Baha'i prisoner Neda Badakhsh denied medical leave despite deteriorating health

Hengaw – Sunday, July 26, 2026

Iranian authorities have denied medical leave, conditional release, and electronic monitoring for Neda Badakhsh, a 62-year-old Baha'i prisoner held at Dowlatabad Prison in Isfahan, despite a severe deterioration in her health after seven months of serving a five-year prison sentence.

According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Badakhsh, who has been imprisoned since December 27, 2025, has experienced a sharp decline in her health due to inadequate medical care and the authorities' failure to provide appropriate treatment.

Sources close to her family said Badakhsh suffered from several chronic conditions, including diabetes, arthritis, joint inflammation, and severe bone pain before her imprisonment. During her detention, she also developed sciatica. Despite severe pain, an urgent need for specialized treatment outside prison, and repeated requests by her and her family, judicial authorities have rejected all applications for medical leave, conditional release, and electronic monitoring.

Badakhsh is serving a five-year sentence on the charge of "conducting educational and promotional activities against the sacred law of Islam." The charge stems solely from her voluntary teaching of mathematics and Persian to Afghan children who had been denied access to education.

Badakhsh was arrested on December 27, 2025, together with seven other Baha'i women—Negin Khademi, Shana Shoughifar, Parastoo Hakim, Mozhgan Shahrezaei, Yeganeh Rouhbakhsh, Arezoo Sobhanian, and Neda Emadi—after they were summoned to Branch 2 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court's Office for the Enforcement of Judgments. They were transferred to Dowlatabad Prison to begin serving their sentences. Badakhsh had previously been sentenced to five years in prison by Branch 1 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court. The eight women were first arrested on October 23, 2023, and were released on bail two months later.