Soheila Hejab

Soheila Hejab Bidsorkhi (; born 1990 ) is an Iranian lawyer, political activist, and civil rights activist.

Background and education Hejab is an ethnic Kurd with origins in Kermanshah. and qualified as a human rights lawyer. Hejab is known to have supported monarchism and the exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.

Before 2019 Hejab was first arrested in January 2018 in Shiraz on charges of "assembly, collusion and propaganda against the system".

2019 arrest and allegations of mistreatment Hejab was rearrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in June 2019 and eventually brought to Evin Prison. In an open letter from 13 January 2020, she denounced the suppression of protests in November 2019 and called for the overthrow of what she called the "tyrannical regime". In March 2020, days after her temporary release on heavy bail, According to Iranian law, she has to serve 7.5 years of the sentence. After an appeals court session on 23 May 2020, she was arrested and beaten by IRGC officials and brought to Qarchak Prison. In November 2021 it was reported that Hejab had been moved to a prison in Sanandaj. A missive from March 2022 by the Center for Human Rights in Iran to Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet named Hejab as one of five Iranian activists who were currently sick but denied medical leave. Hejab was reportedly released on medical grounds in March 2023.