At 46, she was arrested for publishing Mance Sperber’s Critique of Tyranny, and Damavand was shut down. Though released soon after, the regime never again allowed her to publish. Yet even this did not deter her. She turned to public art, working with visual advertising companies and the Tehran Municipality to beautify the city through murals and design. Sima Koban’s resistance extended beyond print. At 55, she was one of the 134 signatories of the landmark declaration “We Are Writers”, publicly condemning censorship. A year later, she left the country for Strasbourg, France, where she resumed teaching and held exhibitions of her politically engaged artwork—often infused with themes of class struggle and resistance.
