On March 19, I wrote about Leila Pashaei, a political prisoner in Iran. She is from a dissident family. Two of her brothers have been political prisoners too. (Neither one is imprisoned now.) Their late father, Tofigh Pashaei, was in prison many times.

Leila was arrested on March 10, having given a speech two days before, on International Women’s Day. In this speech, she denounced child marriage, mandatory hijab, and the execution of female prisoners. The speech was videotaped and widely circulated. Leila was arrested along with three other women.

Her brother Sardar has news for us:

I just wanted to let you know that Leila and her friends have been temporarily released from prison on bail. They’re now waiting for their court dates and to find out what charges they will face.

In the days following their arrests, they were taken to the basement — two floors underground — of the intelligence agency.

This was in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdish Iran.

There, they were placed on chairs with cameras in front of them and pressured to record confessions. But none of the women complied — they resisted.

Some of the women had their hair violently pulled and were subjected to other abuse.

Leila told me that, in solitary confinement, they could hear the screams of the male prisoners being tortured.

The biggest relief is that they’re out now, even if only temporarily.

Iran is a typical dictatorship. Some dictatorships are theocratic, some are monarchical, some are ideological, some are built around a personality cult. But they tend to be the same in their methods. If you dissent — if you dare stand up to them, even in a minor way — they will crush you. Physically.

The people who stand up anyway are astounding. Many are uncrushable, spiritually speaking.