Leila Hosseinzadeh, a student activist and graduate student at Tehran University, has reported being barred from continuing her education and having her access to academic records blocked. She has been officially expelled from her undergraduate program as well, five years after completing it.
According to Kolbarnews, Leila Hosseinzadeh, a graduate student of anthropology at Tehran University, announced on her personal page that after defending her master’s thesis, she was unexpectedly expelled from her master’s program. Furthermore, despite having completed her undergraduate studies five years ago, she has been expelled from that program as well. She added that her access to the university’s online system and all her academic records has been suspended. Hosseinzadeh described this as an example of the contradictory and opaque behavior of Tehran University.
Leila Hosseinzadeh has faced multiple legal cases. In early December, she revealed that the Revolutionary Court of Tehran’s Branch 26, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, had issued a verdict in absentia charging her with “appearing in public spaces without a hijab” and “propaganda against the regime.”
Earlier this year, in September, she announced that a medical commission’s confirmation of her permanent inability to endure imprisonment had led to the reduction of her five-year prison sentence from a 2019 case to a fine of 100 million tomans, which she paid, closing the case.
Hosseinzadeh was previously arrested during the December 2017 protests and released on bail after 16 days on January 18, 2018. In June 2019, Branch 36 of the Tehran Appeals Court sentenced her to 30 months in prison for “assembly and collusion against national security,” one year in prison for “propaganda against the regime,” and additional penalties, including a two-year travel ban.
The charges in her case included participating in a birthday gathering for Mohammad Sharifi Moghaddam, a Gonabadi dervish imprisoned near Sharif University of Technology, and singing the song Khoon-e Arghavanha (The Blood of the Purple Flowers).
Hosseinzadeh began serving her prison sentence on July 28, 2019, but was eventually released under a judiciary directive due to her inability to endure imprisonment.
In March 2021, she was sentenced by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Judge Mohammadreza Amoozad, to five years in prison and a two-year ban on social media activities for “assembly and collusion to act against national security.” This verdict was upheld in December 2021 by Branch 36 of the Appeals Court.
On August 20, 2022, Hosseinzadeh was arrested by security forces in front of her residence after being beaten in the street. She was ultimately released from Evin Prison on bail on January 9, 2023.
