Alieh Motalebzadeh is an Iranian photojournalist and woman human rights defender born in Iran who serves as deputy head of the Iranian Association to Defend Freedom of Press and has written for women’s rights publications including the now‑banned Zanan magazine. She participated in the One Million Signatures campaign and a campaign supporting female victims of acid attacks and she was arrested on 12 April 2022 from her home in Tehran when she and fellow journalist Narges Mohammadi were on medical leave. Both were taken to Evin prison then transferred to Gharchak women’s prison despite fragile health and denied medical parole for three months. Alieh wrote an open letter to Gholam Hossein Mohseni‑Ejei denouncing the illegality of her arrest without a legal warrant and the harassment by intelligence agents and prison authorities, despite having served one‑third of her sentence when she should have been released under the law. She had begun serving a three‑year prison sentence in October 2020 after conviction by Tehran Revolutionary Court on charges of gathering and collusion against national security and propaganda, confirmed on appeal in October 2017, and in January 2022 she was transferred from Evin to Qarchak as a punitive measure after holding a ceremony to commemorate the death of journalist Baktash Abtin who died due to neglect in prison. Qarcha prison inmates suffer from poor sanitation, contagious disease risk and cruelty. On 08 February 2023, Motalebzadeh was released from Evin prison under a general amnesty marking the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution though she continued to face pressure, having reportedly been summoned twice by prosecutors within 25 days of release as part of ongoing efforts to intimidate released activists.

On 12 December 2025, Motalebzadeh was arrested again in Mashhad with other human rights defenders and journalists including Mohammadi while at the seventh-day memorial ceremony for Khosrow Alikordi, a human rights lawyer. Motalebzadeh, who has cancer, was released on bail following the deterioration of her health on 12 January 2026.