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RFL/RE – The son of an imprisoned leader of Iran’s Baha’i community says he has not heard from his mother for more than five weeks and prison authorities have prevented her from phoning or meeting with family members.
Mahvash Sabet Shahriari, 69, was arrested in July amid a new wave of repression against Iran’s Baha’i community and given a new 10-year sentence following an hourlong trial on November 21.
Frud Sabet said in an interview with RFERL’s Radio Farda that he had no information about his mother’s condition since the trial.
“The family is very worried about her health,” he said. “We don’t know where she is, and we don’t know if she’s alive.”
Sabet Shahriari is a prominent Baha’i leader. She previously served 10 years in prison on charges of acting against Iran’s national security, collaboration with foreign countries, and “corruption on Earth,” among other things.
In July, Iranian security agents raided the homes of dozens of Baha’is in different parts of the country, arresting several well-known community leaders and charging many with “spying for Israel.”
Months of protests erupted in Iran following the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini after she was detained for allegedly wearing her head scarf improperly and reportedly beaten by members of the notorious morality police.
Frud Sabet told Radio Farda that while his mother’s arrest came prior to the recent protests, “we assume that the overcrowding of prisons and courts has affected my mother’s fate.”
“But being completely unaware of her after issuing such a heavy sentence is not justified,” he added.
Since Amini’s death, several thousand people have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.SEE ALSO:Will Iran’s Protest Movement Survive?
Iran accuses Baha’is of having links to Israel, where the city of Haifa hosts a center of the Baha’i faith. Baha’i leaders reject the allegations and say they are used as a pretext to persecute members.
There are some 300,000 Baha’i adherents in Iran and an estimated 5 million followers worldwide.
In Iran, where their faith is not officially recognized in the constitution, its leaders say they face systematic persecution.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has on several occasions called the Baha’i faith a cult and, in a religious fatwa issued in 2018, he forbade contact, including business dealings, with followers of the faith.
Since the Islamic Republic of Iran was established in 1979, hundreds of Baha’is have been arrested and jailed for their beliefs. At least 200 have been executed or were arrested and never heard from again.
Thousands more have been banned from receiving higher education or had their property confiscated, while vandals often desecrate Baha’i cemeteries.
