Fariba Eshteri, Bahai Citizen, Arrested by Security Forces

Hrana News Agency – Fariba Eshteri, a Bahai citizen residing in Yazd, was arrested on Wednesday, September 7, 2022, by Ministry of Intelligence officers and transferred to the city’s prison.

According to Hrana News Agency, the news organization of the Iranian human rights activists collective, on Wednesday, September 7, 2022, Fariba Eshteri, a Bahai citizen residing in Yazd, was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence officers.

An informed source told Hrana: “Ms. Eshteri was transferred to Yazd Prison following her arrest. It appears that her arrest and transfer to prison were carried out to execute her imprisonment sentence.”

On June 21, 2020, Fariba Eshteri was convicted by the First Branch of Yazd Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mohammad Reza Dashtipour, of “membership in groups opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran’s system” to five years imprisonment, and of “propaganda against and in favor of groups opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran’s system” to one year imprisonment, totaling six years in prison. According to Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, the more severe sentence of five years imprisonment will apply to Ms. Eshteri.

Fariba Eshteri was previously arrested on December 2, 2019, by Ministry of Intelligence forces at her home in Yazd and transferred to an undisclosed location. She was ultimately released on bail in February 2020, pending the completion of legal proceedings.

Fariba Eshteri was born in 1972, is married, and is the mother of two children. This Bahai citizen has a heart condition and underwent two surgeries last year before her arrest.

Fariba Eshteri was previously convicted in 2014 of “propaganda against the system” and “membership in the Bahai community” to two years imprisonment and one year suspended sentence, serving two years in Yazd Prison between 2014 and 2016. Nasser Bagheri, Ms. Eshteri’s husband, who was serving his nine-month sentence in Yazd Prison, was released in March 2020 upon completion of his sentence. Faiz Bagheri, Fariba Eshteri’s son, was arrested in March 2014 at age 17 and was released on bail after five months pending the completion of legal proceedings. Faiz Bagheri was ultimately convicted by Yazd Revolutionary Court to three years imprisonment. This sentence was reduced to a fine of one million tomans on appeal.

Bahai citizens in Iran are deprived of freedoms related to religious beliefs. This systematic deprivation occurs despite Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which grant every person the right to freedom of religion and belief, including the freedom to change religion, and the freedom to manifest such belief individually or collectively, either publicly or in private.