Mahvash Sabet – a schoolteacher and mother of two and a member of the national-level administrative group for Iran, the Yaran – was arrested after having been summoned to Mashhad to discuss some matters regarding a Bahá'í burial. She subsequently spent 175 days in solitary confinement. On the 26th of May she was moved to Evin prison in Tehran. [BWNS Special Report]
• This arrest marked a new wave of persecution of the Bahá'í Faith in Iran.
• See Iran Press Watch 10561 for the background story to her arrest.

Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi were transferred to the notorious Section 200 of Gohardasht Prison. The circumstances of the move raised concerns that it may have been orchestrated as a means of creating an insecure environment that threatens their lives.
• Since their arrival at Gohardasht, the Bahá'í women – despite their own extremely challenging situation – had nonetheless been a constant source of comfort and hope to other inmates. The prison authorities apparently became alarmed that the two women began to receive signs of respect from a growing number of prisoners. As a justification for the increased harsh treatment, the authorities accused the two of teaching the Bahá'í Faith.
• While Gohardasht was infamous for its harsh and unsanitary conditions, the Bahá'í prisoners were at first kept segregated from some of the more violent elements at the complex. They also had relatively frequent access to outdoor exercise areas. [BWNS807; BWNS821]

The sentencing of Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi in Revolutionary Court's Branch 26 in Tehran with Judge Iman Afshar presiding as judge, prosecutor and jury. They were both sentenced to another 10 years in prison. They had to be released in 2018.

They had been arrested on the 31st of July at the start of yet another crackdown against the Iranian Bahá'ís. Thirteen Bahá'ís were arrested in the raid including Afif Naeimi. Sabet, Kamalabadi and Naeimi were members of a group of people known as the "Yaran," or "Friends" of Iran, which until 2008 served as an informal leadership of the Iranian Bahá'í community. All seven of its members were arrested in 2007 and 2008 and jailed for a decade. [BWNS1631; BIC News 1AUF22; Iran Press Watch 14DEC22; Iran Press Watch July 31, 2023]

• More than 320 Bahá'ís have been affected by individual acts of persecution since the 31 July arrest of Mahvash and Fariba. Dozens were arrested at various points in Shiraz, across Mazandaran province, and elsewhere throughout the country. [BIC New 18 Nov22]
• Homes owned by Bahá'ís in the village of Roshankouh were demolished. [BIC News]
• Government plans to tar the Bahá'ís through hate speech and propaganda were also exposed. [BIC News; BIC News]
• At this time at least 90 Bahá'ís were in prison awaiting court proceedings or were subject to degrading ankle-band monitoring. [BWNS1631]

More than 320 Bahá’ís have been affected by individual acts of persecution since the arrest of Mahvash and Fariba. Dozens were arrested at various points in Shiraz, across Mazandaran province, and elsewhere throughout the country. Homes owned by Bahá’ís in the village of Roshankouh were demolished. Government plans to tar the Bahá’ís through hate speech and propaganda were also exposed. And at least 90 Bahá’ís were either in prison or subject to degrading ankle-band monitoring.

The latest jail sentence was handed down after a one-hour trial on 21 November – an hour which was mostly spent with the judge insulting and humiliating the defendants. This trial came almost four months after their arrest. Judge Iman Afshari, presiding over the Revolutionary Court’s Branch 26 in Tehran, rebuked the two women for “not having learned their lesson” from their previous imprisonment.

Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel laureate and defence lawyer for Mahvash and Fariba during their first trial, said in 2008 that “not a shred of evidence” was offered to prove the national security charges or other allegations. Nor was any new evidence forthcoming at this latest trial.

“It is profoundly distressing to learn that these two Bahá’í women who have both already and unjustly lost a decade of their lives to prison for their beliefs, are once again being incarcerated for another 10 years on the same ludicrous charges,” said Simin Fahandej, representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations. “Mahvash and Fariba are wives, mothers and grandmothers to families who have already been forced to endure their absence for 10 brutal years. Instead of expressing regret to these families for the unjust imprisonment they have already suffered, the Iranian government is unbelievably and inexplicably repeating the same cruelty for a second time. This ridiculous sentence, handed down without any basis in evidence, makes an absolute mockery of the Iranian judicial system where judges preside as prosecutor, judge, and jury all in one. Words fail to describe this absurd and cruel injustice.” [BWNS1631]

Independent Iranian news sources reported that Mahvash Sabet Shahriari was said to have had her knees injured while under interrogation by officials in Evin jail. Evin prison is often called the "world's worst prison". It has a reputation for its inhumane living conditions, where inmates are subjected to daily whippings, beatings and torture. Former inmates have previously spoken about the barbaric horrors they witnessed while in Evin- including electrocution, rape, torture and executions. [Daily Mail 11 April 2023]

IranWire received an audio file from Faezeh Hashemi, a political activist and daughter of late President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, herself jailed in Evin but briefly released on a leave of absence, spoke about her cellmates. "Mahvash recounts that during an interrogation the interrogator kicked the chair from under her and, since she was facing the wall, her knees hit the wall. Now, they have X-rayed her in prison and told her that the bones in her knees are broken. She is in such a condition, 70 years old, innocent and in prison only because she is a Baha'i," Hashemi said in the recording. People close to Fariba and Mahvash believe that the delay in transferring Mahvash to the women's ward was most likely because of her broken knees, since interrogators wanted to keep it a secret and kept her in solitary confinement until she could walk. [IranWire 31 July 2023]

The Bahá'í International Community as well as human rights organizations and activists have urged Iranian authorities to release Sabet unconditionally. Activists worldwide have rallied around her case, organizing a social media campaign under the hashtag #FreeMahvash.

Her most recent arrest was on July 31, 2022, and she was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison by a preliminary court on charges of leading an “illegal group with the intention of disrupting national security.” This follows a previous decade-long sentence she served from 2008 to 2017 for her involvement in the administrative body of the Bahá'í community in Iran, the Yuran. [Agency France Press 2Jan25; Iran Press Watch 10Jan25]

In December 2024, after years of medical neglect and harsh prison conditions, she underwent open-heart surgery. Despite her deteriorating health, she now faces the harrowing prospect of being forced back into prison to serve the remainder of her unjust 10-year sentence. Since then, her condition has significantly worsened, with multiple medical reports warning that continued imprisonment could cause irreversible harm. [BIC News release]

See the News Release for further details on Ms Sabet.