The Iranian regime continues to detain and summon women activists for their political activities and religious beliefs, in a bid to prevent popular uprisings due to the spread of the coronavirus and the death toll soaring every day.
Vida Haghighi Najafabadi was sent to Isfahan Prison on June 1, 2020 for her religious beliefs.
Security forces went to Vida’s house and ordered that she turn herself in to begin serving her jail sentence.
Vida Haghighi Najafabadi is a Baha’i citizen who was arrested in the summer of 2011 by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence along with 19 other Baha’is.
She was sentenced to one year in prison and one-year suspended imprisonment by the Revolutionary Court of Yazd. The verdict was upheld by the Yazd Provincial Court of Appeals.
Also, on May 30, 2020, two other Baha’i women, Mitra Bandi Amirabadi and Hiva Yazdan Mehdi-Abadi, were arrested and taken to an unknown location. The Security forces insulted the residents during the house search.
Hiva Yazdan Mehdi-Abadi was previously detained by security forces in December of 2017 on the charge of teaching music to children. She was transferred to the Prison of Yazd.
In another development, Neda Ashtiani, a political prisoner, returned to Evin Prison after the expiration of her leave. She is serving a three-year sentence.
Neda Ashtiani was arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence at her work place in late February 2019 for her activities in the cyberspace and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison.
In June 2019, the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced her to five years in prison and a two-year ban on leaving the country.
The Court of Appeals reduced her sentence to three years in prison on November 18, 2019.
