Source: www.jubileecampaign.org
Date: February 20, 2020
Human Rights Activists News Agency has recently received confirmation of the Iranian authorities' arrest, detainment, and torture of 21-year-old Christian convert, Mary (Fatemeh) Mohammadi. Mary was arrested on January 12, 2020, for her attendance at a series of protests of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran's aggression and shooting down of an ordinary Ukrainian passenger plane, which led to the death of nearly 200 civilians. Immediately following her arrest, she was transferred to Vozara Detention Center, there, police guards beat her, conducted non-consensual body examinations, denied her food, subjected her to lengthy interrogations, and exposed her to extreme temperatures.
During her brief transfer to the notorious Evin Prison, she was handed down the sentence of "disturbing public order through attending an unlawful presence." According to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), "despite authorizing Mary's release on bail equivalent to more than US $2,000, the prosecutor refused to allow her conditional release." It has now been confirmed that she currently is serving her sentence at Qarchak's Women's Prison in the remote desert town of Varamin, Iran.
In 2019, Mary began a campaign calling for all Iranian Christians – whether from Christian families or converts – to be permitted to go to church. Read more about Mary.
This is not the first time Mary has been detained for her involvement in human rights and for her faith. In late 2017, at the young age of 19, Iranian authorities arrested Mary while she was worshipping at a house church and detained her at Evin Prison for "membership in evangelical groups, "Christian activity" and "acting against national security through propagating against the regime," according to HRANA. She was later released in 2018 after completing her sentence. Less than a year later, in 2019, Mary was arrested after attempting to file a police report on the physical assault she faced on a bus earlier that day. Despite there being a trustworthy witness, who corroborated Mary's story that she had been physically attacked by a woman, Mousavi, who beat Mary for not wearing her headscarf according to dress code, Mary's police report was swiftly ignored, and Mary herself was arrested rather than her abuser. Mary was released the next day on bail.