Sakharov prize winner and human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh served three years of a six year prison sentence for defending victims of human rights violations in Iran. She was released in 2013 but has never stopped advocating for the release of all prisoners of conscience in Iran including Mahvash Sabet and…
“This is not the first time Mahvash has been imprisoned for being a Baha’i. In 2005, on the day of her daughter’s wedding, six unexpected guests arrived early, knocking at their door around 6:30 a.m to arrest Mahvash. They were officers of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence, and they came bearing a…
In May 2013, a group of independent United Nations experts reiterated its call on Iranian authorities for the immediate release of seven Baha’i community leaders. “The Iranian Government should demonstrate its commitment to freedom of religion by immediately and unconditionally releasing these prisoners of conscience,” the Special Rapporteur on the situation…
“…You have barely enough clothes to wear, or a warm dress, leave alone the will to notice me. What can I do, what dare I offer you – a poor captive who can never make you free?” What recourse is there, after all, but to shed tears for you, gathering…
“Fariba and Mahvash were two of the women prisoners I met in Evin who inspired me the most. They showed me what it means to be selfless, to care more about one’s community and beliefs than about oneself.” Roxana Saberi In over six years imprisonment, as well as sharing a…
“And this is where I stand sometimes looking up at the sky staring through that narrow gap between two sheets of rusted steel cutting me off from the heavy sky. It’s always overcast this ceiling, that lid that lies over my life… But I see swallows, on occasion, breathless,…
“The trial of Mahvash and her co-workers officially began on 12 January 2010, in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The presiding judge, who was dressed in clerical robes, was called Maqiseh. Throughout the proceedings Mahvash was firm and determined, brave and dignified; she seemed fearless of the…
On the Day of the Imprisoned Writer (November 15th) help raise the profile of Mahvash Sabet’s case by changing your profile picture on Facebook and Twitter to this photograph of Mahvash. Doing this will help to remind everyone that Mahvash Sabet – and many other writers – are imprisoned simply for exercising their human…
Dear Mahvash Sabet, It’s almost an impertinence, I feel, to write to a poet who is being kept behind bars for her words and beliefs. King Lear, imprisoned at the end of the play with his daughter Cordelia, tells her that they will become “God’s spies”. That is what you…
