Three Baha’i women jailed in Kerman to serve prison sentences

Hengaw – Saturday, April 25, 2026

Iranian authorities have detained three Baha’i women, Boshra Mostafavi, Nahid Naeimi and Didar Ahmadi, from Rafsanjan to begin serving prison sentences and transferred them to Kerman Central Prison.

According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the three women were summoned to the sentence enforcement office on Saturday, April 25, 2026, and then taken into custody to serve four-month prison terms.

They had previously been sentenced by Branch 7 of the Kerman Province Appeals Court to four months in prison each on charges of “propaganda against the state.”
Branch 3 of the Rafsanjan Criminal Court had earlier acquitted them due to insufficient evidence, but that ruling was overturned after an appeal by the Rafsanjan prosecutor.

Sources told Hengaw that during appeal proceedings, the presiding judge made discriminatory remarks to the women, saying: “You are Baha’i, and in an Islamic country you must pay the price for being Baha’i.” The comments indicate that the sentences were based on religious belief rather than legal evidence.

Hengaw condemns the detention and imprisonment of the three women and empathies that the case is a clear example of religious persecution and the systematic repression of religious minorities in Iran. Depriving citizens of fundamental rights because of their faith violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.