More than four months have passed since the arrest and enforced disappearance of Yalda Emamdoust, a long-distance running champion and former political prisoner in Isfahan. Yet no official institution has provided any information regarding her location, physical condition, or legal status.
Yalda Emamdoust was arrested in August 2025 by security forces and transferred to an undisclosed location. The arrest was carried out without a judicial warrant, summons, or any legal explanation, and since then, no official statement concerning her situation has been released.
Over the past four months, her family has repeatedly approached prisons, security detention centers, and various judicial bodies. Not only have they received no clear answers, but they have also been denied even the most basic rights, including access to her case file, communication with legal counsel, and information about her health.
A relative of the family, expressing deep concern, stated: “No one knows whether Yalda is even alive.”
Background of Yalda Emamdoust
Born in 1975 in Ilam and residing in Isfahan, Yalda Emamdoust is a well-known long-distance marathon runner who competed in several provincial competitions, earning championship titles.
Ms. Emamdoust was first arrested in 2019 for writing protest slogans on city walls and was released after several months.
She was detained again on May 31, 2020, spending two months in solitary confinement in Isfahan’s Dowlatabad Prison under interrogation before being transferred to the women’s ward of Dastgerd Prison.
The Isfahan Revolutionary Court later sentenced her to ten years in prison on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” and “propaganda against the state.”
According to sources close to her family, Yalda was subjected to physical and psychological torture during her 2020 detention and was denied phone calls and family visits for months. Her husband, a member of the regime’s Intelligence Department, reportedly played a direct role in her arrest and handover to security agents at the time.
The enforced disappearance of Yalda Emamdoust represents yet another case in the growing pattern of human rights violations in Iran.
