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 the more than 100 imprisoned Bahá’ís.
There were 10 Baha’i women in ward 209 of Evin Prison with Nasrin Sotoudeh. In an interview with Lara Marlowe of the Irish Times, Sotoudeh described her relationship with Mahvash –
“I became close friends with one of them, Mahvash (Sabet) Shahriari,” she says. Shahriari is one of seven Baha’i leaders who were sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2008. She had been barred from teaching since the revolution. “We spent a lot of time together, reading and discussing books. One was about the Protestant reformation.” (1)
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Teacher and poet Mahvash Sabet is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Evin prison, Tehran. She is one of a group of seven Baha’i 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. Mahvash Sabet began writing poetry in prison, and a collection of her poetry entitled Prison Poems was published in English translation on 1 April 2013.
PEN International is calling on the Iranian authorities to release Mahvash Sabet and all other writers imprisoned in Iran solely for exercising their right to legitimate freedom of expression.
To take more action for Mahvash Sabet visit here
To read more about, and take action for, all of the cases highlighted by PEN International on the Day of the Imprisoned Writer visit here