The Islamic Republic's judiciary has sentenced two civil activists living in Sanandaj to suspended prison terms and fines. According to Kolbar News, a branch of Sanandaj's Revolutionary Court on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, sentenced Marzieh Moradveisi, a teacher dismissed by the Education Ministry and a former political prisoner, to two years' suspended imprisonment and a fine of four million tomans. The HRANA news agency also reported the verdicts on Sunday, 4 October.
According to the same report, Sohrab Bahrami, a civil activist from Sanandaj, has been sentenced to five years' suspended imprisonment and a fine. The date of his verdict and the amount of the fine have not yet been announced. Mr Bahrami was arrested by security forces in January–February 2026 and, after about three months of interrogation and detention, had been temporarily released on bail pending the conclusion of his case. The charges brought against the two have not been published in the reports.
Ms Moradveisi had previously been arrested and tried for her civil and justice-seeking activities, both in the 1980s and in recent years.
Bayan Salehian transferred to Urmia prison
Meanwhile, HRANA has reported that Bayan Salehian, an internal medicine specialist and Kurdish women's rights activist, has been transferred to Urmia Central Prison after her arrest. According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, security forces raided her family home in Urmia in recent days and violently arrested her without presenting a judicial warrant. The human rights group says Ms Salehian's mobile phone and personal computer were also confiscated and that since her arrest she has been denied access to a lawyer and family visits. IranWire had also reported that she was beaten during her arrest.
Ms Salehian has been summoned and arrested by security bodies many times in past years. She was arrested in Saqqez during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement and was subsequently sentenced several times to prison and fines on the charge of “propaganda against the system” over her writings on social media.
Pressure on civil activists in Kurdistan
These sentences and arrests come as the Islamic Republic, after the December–January uprising and amid the war with the United States, has stepped up pressure on civil activists, teachers and women's rights activists, especially in Kurdish-populated provinces. Human rights organisations say suspended prison sentences are a tool to deter activists from continuing their work, since any new activity can lead to the sentence being enforced.
Two Sanandaj civil activists have been given suspended prison sentences, and a doctor and women's rights activist in Urmia has been transferred to prison after a violent arrest.
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