Baha’i adherent Anisa Fanaiyan arrested in Semnan to serve seven-year prison sentence

Hengaw: Tuesday, March 12, 2025

Anisa Fanaiyan, a Baha’i resident of Semnan, has been arrested by government forces and transferred to prison to begin serving her seven-year sentence.

According to a report received by the Hengaw Human Rights Organization, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, Fanaiyan was arrested on a street in Semnan to enforce her prison sentence. 

Her conviction was upheld by the 7th Branch of the Semnan Court of Appeals on December 4, 2024, where Judges Javad Raeisi and Ali Momeni sentenced her to seven years in prison for “forming a group with the intention of disrupting national security” and an additional year for “propaganda against the regime.”
However, under Iran’s sentence aggregation law, only the severest punishment, seven years of imprisonment, will be enforced.

Previously, on March 10, 2024, Branch 1 of the Semnan Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Ali Eithari, had sentenced her to a total of 16 years in prison. The initial ruling included ten years for forming a group with the intent to disrupt national security, five years for engaging in educational or promotional activities deemed “deviant” and contrary to Islamic law, and one year for propaganda against the regime.

In addition to the prison sentence, the court imposed further punitive measures. Fanaiyan was ordered to pay a fine of 50 million tomans and was subjected to 15 years of deprivation from social rights. Authorities also confiscated $4,350 in family assets, which had been seized from her daughter’s room during a raid.

Anisa Fanaiyan was first arrested on August 21, 2023, when security forces stormed her home. After spending seven days in detention, she was released on September 28, 2023, on one billion tomans bail.

It should be noted that Anisa Fanaiyan had previously been arrested and sentenced for her religious activities.