Zhina Modares Gorji

Zhina (or Jina) Modares Gorji is an Iranian book seller, and feminist podcaster in the city of Sanandaj. She has been imprisoned for sedition and she is a human rights cause celebre. She was included in the BBC's 100 inspiration women in 2024.

Life Gorji is a Kurdish woman who was working as a book seller in the Iranian city of Sanandaj. In June 2023, she was informed that there were further changes and she was banned from taking her university exams in sociology at the local Islamic Azad University.

Gorji's case was taken up by Mary Lawlor who is the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights. Lawlor believes that the charges against her arise from Gorji's legitimate activities of encouraging girls to form book groups and to write blogs. She and others have written to the Iranian authorities to raise their concerns. The case was also championed by the human right's groups of Hengaw, the Coalition For Women In Journalism

Gorji was released from prison on 22 September 2025.