Maryam Akbari-Monfared

Age: 48

Activism/rights: Sister seeking justice for her 4 siblings

Status: Semnan Prison

Judicial status: 15 years imprisonment/ 2 new cases pending

Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention, lack of due process, unfair trial, familial punishment, coercive pressure, prolonged solitary confinement, access to lawyer, denial of medical care, reprisal for seeking justice

Maryam Akbari Monfared has been demanding justice for her siblings, 25-year-old Abdolreza who was arrested at 17 and executed in the 1988 massacre, 20-year-old Alireza who was executed by firing squad at 20, her sister 30-year-old Roghieh who had a 3 year old daughter at the time of her arrest and also executed in the 1988 massacre, and her 29-year-old brother Gholamreza who was killed under torture in 1985. Following the execution of her children in the 1988 massacre, Maryam’s mother, Gorji Bashiripour suffered a stroke and passed away without knowing where her children were buried. Maryam was arrested on 31 December 2009 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment on the charge of moharebeh (enmity against god) for a phone call from her dissident sibling in May 2010. On 15 October 2016, she filed an official complaint from behind bars for an investigation into the execution of her siblings in the summer of 1988. In an open letter, she discussed the killings of her four siblings and the pressure her family had endured in the subsequent years. Her complaint was rejected by the judiciary and she was warned that such petitions would exacerbate her situation and prevent her release. At trial, she was told by the judge that "she was paying for the activities of her brother and sister." Undeterred, she sent another complaint two weeks later. She wrote: “I, Maryam Akbari-Monfared, demand investigations into the unlawful execution of my sister and brother and disclosure of the details including the identities of those responsible for their deaths, acquisition of their charges and other documents in their files and inquiry into applicable relevant laws, in particular Article 34 of the constitution that recognises seeking justice as the inalienable right of every individual.”[1] She was prison-exiled to Semnan Prison on 9 March 2021.

She is denied medical treatment and in an effort to isolate and pressure her, other prisoners are banned from speaking to her. On 24 August, Maryam was physically beaten and strangled by prison officials in Semnan Prison for protesting the cancellation of her family visit because her daughters would not wear prison chadors. She was also threatened with police charges. Following the incident, Maryam was banned from visitation rights for three months, while already deprived of phone calls. 

On 3 July 2023, it was reported that Maryam was facing six new charges in two cases brought against her. In the first case for which she was transferred to Evin Court, she is facing charges of "propaganda against the system, assembly and collusion against national security, publishing lies, insulting the leader and encouraging people to disturb public order." She is also facing "propaganda against the system" charges in the second case. Her letters from prison have been cited as the criminal acts leading to the charges. Maryam is currently held in Semnan Prison. She has served 13 and a half years behind bars without a day of furlough.

[1] Inquiry into the 1988 mass executions in Iran, Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran, 2017, page 241