On a hot summer day in June, Noura Nabilzadeh, an Iranian children’s rights activist, and a group of her friends visited an orphaniage in Mashad to entertain and teach the children staying there with music. In the middle of the program, intelligence agents arrived and arrested Nabilzadeh, escorting her to her home, where they performed an invasive search and seizure of her property. They removed any and all items related to her work in the Baha’i community, including her computer, books, photos and cell phones. They detained her in Masshad Inteigeence Office Detention Center. The charge: propagating the Baha’i faith, an offense punishable by law in a country that doesn’t recognize the faith as an official religion.
Noura was briefly released on bail before being tried in a closed court. She was sentenced to pay a 1 million toman fine and serve 5 years in prison in Masshad, which she began in September of last year. An attempt to appeal the sentence failed. Last May, Nabilzadeh and one other female prisoner were abruptly transferred from Vakil Abad Prison to the Ministry of Intellligence without explanation. It’s unclear whether she ever returned to Masshad or whether she is still at the MOI, although agents at the time had said the transfer would only last 10 days.
For many Baha’is in Iran, this is a familiar narrative; it was particularly poignant for Noura, whose father Davar Nabilzadeh, also went through a similar ordeal on the same charges. Davar is serving a 5-year prison term for “anti-regime propaganda, acting against national security by membership in Baha’i organizations, communicating with foreigners after traveling abroad, organizing illegal gatherings, and publishing and distributing Baha’i CDs and books.”
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