Soori Babaei Chegini: Mother of Three Held After Filming Security Forces

Soori Babaei Chegini was arrested on January 6 for filming security forces as they beat and detained protesters.

She was only able to contact her family last week, after spending nearly 90 days in isolation. The timing of her calls is controlled by prison officials, who decide which female inmates are allowed to communicate with the outside world.

This political prisoner has repeatedly been denied visitation and contact during previous detentions and has even been refused access to her lawyer. There are also reports that, on the prison director’s orders, she was physically assaulted by an inmate named "Momeni" and her associates under various pretexts.

Soori Babaei Chegini has been arrested several times in recent years. She is a mother of three. At different times, her husband, Reza Morad Behrouzi, has also been imprisoned, leaving their children without either parent.

A civil activist who has protested mandatory hijab, she was first arrested on the evening of Wednesday, July 13, 2022, in Qazvin. Before that, she had already been summoned to the prosecutor’s office because of her civil activism, particularly over the mandatory hijab.

Deprivation of Visitation Rights Due to "Hijab"

According to information received by IranWire, Soori Babaei Chegini has been denied basic prisoner rights because she refused to comply with mandatory hijab rules in prison. Authorities told her that family visits would only be allowed if she observed the hijab - a condition she refused to accept.

Two separate court sessions were also held for her on April 6 and 7, 2026: first at Branch 105 of the Qazvin Criminal Court, and then at Branch 2 of the Qazvin Revolutionary and Public Court, presided over by Judge Tashakkori. During the Branch 105 hearing, she was charged with "disturbing public order," though no verdict had been served at the time of this report.

On April 7, proceedings were stopped because she refused to appear wearing a mandatory hijab. The session was held via video conference from a room inside Qazvin’s Chubindar Prison. Informed sources said that once Judge Tashakkori learned she was not wearing a hijab, he refused to hear her defense and halted the session. Babaei Chegini, however, did not leave the room and remained there until the session’s scheduled end.

Later, on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, a notice was presented to her. According to her, officers simply asked her to sign the document.

Based on available information, Reza Bagheri and Judge Tashakkori have been named as the supervisory judges in her case. An individual named Fathi has also been identified as the interrogator in Branch 11.

According to informed sources, Judge Fathi has placed significant pressure on the prisoner’s family during the proceedings. For more than two months, family members have reportedly gone to court every week to post bail, only to have their efforts rejected each time for different reasons. In the end, the family was told that because of the prisoner’s record, bail could not be accepted for her.

Security Prisoners Like Soori Denied Wartime Freedom

According to informed sources, while several prisoners in Qazvin’s Chubindar Prison have been released on bail during wartime conditions, Soori Babaei Chegini has been excluded from that process. Her family has repeatedly gone to the prison and provincial judicial authorities to request that bail be issued and accepted. Although bail was eventually set, sources say officials have refused to process it.

According to IranWire, on the day of her arrest, bail was set at 100 million tomans for the charge of "disturbing public order" and another 500 million tomans for the charges of "propaganda against the regime" and "insulting the leadership." Her family, however, said that despite trying every week to post bail, they were turned away each time without any result.

These sources say that when the family followed up, they were given different excuses, including being referred to the prosecutor’s orders or to the Branch 11 investigative office. It was also claimed that the investigator, Fathi, refused to accept bail, citing reasons such as "causing disorder in the prison."

In previous cases as well, this political prisoner had been kept in detention under similar pretexts, with her file stating that she lacked the financial means to provide bail.

One informed source said: "The pressure is not just on the prisoners; their families are also facing significant harassment. Soori Babaei’s father, an elderly man, has gone to judicial authorities every week for the past two months, hoping to secure his daughter’s release on bail, but has been turned away each time. According to this source, authorities never explicitly stated that bail would not be accepted; instead, they kept referring him to future visits."

The same source said this pattern may be intended to intensify pressure on families and detainees, discouraging them from resuming civil or political activities after release.

Describing how requests are handled, the source said: "For every request, the prison supervisory judge declares that it must first be raised and decided upon by the Prison Council and then referred to the supervisory judge. However, the judge usually does not provide a direct answer to the prisoner and says the result will be conveyed through the family."

According to the source, family members - sometimes elderly people - must reach judicial offices in the very early hours of the morning, sometimes as early as 4 or 5 AM, just to secure a turn. They then wait a long time to see the judge, and in many cases, their requests are still rejected.

In some instances, approval depends on factors outside the formal legal process, such as whether the prisoner asks for "forgiveness" or whether families keep returning in person to follow up. Otherwise, the source said, even lawful requests are denied: "If families don't cry and beg in front of the judge, they reject the prisoner's request."

Concerning Conditions in Chubindar Prison

According to information received by IranWire, food in Qazvin’s Chubindar Prison has been described as "inadequate, unhygienic, and of poor quality," raising concern. Informed sources say the prison is cold and that no facilities are provided to prisoners. Inmates are kept in complete isolation from the outside world. Televisions inside the wards have also been disconnected.

Several new inmates transferred to Chubindar during the war on security-related charges have reportedly been denied access to phone cards. As a result, some prisoners try to relay these individuals’ voices to their families through conference calls so they can know about their condition. These calls are made under the supervision of prison officials, at times decided by a monitor, and are said to last only a very short time.