- 2011-02-12 —
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.
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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]
- 2011-05-03 — After conviction, the two women of the Yaran were transferred from Evin Prison to the even more notorious Rajaei Shahr Prison in Karaj, near Tehran. In that prison, Fariba Kamalabadi, Mahvash Sabet, and a number of political prisoners were locked up in the communal ward with hundreds of ordinary female prisoners — inmates incarcerated for crimes not linked to politics. When authorities closed the women's ward of that prison, the prisoners were all transferred to Gharchak Prison in Varamin near Tehran, where the conditions were even worse than those at Rajaei Shahr Prison. [IranWire4985; BWNS821]
- 2014-11-00 — Fariba Kamalabadi, after having her fourth request to join her daughter Taraneh for her wedding denied, wrote her a letter from Evin Prison. [Iran Press Watch]
- See Iran Press Watch 11274 for Taraneh's story of how she grew up without her mother.
- 2022-11-21 —
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]
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