Kurdish women’s rights activist Hana Abdi was released from prison on 26 February. Originally charged with "enmity against God" and "gathering and colluding to harm national security", Hana was detained for nearly 16 months.

Amnesty International had been campaigning for Hana’s release, considering her to be a prisoner of conscience detained solely because of her peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and association in connection with her work for women’s rights and the rights of Iran's Kurdish minority.

A student in Bijar University, Hana is a member of the Campaign for Equality, a grassroots initiative to end legal discrimination against women in Iran, and its Kurdish affiliate, the Azar Mehr Women’s Organization of Sanandaj non-governmental organization.

She was arrested in November 2007, accused of membership of the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), an armed Kurdish opposition group, and participation in "attacks" in Sanandaj in Kordestan province, northwestern Iran. She was held incommunicado for two months by the Ministry of Intelligence before being transferred to Sanandaj prison.

Hana was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment to be spent in exile in Germi, far to the north. Her sentence was reduced to 18 months imprisonment on appeal, to be spent in Razan, Hamedan province. Shortly before her release, she was transferred to Meshkin Shahr in Ardabil Province, north-western Iran.

Meanwhile, Hana’s Campaign for Equality colleague, Ronak Safarzadeh, who was arrested a month earlier, remains detained in Sanandaj prison and is awaiting the outcome of her trial. She has also been charged with "enmity against God", which can carry the death penalty.

In February 2008, the lawyer of both women said that they had been interrogated using illegal methods and accused of very serious charges while being held in solitary confinement. In his opinion, their confessions were not valid and could not be used in court as credible evidence.

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