Six Baha’i women in Hamadan, western Iran, who have been sentenced to a combined total of 39 years in prison, are facing imminent imprisonment. They were charged and sentenced for their belief in the Baha’i Faith. 

The six women are Zarrindokht Ahadzadeh, Farideh Ayyoubi, Noura Ayyoubi, Neda Mohebbi, Jaleh Rezaie, and Atefeh Zahedi. Two of the women, Atefeh and Neda, have children from as young as five years old.

The arrests follow a joint statement by 18 United Nations experts who raised the alarm at the “systematic targeting of Baha’i women,” flagging the “increase” in these human rights violations and denouncing the “arrests, summoning for interrogation, enforced disappearance, raids on homes, confiscation of personal belongings, limitations on freedom of movement and prolonged consecutive deprivations of liberty.” The experts said Baha’i women in Iran face disproportionate targeting and intersectional discrimination—both as members of the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran and as women.

Over 125 European Parliamentarians also added their voices soon after to condemn Iran’s targeting of Baha’i women.

The new sentences come just as the latest report of the UN Secretary General, Antonio Gueterres, the highest-ranking official within the UN, who condemned the Iranian government’s discrimination of Baha’is including discrimination against Baha’i women.

The outrageous and excessive prison sentences—handed down on ludicrous charges such as “membership in the Baha’i community”, reflects an intensifying campaign of persecution.

“Women in Iran hold the key to helping the country become a flourishing nation,” said Simin Fahandej, Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva. “But instead of nurturing and empowering its women, the Iranian government puts them in jail and persecutes them, in this case not only as women, but also as Baha’is.”

“Baha’i women in Iran face multiple forms of discrimination. These six women in Hamadan, with children and families, are going to spend years in jail only for their beliefs. The Iranian Government should be held accountable for this gross prejudice and cruelty,” Ms. Fahandej added.

The six Baha’i women were first arrested in November 2023, held in solitary confinement for 31 days, which runs counter to international law, and forced to endure prolonged interrogations without access to lawyers or their families. Guilty verdicts and sentences were handed down in April 2024—after which the women appealed the verdicts.

Lawyers for the women filed appeals—but these were rejected during August hearings of Branch 11 of the Hamadan Court of Appeals. The court rejected every objection to the verdicts and original sentences. And in its final ruling, the court dismissed defence arguments presented by the women and their lawyers, going so far as to order the destruction of Bahá’í religious literature owned by the women.

And these sentences follow news published last month of a shocking series of “confiscations by text message” in Isfahan, central Iran, in which a body controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei invoked and misused an Iranian constitutional provision to seize the total assets of more than 20 Baha’i families.

Details on the charges and sentences against the six women

• Neda Mohebbi – 2 years 8 months for “membership in the Bahá’í community” and 5 years for “propaganda against the regime”; total 7 years 8 months, with 3 years suspended.

• Zarrindokht Ahadzadeh – 2 years 8 months for “membership in the Bahá’í community” and 3 years 7 months for “propaganda against the regime”; total 6 years 3 months with 2 years suspended.

• Farideh Ayyoubi – 2 years 8 months for “membership in the Bahá’í community” and 3 years 7 months for “propaganda against the regime”; total 6 years 3 months with 2 years suspended.

• Noura Ayyoubi – 2 years 8 months for “membership in the Bahá’í community” and 3 years 7 months for “propaganda against the regime”; total 6 years 3 months with 2 years suspended.

• Jaleh Rezaie – 2 years 8 months for “membership in the Bahá’í community” and 3 years 7 months for “propaganda against the regime”; total 6 years 3 months with 2 years suspended.

• Atefeh Zahedi – 2 years 8 months for “membership in the Bahá’í community” and 3 years 7 months for “propaganda against the regime”, total 6 years 3 months with 2 years suspended.

Background

• Baha’is in Iran are subjected to arbitrary arrests and detentions, physical and psychological abuse, enforced disappearance, forced business closures, property confiscation and destruction, including cemeteries, house raids, and hate speech by officials, clergy and state media.

• A 2024 publication by the Baha’i International Community, The Baha’i Question: Persecution and Resilience in Iran, documents the 46-year history of these human rights violations.

• Earlier this year, the UN Fact-Finding Mission also reported about the disproportionate targeting of Bahá’í women since the 2022 uprising, while in 2024 former Iran Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman concluded that the persecution has been carried out with “genocidal intent.”

Human Rights Watch has determined the persecution amounts to the “crime against humanity of persecution” and the Boroumand Foundation documented “multifaceted violence” against Baha’is in Iran ranging from imprisonment and dispossession to social exclusion.