Maryam Akbari Monfared has been released after 17 years in prison, including an additional 3 years added to her sentence. A mother of three young children, she was arrested and imprisoned in Tehran in the course of protests in December 2009.
The charges against Maryam Akbari Monfared were announced as rioting, acting against national security, propaganda against the state, and “enmity against God” (moharebeh) through alleged membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Her principal “offense” as a political prisoner since 2013 has been seeking justice for the martyrs. Three brothers and one sister of Maryam Akbari Monfared were among PMOI members executed by the regime. Her brothers, Alireza and Gholamreza Akbari Monfared, were executed in 1981 and 1985, and her sister Roghieh, along with another brother, Abdolreza, were executed in the summer of 1988 during the mass execution of political prisoners who remained steadfast in their beliefs.
Even under the laws of the clerical regime itself, Maryam Akbari Monfared should have been released three years ago. However, in January 2024, as her 15-year sentence was nearing completion, a new case was fabricated against her. She was charged with “propaganda against the state,” “assembly and collusion against national security,” “spreading falsehoods,” “insulting the Supreme Leader,” and “inciting the public to disrupt public order.” She was subsequently sentenced to an additional three years in prison, along with internal exile and confiscation of her property.
Maryam Akbari Monfared served her sentence in Evin, Semnan, and Qarchak prisons, and throughout her 17 years of imprisonment she was not granted a single day of leave or furlough.
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance calls on all international bodies defending human rights and women’s rights, as well as the relevant United Nations institutions, to take immediate action to secure the release of all political prisoners, especially women.
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – Women’s Committee
8 April 2026
