Mary Mohammadi
Age: 31
Activities/Rights: Religious rights, Christian
Status: Free
Judicial status: None
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention, lack of due process, unfair trial, religious discrimination, education ban
Mary Mohammadi is a civil activist and Christian convert. In 2019, she was sentenced to six months imprisonment by the Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, headed by Judge Ahmadzadeh, on charges of “acting against national security through propaganda against the system and membership in evangelical groups.” She served her sentence at the women’s ward of Evin Prison. She was beaten and detained by plainclothes forces near Azadi Square on 12 January 2020, during a protest rally against the downing of Flight PS752 by the IRGC. Security officials first transferred her to the Vozara Detention Centre and following 24 hours of interrogation, handed her over to the Evin Prosecutor’s Office. At her arraignment hearing at Branch Six of the Evin Interrogation Unit, she was informed that she was being charged with “disturbing public order and peace by participating in an illegal gathering”. Mary was transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin and released on 27 February 2020, on a bail of 30 million tomans. Her trial was held on 14 April 2020 at Branch 1167 of the Tehran Criminal Court, where she was sentenced to three months and one day in prison and 10 suspended lashes. Mary, who was studying English translation at the North Tehran branch of the Azad University, found out that she had been banned from the university on 21 December 2019. Without elaborating, officials told her that she was not allowed to continue her studies at the university.
On 20 January 2021, Mary shared a Twitter thread on the harassment she has faced since her arrest. Mary’s employer was forced to let her go for “the sake of her one-year-old daughter” and that she had been briefly arrested for not having the appropriate hijab on January 18. She continues to campaign for other imprisoned and persecuted religious minorities.