Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who spent six years imprisoned in Iran before her release in 2022, has publicly criticized the rearrest of environmental activists Houman Jokar and Sepideh Kashani. The couple was taken into custody by Iran’s ministry of intelligence on July 1st, with no stated reason provided and their current location remaining unknown. Kashani’s sister Sima was also arrested on the same date, and their electronic devices were confiscated during the operation.
Jokar and Kashani previously worked with the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, an organization focused on preventing the extinction of the Iranian cheetah. Both were among a group of environmentalists detained in 2018 on charges alleging they used wildlife camera traps for espionage purposes. The convictions received widespread international criticism from the scientific community, which characterized the allegations as unfounded. Iran’s then-intelligence minister publicly acknowledged that the environmentalists were not spies and had committed no wrongdoing.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who encountered Kashani while imprisoned, expressed particular concern about her reincarceration given her previous two-year period in solitary confinement. She described Kashani as an unpolitical figure who chose to remain in Iran for family reasons after her sentence completion, despite being unable to resume her environmental work. Zaghari-Ratcliffe characterized both individuals as dedicated professionals with no involvement in political activism or social media activity.
Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American formerly imprisoned in Iran who was cellmates with Jokar, corroborated accounts of the arrests through social media statements. He labeled the original 2018 convictions as among Iran’s most significant miscarriages of justice and questioned how such actions aligned with calls for national reconciliation. The arrests represent part of a broader pattern of detentions affecting Iranian civil society, with Amnesty International reporting that more than 6,000 individuals have been apprehended in connection with recent regional developments.