Kolbarnews quoted official Iranian agencies and said that Sepideh Qolian did not comply with the numerous recommendations to observe hijab and Islamic customs; therefore, she did not appear in court for the hearing."

On Wednesday, Sepideh Qoliyan stated in a letter from Evin Prison that she would attend her "public" trial and defend herself because she had no fear of speaking the truth publicly.

The political prisoner said that she had previously announced that she would not participate in the "show trial of the Islamic Republic," and added: "Today, they informed me that my trial will be held publicly. Since I have no fear of expressing the truth in public, I have decided to attend this show-trial and defend myself."

On 11 April 2023, Sepideh Qoliyan stated from inside the prison that she would not participate in any trial as long as the "Islamic execution government" is in power and the "humble seekers of justice and opponents of tyranny" are held hostage by the Islamic government. The civil activist was previously arrested hours after her release on 14 February 2023, on her way from Tehran to Dezful by security forces.

She was then transferred to the detention center of the Ministry of Intelligence known as Evin Prison's Ward 209, and on 17 February, she was transferred to the women's ward of Evin Prison.

Earlier this year, in April, Ms. Qoliyan, a veterinary student and journalist from the city of Dezful, was sentenced to two years in prison for her activities in defense of civil rights.

Background

On November 18, 2018, Sepideh Qoliyan, who had previously worked for several publications as a citizen journalist, was reporting on a labor protest organized by the Workers Union of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro Industrial Company, when she was arrested by the Iranian security forces. Union spokesperson Esmail Bakhshi and a dozen other trade unionists were also arrested during the protest. 

All of those arrested, except Qolian and Bakhshi, were released within days. Qolian and Bakhshi were held without charge or legal representation for 30 days and were eventually released on bail.

On November 29, 2018, while Qolian and Bakhshi were still detained, The Vahed Syndicate, a trade union representing over 17,000 transit workers, revealed in a statement that Esmail Bakhshi had been briefly hospitalized due to torture he had suffered while in government custody. Immediately upon release, Qolian confirmed that both she and Bakhshi had been subjected to torture by the security forces. Following their release on bail, Bakhshi and Qolian gave Amnesty International an account of the torture they suffered while in the custody of police and ministry of intelligence officials in the cities of Shush and Ahvaz. They told Amnesty that they had been beaten, slammed against walls, shoved to the ground, humiliated with flogging, and threatened with sexual assault and murder. 

Qolian and Bakhshi were arrested again on January 20, 2019. According to Amnesty International, the timing of their arrest strongly suggests it is an attempt to silence and punish them for speaking out about the abuse they suffered in custody.

In a phone interview, Qolian's father told a reporter: "At 7 in the morning, 12 male and 2 female officers violently raided my home, broke my son's teeth, assaulted me and my wife, and told us they'd kill our daughter."

Abolfazl Ghadyani, a former veteran Islamic revolutionary turned dissident, singled out Ali Khamenei as the main culprit behind all wrongdoings and injustices against Bakhshi and Qolian.

After 4 years and nearly 2 months, Qolian was released from Evin prison in Tehran on 15th March 2023. Footage of her chanting anti-Khamenei slogans immediately after her release in front of the prison went viral online. Qolian was arrested again just hours after that, alongside people who took the video of her chanting. [20][21] in May 05, 2023, Mehdi Gholian, Sepideh's brother, announced on his Instagram page that Sepideh was handed two-year sentence and now faces another stint in prison before her life could return to normal after her previous incarceration