London-based journalist
Prison air is “fetid” and “suffocating,” Mahvash Sabet writes in her new memoir, Open Wide the Doors, offering a rare account by a Baha’i prisoner of life inside Iran’s prisons and the persecution of the country’s religious minority.
The book, launched in London on October 21, was written inside prison “on scraps of newspaper and tissue paper and whatever else she could find,” according to Payam Akhavan, the international human rights lawyer who hosted the event.
The fragments were later smuggled out of Iran and assembled by Azita Mottahedeh and Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, the book’s translators.
Sabet trained as a teacher and was a member of the “Yaran,” or “Friends” of Iran, a group tasked, with the government's knowledge, with caring for the Baha’i community’s basic needs.
More than 200 Baha’is were executed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and the community continues to face widespread discrimination and persecution.
After Sabet’s arrest in 2008, the other six members of the Yaran were also detained. All seven were jailed for a decade on charges including conspiring against national security. Their former lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, has said no evidence was presented to substantiate the charges.
Released in 2017, Sabet was arrested again in 2022 and sentenced to another decade in prison alongside fellow former Yaran member Fariba Kamalabadi. She is currently on medical furlough but could be recalled to prison at any time.
The book offers an unflinching account of prison conditions. In solitary confinement, the stench is so “noxious” that Sabet tries to breathe through a slit in her door. Other prisoners’ faeces lie in piles in her cell, and cockroaches crawl across the floor.
Remembering hours of blindfolded questioning early in her detention, Sabet writes that “the hair rose on the back of my neck” each time her interrogator drew close.
But alongside the degradation and violence, the memoir describes Sabet’s efforts to preserve compassion for those around her, including fellow prisoners and even her jailers.
At the London launch, two former cellmates and another former prisoner spoke about Sabet’s influence on their lives.
Roxana Saberi, a journalist imprisoned in Evin in 2009, recalled being “dumbfounded” when Sabet and Kamalabadi told her they were “trying to turn their experiences [in prison] into an opportunity.”
As Sabet showed “kindness and compassion to everyone, from her fellow cellmates to her captors,” Saberi came to believe that such an approach could help lay the foundations for “democracy, freedom and understanding” in Iran.
One episode in the memoir captures that compassion. When an “emaciated” crack addict, with “a head like a prop for an anatomy class … eyes set back in deep rings of darkness,” reaches toward Sabet from a lower bunk, she climbs down to hold the woman’s hand.
Although Sabet has only just secured a bed in an overcrowded ward, she also holds the woman’s wounded, “festering” feet, describing how her heart breaks and fills with love.
Sabet does not conceal her own suffering. After a brutal interrogation in which she endures insults and blows from six “sweating, stinking” men, she recalls how “desperate” she had been for “fresh air.”
Iqan Shahidi, an Iranian Baha’i imprisoned between 2012 and 2017, described Sabet as “like a light in the darkness for me.”
Now an academic in the United Kingdom, Shahidi said he had studied at the informal Baha’i university where Sabet taught before her imprisonment.
The institution illustrated how Baha’is responded to persecution, he said. Rather than resorting to political confrontation or violence, “instead they built something,” providing education to young Baha’is barred from public universities.
“Mahvash kept everybody so hopeful through very simple things in life,” said Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Iranian-British former prisoner who spent six years in detention.
Every year in prison, Zaghari-Ratcliffe recalled, Sabet invited the entire ward to a Nowruz feast. Tables were pushed together, and Sabet supervised the careful slicing of potatoes for traditional Persian dishes.
She continued paying for the annual celebration even after her release, sending money to jailed activist and future Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.
For Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the gatherings represented something larger than a shared meal.
Iran’s political prisoners, drawn from different ethnic and religious communities and political backgrounds, were forced to live together for years despite their differences.
Sabet, she said, would “make sure that we [were] all part of the same community.”
“We are against this oppression that has put us in this place … regardless of our differences, we are all one.”
That commitment extended even to prison staff.
Sabet recounts returning to a jail where she had previously been held and receiving a warm welcome from guards. One officer, who tells her that “all my life I have been a good Muslim,” confesses that he has come to hate religion and works for the government only to support his family.
Sabet tries to reassure him, expressing her belief that Iran has a better future and that its people will one day rebuild the country together.
The officer says he wishes he could believe her.
“So allow yourself to,” Sabet replies, “instead of wasting energy on your doubts!”
In the book’s final pages, Sabet recalls an unexpected encounter in prison with Jamaloddin Khanjani, the eldest member of the Yaran.
“The sheer wonder of what had happened felt like a recompense for all the beatings, a reward after all that solitude; it was like breathing fresh air in the suffocating corridors of Evin.”
An Iranian cleric and former Revolutionary Guards member arrested during January's nationwide protests has been sentenced to death twice in separate cases, including for apostasy, US-based rights group HRANA reported Thursday.
The cleric, identified only as Mehdi, was sentenced to death alongside two other protesters, Amirreza Rezaei and Vahid Ghahremani, by Branch 23 of Tehran's Revolutionary Court, according to HRANA.
The charges against the three included allegedly carrying out operations on behalf of Israel, HRANA said. They were informed of their sentences in prison on Monday.
Mehdi, whose surname remains unknown, received a second death sentence from Iran's Special Clerical Court on a charge of apostasy. HRANA provided no further details about the circumstances of that case or his previous service in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
All three were arrested separately by security forces during the nationwide protests in January. They were transferred from Greater Tehran Prison to Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on Wednesday.
The sentences come amid warnings from the United Nations that Iranian authorities have intensified executions and prosecutions linked to the protests during the war with the United States and Israel.
UN Special Rapporteur Mai Sato told the General Assembly on Wednesday that at least 34 people had been executed in connection with the nationwide protests.
Sato cited one case in which 34 defendants were tried in just five days, with 12 sentenced to death and seven already executed. She raised concerns about mass trials, forced confessions and the lack of due process in capital cases.
"The war has provided cover for the authorities to intensify their crackdown and tighten the repression," Sato said, adding that protesters had been portrayed as agents of foreign powers and peaceful dissent prosecuted as a national security threat.
The protests began in late December with strikes by merchants in Tehran before spreading across the country. At least 36,500 people were killed during the subsequent crackdown by security forces, according to Iran International's reporting, while tens of thousands were arrested or summoned.
Some Iranian families are paying thousands of dollars to put their children in foreign online schools, buying an international education from home and stepping outside the Islamic Republic’s school system, despite the education ministry’s warnings.
The government-affiliated newspaper Iran reported on Thursday that institutions offering foreign curricula and diplomas from countries including Canada and Britain were attracting Iranian students.
A mother whose 15-year-old daughter attends an online high school based in Toronto told the newspaper her family pays $7,000 annually to prepare her daughter for admission to Canadian universities without leaving Iran.
Another father cited shortcomings in Iranian schools’ approach to practical skills and creative thinking as reasons for enrolling his son in a foreign online college alongside his education in Tehran.
Diplomas not recognized in Iran
Mohammad Salimi, head of the Education Ministry’s Center for International Affairs and Overseas Schools, warned that the foreign online institutions in question lack authorization to operate in Iran and that their diplomas are not recognized by the domestic education system.
Students attending only these institutions are not registered in Iran’s official education databases and could face difficulties continuing their studies domestically, Salimi told Iran daily.
For families planning to send their children to universities abroad, however, recognition by institutions in the destination country may matter more than approval from Iranian authorities.
A diploma’s lack of recognition in Iran does not necessarily make it invalid internationally. Its acceptance depends on the school’s accreditation and the admission requirements of individual universities.
What do foreign schools offer?
The expansion of international online schools allows students to follow American and British curricula without relocating.
International Virtual Learning Academy (IVLA), a private American school, provides online education from elementary through high school, allowing students to select courses and progress at a pace suited to their circumstances.
Annual high school tuition starts at $2,679 for its basic program, rising to $3,799 or $5,279 for packages offering additional educational support.
Britain’s King's InterHigh offers live and recorded online classes, with subjects including computer science, economics, psychology and film studies.
For the 2026–2027 academic year, annual tuition is £7,250 for students aged 14 to 16 and £7,585 for the pre-university program covering three principal subjects.
Crimson Global Academy also provides American and British curricula online. Annual full-time tuition for its American high school program ranges from $22,375 to $25,500.
The differences show that foreign online schooling does not carry a uniform price. Costs vary according to grade level, course selection and the educational services provided.
Ideological education and alternative choices
Some families are turning to foreign education in a country whose school system was restructured around the Islamic Republic’s religious and political objectives after the 1979 revolution.
UNESCO has documented how Iranian textbooks were revised after the revolution to incorporate Islamic teachings, with religious and political content extending beyond religious education into subjects including history, social studies and Persian literature.
Iran’s Fundamental Reform Document of Education also identifies the cultivation of Islamic-Iranian identity and religious values among the education system’s central objectives.
In a study published in July 2025, education researcher Golnar Mehran examined Iranian social studies textbooks and the role of Islamization and politicization in their content.
By contrast, the international online schools examined offer greater flexibility in course selection, different academic pathways and preparation for universities abroad.
The YouTube generation and English-language learning
The spread of the internet and social media has also exposed Iranian students to English-language material and international educational resources from an early age.
YouTube, online gaming and English-language social media content have expanded opportunities to learn beyond formal classrooms, despite extensive internet filtering in Iran.
A 2024 survey by the Iranian Students Polling Agency, ISPA, found that roughly half of the university students surveyed used YouTube.
Another official survey published in 2026 found that around 23 percent of children and adolescents aged six to 15 used tools to circumvent internet restrictions.
A 2026 study involving 120 English-language learners in Tehran and Isfahan found that structured educational use of YouTube, Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp over 12 weeks significantly improved English proficiency among participants in the experimental group.
Such resources can make international online education more accessible to students who develop sufficient English-language skills.
IVLA, for example, expects international applicants to have adequate English proficiency but does not require a language-test certificate at enrollment.
Dollar-priced education and a future beyond Iran’s job market
The cost of foreign online schooling means it is largely accessible to families with greater financial resources, some of whom may be considering educational and professional futures beyond Iran.
English-language instruction, exposure to international curricula and experience with remote learning could help prepare students for university education abroad and potential participation in the global labor market.
The growth of remote employment has also created opportunities for people to work for foreign companies or clients without emigrating. Language skills, digital proficiency and familiarity with international educational and professional environments can support access to such work.
However, Iran’s internet restrictions, difficulties receiving foreign payments because of limited access to international banking networks, and overseas employers’ hiring policies can still obstruct those opportunities.
More than 16.5 million students were enrolled in Iran’s education system at the beginning of the 2026–2027 academic year, but no comprehensive figures have been published on the number attending foreign online schools or whether enrollment is increasing.
It is also unclear how many intend to pursue education abroad and how many regard foreign courses as a supplement to their domestic schooling.
Although the newspaper Iran focused on tuition costs and the risks associated with diploma recognition, the parents it interviewed described different priorities, including alternative curricula and preparation for education overseas.
For families already investing substantial sums in international schooling, recognition by Iranian authorities may carry less weight than access to foreign universities, migration opportunities or employment beyond the domestic market.
The Education Ministry’s warning about unrecognized diplomas therefore addresses only part of a broader issue: how far Iran’s education system can meet the expectations of students increasingly using the internet, English-language resources and online education to explore academic and professional opportunities beyond the country’s borders.
Young Iranians are turning from opium, their parents’ drug, to cannabis, methamphetamine and a widening range of synthetic substances, treatment specialists and officials say, as unemployment, hardship and uncertainty about the future reshape the country’s drug use.
Opium is still common among older users, Tejarat News reported. The younger generation’s drugs go by other names: cannabis, known locally as gol (bud), and methamphetamine, known as shisheh (glass).
In July, the head of prevention at Iran's Drug Control Headquarters, Zahra Abedini, said the highest prevalence of drug use was among people aged 24 to 35.
She estimated the prevalence of drug use among university students at between 2.5 and 2.7 percent, although the figures were based on existing studies. A new nationwide survey is underway to provide updated data on addiction in Iran.
Kamran Fateh, an addiction specialist, told Tejarat News that drug consumption should not be viewed simply as a matter of personal choice.
Behind many cases of drug use lies a combination of social, economic and psychological factors, he said.
"A young person facing anxiety, unemployment, a sense of having no future, emotional setbacks, economic pressure or family tensions may look for a quick way to temporarily escape those pressures," Fateh added.
Cannabis use and the changing drug market
The Drug Control Headquarters' director of treatment has identified cannabis and hashish as among the country's most commonly consumed substances, warning about the rapid emergence of synthetic drugs and new psychoactive compounds.
One concern highlighted in the report is the growing normalization of cannabis use among young people, some of whom regard it as less dangerous than traditional narcotics or believe occasional consumption carries little risk of dependence.
Fateh warned that misconceptions about the safety of certain substances were among the biggest obstacles to prevention.
"When a substance is described as 'recreational,' 'herbal' or 'less harmful,' people's awareness of the risk of dependence decreases," he said.
Addiction treatment specialists in several provinces have reported cases of young people beginning with cannabis before experimenting with other substances, although such progression is not inevitable.
According to prices reported by addiction treatment specialists, a cannabis cigarette costs around 1.5 million rials ($0.55), while methamphetamine sells for approximately 2.5 million to 7 million rials ($0.92 to $2.59) per gram.
Heroin prices range from 2 million to 7 million rials ($0.74 to $2.59) per gram, compared with 1.21 million to 3 million rials ($0.45 to $1.11) for opium. The figures are estimates rather than official market rates.
Experts have also warned that newly emerging substances are increasingly marketed with claims of reducing stress, boosting energy, improving concentration or promoting weight loss.
Economic hardship and uncertainty fuel vulnerability
Fateh said the expanding illegal drug market was making prevention increasingly difficult as suppliers introduced new substances and combinations to meet changing demand.
He also said that families sometimes discover drug use only after occasional consumption has developed into a more serious problem, adding that punishment and intimidation are not necessarily effective responses.
"If society focuses only on 'saying no to drugs' but offers no solutions to problems such as unemployment, social isolation, depression, identity crises, economic pressure and a lack of healthy recreational activities, many of the underlying causes of drug use will remain," he said.
Fateh highlighted the relationship between economic hardship and addiction, saying that rising drug prices could drive dependent users toward cheaper, unfamiliar or more dangerous substances.
"If a dependent person does not have access to effective, affordable and accessible treatment, higher prices may even push them toward more dangerous alternatives," he said.
He argued that enforcement measures against drug suppliers alone would not resolve Iran's addiction problem without addressing the broader economic and social pressures facing younger generations.
As more Iranians build new lives abroad, many parents back home face a less visible consequence of migration: years without seeing their children, family relationships maintained through phone screens, and growing uncertainty about who will be there for them in old age.
For Maryam, a 68-year-old retiree in Tehran, that distance has become part of everyday life. Her son lives in Canada and her daughter in Germany, and she has not seen either of them in years.
“I know they're building their futures, and I'm happy for them,” she told Iran International. “But sometimes I just wish they were here, even for an ordinary dinner.”
Maryam says regular calls and photographs help her stay connected with her family, particularly her grandchildren. But watching them grow up from thousands of miles away is difficult.
“They know me through the phone,” she says. “I wish I could be more than just a face on a screen in their lives.”
Last winter, Maryam was hospitalized with kidney problems. Her children arranged help through relatives, and a family member accompanied her to medical appointments.
“My daughter was very worried, and I kept telling her everything was fine,” she recalls. “Sometimes, especially when I'm ill, I just wish we weren't so far apart.”
Caring for a spouse without the children nearby
In Karaj, 72-year-old Hamid has spent the past two years caring for his wife after a stroke left her with limited mobility.
Their two sons live in Sweden and Australia. Although they call regularly and provide financial support, most daily responsibilities fall on Hamid.
He describes the exhaustion of managing medication, medical appointments and household chores.
“Some people think you're fortunate when your children live abroad,” he says. “But when your wife needs help getting out of bed, what matters is having someone nearby.”
The family has hired a part-time caregiver, but Hamid still handles much of his wife's care.
“Sometimes I want to tell my sons how exhausted I am,” he says. “Then I think about how far away they are and wonder what they could possibly do.”
Hamid does not blame his children for emigrating, but says family life has changed.
“We're still very close, and we talk all the time. But it's different when you can't sit together in the same room.”
Stay in Iran or join the family abroad?
For Nahid, a 64-year-old widow in Tehran, the question is whether she should leave Iran herself.
Her only daughter has lived in London for eight years and has encouraged her mother to move closer.
“My daughter tells me to come and live with her, but I've spent my whole life here,” she says. “My sisters, my friends, all my memories are here. At the same time, every year that passes, I wish I could be closer to her.”
Nahid worries about losing her independence in a country where she does not speak the language fluently or have an established social circle.
But staying in Tehran also means facing old age far from her daughter.
“I don't want to become a burden to my daughter,” she says. “But I don't want to leave behind everything I've built here either.”
The distance that remains
Phone and video calls have helped families separated by migration remain part of one another's lives despite years of living thousands of kilometres apart. They share news, celebrate birthdays and check on each other's health, sometimes communicating more frequently than families living in the same city.
But as parents grow older, that distance takes on a different meaning. A sudden illness, a medical emergency or the growing need for help with everyday tasks can expose the limits of even the closest long-distance relationships.
For children who have emigrated, Iran remains the place where their parents are growing old. For the parents who stayed behind, each passing year brings a difficult reality into sharper focus: the people they may need most are the ones living furthest away.
As growing numbers of Iranian women appear in public without headscarves, authorities are pursuing organizers of cultural and sporting events over alleged violations of mandatory hijab rules.
Tehran’s prosecutor’s office announced this week that it had opened a case against the organizers of Tehran Art Fair, a privately run event held at the Iran Mall commercial complex from September 20 to 23, citing “failure to observe legal and religious requirements.”
The organizers have been summoned to court, while the fair’s ticketing website and social media account have been blocked on the prosecutor’s orders.
The announcement did not specify which activities at the event, which featured visual arts, music, theater and performance art, were considered violations.
Images and videos showed numerous female visitors without headscarves, as well as women performing without hijab.
In one performance, two women sat on the floor as red yarn was wrapped around them in a spiderweb-like pattern. Their bodies were then decorated with flowers before two other women cut the threads with scissors, freeing them.
Another video circulating on social media showed a woman in a long black dress that covered her body but left her head uncovered as she moved to music.
‘Offending public sentiment’
The action against the art fair came amid similar proceedings over Fitex Tehran, a sports equipment exhibition where women performed fitness routines and acrobatics to music without headscarves.
The judiciary announced Tuesday that an unnamed fitness blogger had been arrested on charges of “offending public sentiment” and “propaganda against the system.”
Videos of the performances, in which women wore long-sleeved tops and leggings but no headscarves, circulated widely on social media.
The prosecutor’s office ordered the event’s social media account closed for publishing “criminal content” and said an arrest warrant had been issued for one of the exhibition’s organizers.
The event drew criticism from conservative media. Tasnim, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), condemned what it called widespread “deviations” at Fitex in an October 25 report and urged sports authorities and other institutions to intervene.
State broadcaster IRIB also described the event as an example of “deviance” and called for judicial action.
Beyond the exhibitions
Other cultural events have faced scrutiny over the past year, including music and theater performances and Tehran Design Week, held at the University of Tehran’s College of Fine Arts.
In some cases, judicial intervention has concerned interactions between women and men rather than hijab violations.
Last month, those involved in the play Tehran, Paris, Tehran/Bridge faced prosecution after a scene showed a female actor briefly resting her head on the chest of a male actor playing her brother.
The prosecutor’s office described the actors’ behavior as “contrary to tradition and propriety.”
Authorities have also taken action against venues hosting events attended by women without hijab.
Earlier this month, the IRGC-linked Fars News Agency reported that a banquet hall in the religious city of Qom had been sealed on the prosecutor’s orders after the wife of prominent soccer player Ali Daei attended a private company conference there without a headscarf.
A judicial case was also opened against the conference organizers, and the prosecutor warned that everyone involved would face action.
Changing streets, unchanged laws
Since the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement, which followed the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, street-level enforcement of compulsory hijab has declined.
Increasing numbers of women now appear in public without headscarves, wearing clothing other than the long coats and chadors traditionally expected by authorities. Women also exercise in public parks without covering their hair.
But mandatory hijab rules remain in force, including in schools, government institutions and universities, while organizers of public events continue to face legal pressure.
Women’s rights activists and opponents of mandatory hijab argue that the growing visibility of women without headscarves does not amount to freedom of choice as long as legal restrictions remain.
The recent prosecutions show how authorities continue to enforce those restrictions through legal action against organizers, performers and venues, even as uncovered hair becomes increasingly commonplace in public.
