Mahvash Sabet

Mahvash Sabet
Born	February 4, 1953 Ardistán, Iran
Occupation	Educator

Mahvash Sabet (b. February 4, 1953) is a Persian Bahá’í who served as a member of the group known as the Yárán (Friends in Iran), an ad hoc group meant to provide for the needs of the persecuted Bahá’í community of Iran. Sabet was arrested on March 5, 2008 in Mashhad, after the authorities ruled that the group was illegal. She remained in prison until the completion of her 10-year sentence and was released on September 18, 2017. In 2022, Sabet was once again arrested and sentenced to another 10 years of imprisonment, despite deteriorating health.

Sabet is an educator by profession and worked to promote literacy in Iran. After the Iranian Revolution, she was fired from her job and barred from working in public education. Following this, she worked as the director of the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE). Sabet wrote a number of poems while in prison, which have been collected and published. She has been recognized for her work by PEN International and was named the co-winner of the annual Pinter Prize.

Biography

Mahvash Sabet is a teacher and school principal who was dismissed from public education for being a Bahá’í. For the last 15 years, she has been director of the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), which provides alternative higher education for Bahá’í youth. She also served as secretary to the Friends.

Born Mahvash Shahriyari on 4 February 1953 in Ardestan, Mrs. Sabet moved to Tehran when she was in the fifth grade. In university, she studied psychology, obtaining a bachelor’s degree.

She began her professional career as a teacher and also worked as a principal at several schools. In her professional role, she also collaborated with the National Literacy Committee of Iran. After the Islamic revolution, however, like thousands of other Iranian Bahá’í educators, she was fired from her job and blocked from working in public education.

It was after this that she became director of the BIHE, where she also has taught psychology and management.

She married Siyvash Sabet on 21 May 1973. They have a son, Foroud Sabet, 33, and a daughter, Negar Sabet, 24, both born in Hamadan.

Sabet in 2008, shortly before her arrest.

While all of the other Friends were arrested at their homes in Tehran on 14 May 2008, Mrs. Sabet was arrested in Mashhad on 5 March 2008. Although she resides in Tehran, she had been summoned to Mashhad by the Ministry of Intelligence, ostensibly on the grounds that she was required to answer questions related to the burial of an individual in the Bahá’í cemetery in that city.

Following the arrests, she and the other Friends were taken to Evin Prison, where they were held in Section 209, run by the government's Ministry of Intelligence. On August 11, 2010, it became known that the court sentence was 20 years imprisonment for each of the seven prisoners, later reduced to ten years. They were transferred to Gohardasht Prison in 2011. While the rest of the members remained imprisoned there, Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi were transferred to Qarchak prison and then finally returned to Evin.

According to journalist Roxana Saberi, Sabet and Kamalabadi were confined in a small cell about four meters by five meters while held in Evin, with two small metal-covered windows. They had no bed. "They must sleep on blankets [...] They have no pillows, either. They roll up a blanket to use as a pillow. They use their chadors [cloaks] as a bed sheet."

Sabet was released from Evin on 18 September 2017. In 2022 she and Kamalabadi were arrested again and sentenced to another ten years in prison, in a trial which lasted only one hour with the Judge rebuking them for "not having learned their lesson" from their previous sentence. Sabet was once again imprisoned in Evin. Reports have since emerged that Sabet endured torture and that knees were broken during an interrogation, despite chronic illness and deteriorating health.

Writing

While in prison, Sabet wrote a number of poems. These were eventually adapted by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani from translations into English from the original Persian completed by Violette and Ali Nakhjavani. These English adaptations were published by George Ronald in 2013.

On 10 October 2017, Mahvash Sabet was named 2017 International Writer of Courage by PEN International and co-winner of the annual Pinter Prize.

Publications

• 2013 - Prison Poems
• 2024 - A Tale of Love: More Prison Poems

References

Reddit has related posts about Mahvash Sabet:

• Mahvash Sabet Concludes 10-Year Prison Sentence
• Mahvash Sabet, one of the Baha'i 7, is now free after ten years. Six other Baha'i leaders remain in prison.

• "Lives of service: Profiles of seven imprisoned Baha'is". Bahá’í World News Service. 12 February 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
• Moni Basu (27 November 2017). "Writing to survive: Baha'i woman's poetry was her best friend in Iranian jail". CNN. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
• Mahvash Sabet (2013). "Prison Poems". George Ronald. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
• "Bahá'í poet Mahvash Sabet shares 2017 PEN Pinter Prize with Michael Longley". English PEN. 10 October2017. Retrieved 17 May 2018. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)