Ahmad Ghabel (also Ahmad Qabel) (born ~1954) is a Hojjatoleslam Shia Muslim cleric, an Iranian theologian seminary lecturer, researcher, author and "prominent" member of Iran's largest reformist political party, the now outlawed Islamic Iran Participation Front. On December 14, 2010 he was convicted of working against the ruling system and insulting the country's supreme leader, and sentenced to 20 months in jail. [1] He has 20 days to appeal the verdict.
In December 2009 he was arrested on his way to Qom to attend the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. According to the reformist website kaleme.com he was freed on bail after 170 days in jail but then re-arrested in the summer 2010 for exposing "secret mass executions at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad and his criticism of the Supreme Leader," according to kaleme.com.[1] (According to the Washington Post newspaper "any criticism" of Supreme leader Ali Khamenei, "who has the final say on all state matters, is interpreted by authorities as insulting the supreme leader."[1]
He has been working on a project entitled "wisdom and religion". Earlier, while working as a journalist for Hayat-é-No he was arrested on 31 December 2001, upon orders of the Special Court for the Clergy. This earned the protest of the "international press watchdog" group Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) [2] After his release he went into exile in Tajikistan.
Ghabel has issued a fatwa about hijab or head and neck covering for Muslim women. He argues that only covering the body of Muslim women is obligatory, and covering other parts of the body like hair and neck are recommended.