Rashid Mazaheri moved to solitary after protesting insult to Ferdowsi

Rashid Mazaheri, the former goalkeeper of Iran's national football team and of Esteghlal club, has been moved to solitary confinement in Urmia Central Prison after protesting an insult to Ferdowsi. His wife, Maryam Abdollahi, announced the transfer and new restrictions imposed on him on her Instagram page on Saturday, 24 October 2026.

According to Maryam Abdollahi, prison officials told Rashid Mazaheri in a meeting that Ferdowsi had not been an "ordinary person" and that Iran's heroes were products of the poet's imagination, remarks that also cast doubt on Babak Khorramdin and other historical figures of Iran. Rashid Mazaheri objected, saying he was proud of his roots and lineage and would not allow his identity to be questioned. His wife says that before this meeting he had been threatened and harassed, and had been promised that his situation would improve if he wrote a letter of repentance. She called on officials to answer for her husband's condition in Urmia prison and wrote: "Ferdowsi endured, Iran endured."

Rashid Mazaheri's arrest after a post against Ali Khamenei

In the early hours of 25 February 2026, in the months after the Dey uprising, Rashid Mazaheri called Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's leader, "Satan" in an Instagram post and was arrested some time later. His family had no news of his fate for a long time, until Maryam Abdollahi announced on 19 May 2026 that her husband was being held in solitary confinement in Urmia prison. The charges against him and any sentence issued have not been officially announced.

This is not the first time security bodies have targeted the goalkeeper. Rashid Mazaheri had previously been summoned and detained by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for supporting popular protests and criticising the execution of protesters from the November 2019 protests.

Ferdowsi and national identity in the Islamic Republic's prisons

The prison officials' treatment of Ferdowsi comes as the Islamic Republic has tried during the months of war to build support for itself with ancient names and national symbols, a shift DIAR previously examined in an analysis of Cyrus in the Islamic Republic's propaganda. Sending a political prisoner to solitary confinement for defending the Shahnameh shows that this shift is for show, and that the regime's view of Iranians' national identity remains what it always was.

The pressure on prisoners since the Dey uprising, from solitary confinement to promises of pardon in exchange for letters of repentance, is part of the wave of intimidation of detainees and their families that has intensified in recent months.

Rashid Mazaheri was sent to solitary confinement in Urmia prison for defending Ferdowsi and Iranian identity.