Fatemeh Ekhtesari is a poet, novelist and songwriter who was born in 1986 in Kashmar. Ekhtesari has previously also worked with the writer Seyed Mehdi Mousavi. She also worked as the editor-in-chief of the magazine It Was Tomorrow, a quarterly journal on the postmodern ghazal movement, referring to a form of Persian poetry. The journal’s license with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance was revoked in 2009.

On December 6, 2013, Fatemeh Ekhtesari and Mehdi Mousavi were informed that they had been served with a travel ban. They were prevented from leaving Iran while they were trying to board a flight. Border agents confiscated their passports at the airport.

The next day, Ekhtesari and Mousavi, both prominent in the literary community, were orally summoned to court. Due to the oral nature of their summons they did not appear in court. They were formally arrested on December 8, 2013.

On December 24, 2013, Iranian news agencies published two news reports relating to Ekhtesari and Mousavi’s arrests. Iranian publications reported that Mousavi and Ekhtesari had worked with “Shahin Najafi”, a prominent Iranian rapper who lives in Canada and satirises the Islamic Republic of Iran and controversial social issues in Iran, and that Ekhtesari had attended the 2012 Iran-South Korea international football match at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran, in violation of the laws which ban women from attending football matches.

Both Ekhtesari and Mousavi were released from detention on bail on January 15, 2014, until the end of the legal proceedings against them.

Ekhtesari and Mousavi had been detained by the Intelligence Organization of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). During their detentions they were held in Section 2A of Evin Prison which is under the control of the IRGC's Intelligence Organization. 

Almost two years later, on October 12, 2015, Amir Raisian, Fatemeh Ekhtesari and Mehdi Mousavi's lawyer, announced that both his clients had been sentenced to long prison terms.

Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Courts, presided over by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh, sentenced Fatemeh Ekhtesari to seven years imprisonment on the charge of “blasphemy,” one and half years imprisonment on the charge of “propaganda activity against the state,” three years imprisonment on the charge of “publishing immoral images online” and 99 lashes of the whip on the charge of “kissing the cheek and greeting a non-Muslim man.” Mehdi Mousavi was also sentenced to nine years imprisonment and 99 lashes of the whip in the same court session.

Amir Raisian spoke to Radio Farda about the verdicts in his clients’ cases, saying: “The accusation of blasphemy that these two poets have been charged with is in relation to their poems, the majority of which were published in books that had received the licensing and permission of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Essentially, none of these poems contained any offensive themes that could be considered blasphemy.”

In an interview with the Islamic Azad University News Agency (ANA) on October 14, 2015, Raisian spoke more about the charge of "blasphemy" against his clients, explaining: “The story supposedly goes that a few years ago, some poems that were written by Mehdi Mousavi and Fatemeh Ekhtesari and had been officially published in books in accordance with the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran and with the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, had been sung and performed by foreign singers. These singers sung these poems before going on to sing a number of other songs that were considered to be offensive and blasphemous. After this incident, my clients decided to no longer work with these singers.”

Mousavi and Ekhtesari’s lawyer objected to the lower court’s verdict against his two clients. However, before the Court of Appeals hearings could take place, both Mousavi and Ekhtesari left Iran illegally, knowing they were likely to face heavy sentences even despite their appeals. Mousavi and Ekhtesari initially went to Iraq and then travelled on to Norway.

Fatemeh Ekhtesari has authored a number of literary works including; “A Feminist Discussion Before Cooking Potatoes,” “By the Side Road,” “A Selection of Happy Poems With Some Souvenir Photos,” “In The Spider’s Webs,” “Swimming in the Pool of Acid,” “The Dead an Took a Deep Breath,” “The Great Idol” and “The Axe”.

A number of prominent Iranian singers have performed Fatemeh Ekhtesari’s songs including Shahin Najafi, Shadi Amini and others.

The organization PEN International, the American Center for PEN International, and the Iranian Writers' Association have repeatedly issued statements, announcements, and signed petitions protesting the unjust sentences handed down to Fatemeh Ekhtesari and Seyyed Mehdi Mousavi.