Poet Mehrgan Namavar rearrested ahead of prison surrender date

Hengaw – Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Lor civil activist, poet, and literary critic Mehrgan Namavar has been rearrested by Iranian security forces 10 days before she was due to report to prison to begin serving her sentence.

According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, security forces raided the home of Namavar, a 40-year-old mother of one, in Dehdasht, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, on July 5, 2026, without presenting a warrant. She was arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.

Hengaw said Namavar had previously received an official notice ordering her to report to the Enforcement of Sentences Office of the Kohgiluyeh Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office on July 15, 2026, to begin serving her prison sentence. Instead, security forces arrested her 10 days before the scheduled date. Despite repeated inquiries by her family, judicial and security authorities have not disclosed her whereabouts or the reason for her early detention.

In March 2026, Namavar was convicted in two separate cases. Branch 102 of the Criminal Court of Kohgiluyeh County sentenced her to two years in prison on charges of “spreading false information online with the intent to disturb public opinion.” In the second case, the Revolutionary Court in Dehdasht sentenced her to one year in prison on charges of “attempting to undermine security and inciting killings by disturbing public opinion.”

Namavar was previously arrested by Intelligence Ministry forces in Dehdasht on March 3, 2025, and was released on bail after spending 16 days in Dehdasht Central Prison. About a month later, on April 1, 2025, she was attacked near the Labak Valley on Dehdasht’s “Health Road” by three plainclothes agents, two men and one masked woman, who severely beat her, causing serious injuries to her eye, face and legs, and confiscated her mobile phone.