Iman Rahmatpanah, a Baha'i citizen of Shiraz: five-year prison sentence enforced with an electronic ankle monitor

The five-year prison sentence of Iman Rahmatpanah, a Baha'i citizen living in Shiraz, has been enforced through the fitting of an electronic ankle monitor. Under the sentence, his movement is restricted to a 1,000-metre zone around his residence, and he cannot leave this radius until the end of his sentence.

The Islamic Republic's security bodies arrested Iman Rahmatpanah in Shiraz on 22 June 2025 and took him to the security committee detention centre known as "Plaque 100". The human rights organisation Hengaw reported at the time that he and Arman Nikaein, another Baha'i citizen of Shiraz, had been arrested at the same time. Rahmatpanah was released on bail from Adelabad prison in Shiraz on 26 August 2025, and now, after more than a year, his sentence is being enforced in this way.

The repression of Baha'is in Shiraz

In recent years Shiraz has been one of the main centres of arrests, summonses and sentences against Baha'i citizens. The Islamic Republic has denied followers of the Baha'i faith the right to attend university, to work in the public sector and to hold religious ceremonies freely, and has repeatedly confiscated their property. The electronic ankle monitor, which the authorities present as a "leniency" in enforcing a sentence, in practice imprisons the convict in his own home and neighbourhood and keeps his working and family life under constant surveillance.

The enforcement of this sentence comes as the repression of citizens and civil activists has intensified in recent months, and the UN Secretary-General has also spoken of an unprecedented crackdown in Iran.

The Islamic Republic jailed Iman Rahmatpanah within a 1,000-metre radius of his home for five years solely because of his religious belief.