Kurdish woman Zahra Pirdehghan held incommunicado for nearly 50 days following arrest in Urmia

Hengaw – Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Nearly 50 days after Zahra Pirdehghan, a 32-year-old Kurdish woman from Chaldoran, was arrested by the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Urmia, her whereabouts remain unknown.

According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Pirdehghan’s family has received no information about her fate since her arrest despite repeated efforts to determine where she is being held and under what circumstances.

Sources familiar with the case said Pirdehghan was traveling in a private vehicle along the Urmia–Sero road on June 25, 2026, when she was detained by IRGC Intelligence forces without the presentation of a warrant and taken to an undisclosed location.

Despite repeated inquiries by her family with security agencies and prosecutors’ offices in Urmia and Chaldoran, authorities have refused to provide clear information about her whereabouts or disclose any charges against her.