality. Yet when I packed my things for prison, before anything else I placed hope in my suitcase. I go there with my hope.”
Throughout her cases, various charges were brought against her, including “forming the Zhivano Association with a feminist ideology,” “purposefully participating in protest gatherings,” “contact with anti-government elements,” “participation in international workshops and conferences,” and “publishing content on social media and giving interviews to foreign media.” In its initial rulings, the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court mostly relied on reports from the Ministry of Intelligence.
During her detention, Modares-Gorji staged several protests and even filed a complaint against agents of the Kurdistan Intelligence Office on charges of “unlawful detention, intentional assault and battery, and insult.” However, in May 2023, Branch 1 of the Sanandaj Prosecutor’s Office, presided over by Alireza Fariyabi, dismissed the complaint and issued an order of non-prosecution.
This journalist was first arrested on September 21, 2022, during the early days of the “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” uprising in Sanandaj in a violent manner by Intelligence agents. After 40 days in detention, she was released on bail, but was re-arrested in April 2023 and again in July 2023, spending further periods in Sanandaj’s detention centers and prisons.
With today’s release, the much-discussed case of this women’s rights activist, which had repeatedly made headlines over the past two years, is now temporarily closed.
