Christian convert Nayereh Arjaneh was arrested at her home in Garmsar in northern Iran in July 2025 after attending a Christian seminar in Turkey earlier in the year. She was sentenced to a combined ten years in prison (two five-year terms, to be served concurrently) and began serving her sentence in Semnan Prison in December 2025.
Christian convert Nayereh Arjaneh from Garmsar in northern Iran and her husband Qasem Esmaili were arrested at their home on 7 July 2025 after they had attended a Christian seminar in Turkey with a group of converts earlier in the year. Christian converts are not permitted to meet for worship in Iran and some travel to neighbouring countries to attend church services and receive teaching.
After nearly forty days in detention, Nayereh was released on bail equivalent to around €3400. On 7 October 2025, however, she was summoned for interrogation again and was detained for three more days until her bail – which the prosecutor had raised to around €13,000 – was secured. She was then temporarily released on bail for a second time. During her detention she was subjected to psychological torture, including threats of execution.
Nayereh was sentenced to a total of ten years in prison, but under Iranian law only the most severe sentence (five years’ imprisonment in her case) is enforceable.
Judge Farshid Safdari of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Garmsar sentenced her to five years in prison plus a fine equivalent to approximately €1280, two years’ post-release internal exile in Kouhbanan in Kerman province (ten hours’ drive from home) and a two-year travel ban on a charge of “promoting deviant propaganda and teachings contrary to Islamic law”.
The judge also sentenced her to five years in prison and a fine of around €430 for “providing financial and material support to groups affiliated with Zionist Christianity”, but she was acquitted of a separate charge of “insulting religious sanctities”.
Qasem was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, but his sentence has not yet been enforced due to a diagnosis of cancer and ongoing chemotherapy treatment.
On 23 December 2025 Nayereh was taken into custody to begin serving her sentence and was brought to Semnan Prison, one and a half hour’s drive east of her home.
Nayereh previously received a six-month suspended prison sentence in 2022 for her Christian activities.
Family
Nayereh’s husband Qasem Esmaili was arrested with her and was later sentenced to three years and six months in prison, but his sentence has not yet been enforced due to a diagnosis of cancer and ongoing chemotherapy treatment.
TIMELINE
2022 Nayereh received a six-month suspended prison sentence for her Christian activities.
7 July 2025 Nayereh and her husband Qasem Esmaili were arrested at their home. They had attended a Christian seminar in Turkey with a group of converts earlier in the year.
August 2025 Nayereh was released on bail after nearly forty days in detention.
7 October 2025 Nayereh was summoned for interrogation again and was detained for three days until her bail – which had been increased – was secured. She was later sentenced to two five-year prison terms, to be served concurrently, plus two fines, two years’ post-release internal exile and a two-year travel ban.
23 December 2025 Nayereh was taken into custody to begin serving her sentence in Semnan Prison.
Read more about the persecution of Christians in Iran.
(Article 18, USCIRF, Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights)
Photo: Article 18