HRANA News Agency – The request submitted by Neda Mohabi, Atefeh Zahedi, Farideh Ayubi, Noora Ayubi, Zarrindokht Ahadzadeh, and Zhaleh Rezaei—six Bahá’í women imprisoned in Hamedan Prison—to serve their sentences under electronic ankle-monitor supervision has been rejected by the provincial appeals court.
According to HRANA News Agency, the media outlet of the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), the appeals court of Hamedan Province has denied the request by six imprisoned Bahá’í women to benefit from electronic ankle monitoring.
Based on information received by HRANA, yesterday Branch 11 of the Hamedan Province Court of Appeal rejected the request of Neda Mohabi, Atefeh Zahedi, Farideh Ayubi, Noora Ayubi, Zarrindokht Ahadzadeh, and Zhaleh Rezaei to serve their prison sentences under electronic monitoring. This decision was issued despite the fact that the prison classification council and the sentence enforcement branch had previously approved the request. These Bahá’í women were arrested to begin serving their prison sentences on Sunday, 26 October 2025, and transferred to prison.
On 12 August, Branch 11 of the Hamedan Province Court of Appeal sentenced these six Bahá’í women to a total of 38 years and 11 months in prison.
Earlier this year, in June, following the initial trial session held on 28 April, Branch 2 of the Hamedan Revolutionary Court sentenced Neda Mohabi to five years in prison on charges of “education and propaganda” and an additional two years and eight months on charges of “membership in the Bahá’í community.” The more severe sentence was deemed enforceable, and three years of her prison sentence were suspended for five years.
Additionally, Atefeh Zahedi, Farideh Ayubi, Noora Ayubi, Zarrindokht Ahadzadeh, and Zhaleh Rezaei were each sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on charges of membership in the Bahá’í community, and three years and seven months in prison on charges of education and propaganda deemed contrary to Islamic law. The more severe sentence in each case was enforceable. Two years of the prison sentences of Farideh Ayubi, Noora Ayubi, Ahadzadeh, Rezaei, and Zahedi were suspended for five years.
These citizens were released on bail in December 2023. Prior to that, on 7 November 2023, they were arrested by security forces and transferred to the detention facility of the Hamedan Intelligence Department, where they were held in solitary confinement for 31 days and subjected to interrogation.
It should be noted that following their arrests, the homes of Zhaleh Rezaei and Farideh Ayubi were searched by security agents.
Atefeh Zahedi is the mother of a six-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter. Neda Mohabi is the mother of a five-year-old daughter, a nine-year-old son, and a 13-year-old daughter.
Over the past decade, the Bahá’í community in Iran has been subjected to more security and judicial measures than any other religious minority. A review of the annual reports of the Statistics, Publications, and Works Center of the Human Rights Activists in Iran shows that over the past three years, an average of 72 percent of reports concerning religious minorities have been related to violations of the civil rights of Bahá’ís.
