\n A Bahai poet and writer is set to be returned to prison in Iran after undergoing open-heart surgery, a France-based group representing Iran's largest religious minority said Thursday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mahvash Sabet, 71, is serving a second 10-year jail sentence following her arrest in 2022 in a wave of detentions of Bahais.\n<\/p>\n
\n She had previously been released in 2018 alongside Fariba Kamalabadi, another prominent Bahai who was also re-arrested in 2022.\n<\/p>\n
\n The poet \"recently underwent open-heart surgery and will be returned to prison very soon,\" the Bahais de France organisation said in a statement sent to AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n They called for Sabet's \"immediate and unconditional release\" as well as for \"her jail sentence to be cancelled and assurance from Iranian authorities that she will never return to prison\".\n<\/p>\n
\n While Iran allows some non-Muslim religious minorities to practice their faith, including Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, believers in Bahai -- a monotheist religion founded in the early 19th century in Iran -- are not included.\n<\/p>\n
\n With their traditional base located in Israel's third-largest city, Haifa, Bahai are seen by Iranian authorities as both heretics and spies with connections to the state's sworn enemy.\n<\/p>\n
\n It is unknown how many Bahai live in Iran, but the figure could be as high as several hundreds of thousands.\n<\/p>\n
\n The minority is not represented in parliament.\n<\/p>\n
\n Poet Sabet \"has already been denied appropriate medical treatment several times during her imprisonment, despite serious and worsening health problems,\" the French Bahai organisation said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Mahvash Sabet, who has been arbitrarily sentenced and held, has no place in prison,\" said Chirinne Ardakani, a lawyer who represents the family and the foundation of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"By refusing appropriate and timely treatment to political prisoners like Mahvash Sabet, the Islamic Republic of Iran is not only violating their rights, but using a strategy of attrition and slow death in allowing their health to degrade,\" added Ardakani, quoted in the Bahai group statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN counts at least 70 Bahai being detained or serving prison sentences in Iran, with a further 1,200 facing prosecution or already sentenced.\n<\/p>\n
\n Campaign group Human Rights Watch said in April that persecution of Bahais since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution amounted to a \"crime against humanity\".<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Bahai poet and writer is set to be returned to prison in Iran after undergoing open-heart surgery, a France-based group representing Iran's largest religious minority said Thursday. Mahvash Sabet, 71, is serving a second 10-year jail sentence following her arrest in 2022 in a wave of detentions of Bahais. She had previously been released […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-139914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n