"You Are Impure”: Jailed Iranian Student Activist Abdipour Subjected To Violence, Denied Bail

Faizeh Abdipour, an Iranian university student and human rights activist who was detained last week for her involvement in the ongoing protest movement, has been transferred to the central prison in the northern city of Gorgan, IranWire reports.

Abdipour, who is also a member of the Gonabadi Dervish religious community, is facing charges of "spreading propaganda" against the regime and "encouraging" protesters" to commit acts of “violence".

She has been subjected to both verbal and physical violence during her interrogation.

In a short call with her family four days after her arrest, Faizeh was only able to say that she was in custody at an unknown location

Abdipour’s detention and prosecution came amid an increasingly brutal crackdown by Iranian authorities on nationwide protests that have rocked the country for 2 ½ months. Security forces have killed more than 440 people, including dozens of children, and detained at least 18,000 others, according to human rights groups.

The wave of demonstrations demanding more freedoms and women's rights marks one of the biggest challenges to the ruling clerics since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought them to power.

Abdipour, a student in international relations at Mazandaran University, was detained on November 22 when plainclothes officers stormed her apartment in Gorgan, the capital of Golestan province.

The student was beaten by the security forces, who searched her home, broke items in the apartment and confiscated some of her personal belongings.

Sources told IranWire on December 1 that the student has been moved to Gorgan Central Prison after the authorities refused to grant her bail.

"You are impure and should not sit on this chair," one interrogator was quoted as telling Abdipour before covering the chair with a piece of plastic.

She has been subjected to sexual and gender insults and humiliations while in custody, but her interrogators have softened their behavior in recent days due to her resilience, according to the sources.

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Abdipour has conducted civil rights activities on various social and political issues. She has also worked for a website affiliated with the Gonabadi Dervish minority.

Dervishes are Sufi Muslims. Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam, is not illegal in Iran but the government has harassed and discriminated against its followers.

Abdipour is married to Mohammad Sharifi Moghadam, a student rights activist who has been imprisoned since 2017.