Yasaman Aryani is an Iranian women’s rights defender who in early April 2019 boarded a women‑only carriage of the Tehran metro without her hijab and distributed white flowers alongside her mother Monireh Arabshahi in a peaceful protest against the state’s compulsory veiling laws. Following the video’s viral circulation she was arrested at home on 10 April 2019, denied contact with lawyers and held in solitary confinement for nine days during interrogation under pressure to make forced confessions. On 26 June 2019 she was convicted by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court of charges including “spreading propaganda,” “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security,” and “inciting and facilitating corruption and prostitution” and sentenced to 16 years in prison, though under Article 134 of Iran’s Penal Code only the most severe penalty applies, resulting in an effective term of five years and six months. Her sentence was reduced on 5 February 2020 by the Tehran Appeals Court to a combined nine years and seven months but the longest single sentence rule still meant she would serve five years and six months. While in Qarchak prison she endured harsh and overcrowded conditions, at times solitary confinement, denial of family phone calls and threats aimed at pressuring her to recant publicly. Aryani contracted COVID‑19 in prison, experienced medical neglect, and was attacked by other inmates reportedly incited by prison authorities. After nearly four years detained she was released on 15 February 2023 under a general amnesty, together with her mother, following international campaigns and UN calls deeming their detention arbitrary.