Arrest of Mozhdeh Fallahi, a Christian citizen, by the Shiraz Ministry of Intelligence

was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence in Shiraz.According to reports received by the "Article 18" organization, this Christian citizen was transferred to the detention center number one hundred (100) after his arrest. This detention center operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Intelligence and is located near Adelabad Prison.According to a source close to Ms. Fallahi's family, this Christian citizen went to the prosecutor's office on Monday at the request of one of her Christian friends who had been arrested the previous day to provide the documents needed for her release, and she was immediately arrested.According to the same report, the charges against this Christian citizen were "Christianity" and "illegal Christian activity." This is despite the fact that Ms. Fallahi, although she has been a Christian for many years, "has not been very active in relation to Christianity" and has been working as a hairdresser.Iranian government officials have repeatedly stated that no one is imprisoned for their beliefs. However, Christians, and especially Christian converts, are arrested and imprisoned simply for their Christian beliefs and peaceful religious activities, which include praying, reading the Bible, and performing religious ceremonies.Ms. Fallahi's family has repeatedly appealed to the prosecutor's office but has been unable to meet with the Christian citizen, who is denied access to a lawyer.Maryam and Marjan Fallahi, sisters of Mozhdeh Fallahi, were among eight Christian converts who were arrested with their husbands in Bushehr in July 2019.A year later, Maryam and Marjan Fallahi were fined a total of 14 million tomans. Meanwhile, Maryam Fallahi, who was a nurse at the time, was banned for life from working in any government institution, including the hospital where she had worked for 20 years.In a separate court case later that year, a judge ruled that Maryam and her husband, Sam Khosravi, could no longer retain custody of their adopted daughter Lydia because they were Christians and the judge considered Lydia to be Muslim. More than 120 lawyers, civil rights activists and children's rights activists wrote an open letter to Ebrahim Raisi, the then head of the judiciary, calling for the annulment of the Bushehr court's decision to deny adoption rights to a Christian couple who converted to Christianity. "Mozhdeh's mother, now in her 60s, suffered greatly after her two daughters were arrested five years ago for their Christian beliefs, and she is deeply traumatized by this," said Mansour Borji, director of the Article 18 organization. "She has never fully recovered from the trauma and grief of their arrest, and now, after the arrest of her third daughter, she is forced to relive that nightmare. By arbitrarily arresting Christian citizens, the Islamic Republic is also inflicting irreparable harm on their families and loved ones."