An Iranian court has ordered six Baha'i women in the western city of Hamedan to serve a combined 39 years in prison on charges linked to their religious activity, a US-based rights group reported on Monday.
The women — Neda Mohebbi, Atefeh Zahedi, Farideh Ayubi, Noura Ayubi, Zarrindokht Ahadzadeh and Zhaleh Rezaei — were told to appear within ten days at the Hamedan Revolutionary Court to begin serving their terms, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.
They were convicted in June 2024 of membership in the Baha’i community and of spreading propaganda against Islam, and their sentences were later upheld on appeal.
The six were first detained in November 2023 by security forces and later released on bail in December. Their homes were searched during the arrests, HRANA said.
Baha'is constitute the largest religious minority in Iran and have faced systematic harassment and persecution since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The Islamic Republic does not recognize the Baha’i faith as an official religion, unlike Christianity, Judaism or Zoroastrianism.
The Iranian Baha’i community has faced nearly 1,500 years in prison sentences over the past five years, according to a report by HRANA last month.
At least 284 Baha’is were arrested and 270 were summoned to security or judicial institutions in Iran between August 2020 and 2025.
Nearly three-quarters of documented violations of religious minority rights in Iran have involved Baha'is over the past three years, according to the report.
