The well known international writers’ association PEN has marked 2016 International Women’s Day by calling on the Iranian government to free 3 women writers including Mahvash Sabet who is serving a prison sentence in Tehran because of her membership of the Bahá’í Faith.
Urging its members to take action on behalf of Mrs. Sabet and two other writers – Narges Mohammadi and Fatima Naoot – PEN calls for appeals to their governments demanding their release and the release of all other writers currently imprisoned solely for exercising their right to legitimate freedom of expression.
“Mahvash Sabet is one of a group of seven Bahá’í leaders known as the ‘Yaran-i-Iran’ (‘Friends of Iran’) who have been detained since 2008 for their faith and activities related to running the affairs of the Bahá’í community in Iran,” according to PEN International.
PEN, which defends freedom of expression across the globe, has also asked its members to urge the Iranian authorities to enshrine the right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion in law and practice in Iran as provided for under Articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Iran is a state party.
Poet Mahvash Sabet began her writing career in prison, and a collection of her prison poems was published in English translation in 2013.
The Baha’i community in Iran has been the focus of a systematic, state-sponsored persecution since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. After the revolution, the ‘Yaran-i-Iran’ (‘Friends of Iran’) was formed with the full knowledge of the government and served as an informal council for the Baha’i in Iran, working to support the spiritual and social needs of Iran’s more than 300,000-member Baha’i community, until the Yaran’s entire membership was arrested in 2008.
Teacher and poet Mahvash Sabet was arrested on 5 March 2008. The other six members of the group – Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm – were arrested on 14 May 2008 at their homes in Tehran. All were imprisoned without charge until January 2010, during which time they were held incommunicado for weeks and were not allowed access to legal counsel. All suffered appalling treatment and deprivations during pre-trial detention.
Charged with espionage, propaganda against the Islamic republic, the establishment of an illegal administration, co-operation with Israel, sending secret documents outside the country, acting against the security of the country, and corruption on earth, their trial began on 12 January 2010. On 14 June 2010 each of the defendants was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment after six brief court sessions characterised by their lack of due legal process. Their sentences were later reduced to 10 years each when an appeals court revoked three of the charges; however, in March 2011, the prisoners were informed of the reinstatement of their original sentences. They have never received official copies of the original verdict or the ruling on appeal despite repeated requests.
‘Beyond those gates, another world, another race,
a people poisoned and oppressed by woe;
they stared wearily at us, the prisoners we faced,
with sunken eyes, lack-lustre, circled with sorrow.’
– extract from ‘From Evin to Raja’I Shah’ in Prison Poems, published in English on 1 April 2013.