Mahvash SABET
Mahvash Sabet. Photo credit: permission granted by Sabet’s family
Mahvash Sabet is a teacher and poet serving an unjust 10-year prison sentence imposed in 2022. She has previously spent a decade in prison due solely to her religious beliefs as a member of Iran’s persecuted Baha’i minority (see Case Lists 2013 – 2019, 2022 and 2023/2024). Due to poor prison conditions, and to Iranian authorities repeatedly denying her access to adequate healthcare, her health deteriorated significantly in 2024.
On 31 July 2022, Iranian authorities arrested Sabet and two other members of the long-disbanded ‘Yaran-i-Iran’ (or ‘Friends of Iran’), Fariba Kamalabadi and Afif Naemi – who helped to administer the Baha’i community’s affairs in Iran until 2008 – over unfounded ‘espionage’ charges. According to media sources, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry alleged they were linked to the Baha’i Centre in Israel and had collected and transferred information there. On 21 November 2022, following an unfair trial that lasted only one hour, the Revolutionary Court’s Branch 26 in Tehran sentenced Sabet and Kamalabadi to 10 years in prison. The judge rebuked the defendants for ‘not learning their lesson’ before handing down his harsh sentence.
In December 2024, Sabet was sent to a hospital for urgent medical treatment after her health deteriorated significantly. She was later temporarily released after undergoing open-heart surgery, in order to recover at home. According to her family, among many other health complications, Sabet is suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and heart issues. PEN International remains gravely concerned about the sharp deterioration in Sabet’s health and calls for her not to be returned to prison.
Sabet, born on 4 February 1953, began her professional career as a teacher and worked as a principal at several schools. She also collaborated with the National Literacy Committee of Iran. Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Sabet was fired from her job and blocked from working in public education, like thousands of other Iranian Baha’i educators. She served for 15 years as director of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, which provides alternative higher education for Baha’i youth. Mahvash Sabet began writing poetry in prison, and a collection of her prison poems was translated into English and published in 2013. Two more volumes of poems رها (A Tale of Love – More Prison Poems) and حکایت عاشقی (Love Story) were published in 2019 and 2021. She is an honorary member of Austrian PEN and Danish PEN and was named as English PEN’s 2017 Writer of Courage by PEN Pinter Prize winner Michael Longley. PEN International has campaigned for her release, including through dedicating an ‘Empty Chair’ to her at PEN’s 89th International Congress.