Professional background:
Shahla Lahiji is a writer-publisher, translator, and Director of Roshangaran, a prominent publishing house of books on women's issues. Born in 1942, she became the first woman publisher in Iran when she founded Roshangaran Publishing in 1983; since then she has published over 200 titles, many of them works by women. Representative titles include Portrait of Women in the Works of Bahram Beizaie, Film Maker and Script Writer (1989); The Quest for Identity: the Image of Iranian Women in Prehistory and History Vol. 1 and 11 (Vol. 1 1992, volume 11 compiled and ready for publication), which she co-edited with Mehrangiz Kar; Women Writers and Iranian Literature (compiled, ready for print); and Women in Iranian Dramatic Arts (compiled, ready for print). Her work as a publisher and her vocal support of women's rights often brought her into conflict with Iranian authorities.
Case history:
Lahiji was one of 19 writers and intellectuals prosecuted for participating in an academic and cultural conference sponsored by the Heinrich Böll Institute in Berlin on April 7 through 9, 2000 at which political and social reform in Iran were publicly debated. She was arrested on April 29, 2000 on charges of acting against national security for participating in the conference and of propagandizing against the Islamic system in connection with statements she had made concerning the climate writers and intellectuals face in Iran.
Lahiji was held in Evin Prison until she was released on bail on June 21. On June 5, her attorney (who was also acting as attorney for Mehrangiz Kar) resigned in protest over the fact that she was not allowed to meet with the women when they were questioned and was not allowed to meet with them in prison afterwards. Lahiji was tried on October 31 behind closed doors. On January 13, 2001 she was sentenced to three years and six months in prison on the charge of acting against national security and an additional six months for propaganda against the Islamic system.
Current status:
Lahiji's appeal hearing concluded in November 2001; however, the verdict was not announced until February 2002. Both Lahiji's and Kar's sentences were reduced to six months' imprisonment, calculated as time served (two months' imprisonment) plus a 500,000 rial fine. Widowed in 1994 after 35 years of marriage, she lives in Tehran; her two children live in the United States.
Shahla Lahiji is also an Honorary Member of the Canadian and English PEN Centers. She is a recipient of the 2001 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards. She was also awarded the Pandora Prize by Women in Publishing in London in 2001.