These are the words Iranian blogger Somayeh Tohidloo wrote [1] [fa] in her blog after receiving 50 whip lashes in Evin Prison on September 14, 2011:
Be happy, for if you wanted to humiliate me, I confess that I feel my entire body is suffering with degradation.
Somayeh Tohidloo
Somayeh was active during the 2009 presidential election in the campaign for Mir Hussein Mousavi [2], and she was jailed [3] for 70 days in 2009, after a mass protest movement erupted in Iran. She was released after paying bail, but the flogging sentence was eventually upheld.
Green City writes [4] [fa]:
Here is Iran, where Somayeh Tohidloo, a PhD-graduate is lashed while a $3 billion dollar fraud [5] [over a Lake Urmia] happens, and nothing is done to punish the fraudulent acts.
Gomnamian blog writes [6] [fa]:
Somayeh was accused of insulting Ahmadinejad… I was appalled to see a human being lashed for writing a post about a criminal.
Azarmehr writes [7]:
Today, Somayeh's facebook page was inundated with messages of support. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former advisor to Khatami, wrote: “Everyone who knows Somayeh Tohidlou, regard her as a symbol of reasonableness, moderation and character. Today when I learned she had received 50 lashes for having insulted the ‘very respectable president’, I felt it was the Iranian pride which had been flagellated and not Somayeh's body. Somayeh, you are the only one who has not been humiliated as a result of this sentence”
The Islamic Republic has jailed [8] several bloggers in recent years. Omid Reza MirSayafi [9], an Iranian blogger, died in prison on March 18, 2009, under suspicious circumstances.