“My child deserves early release, but no one is listening to us.”

• Christian convert Maryam Zargaran is serving a four-year prison sentence on charges of jeopardizing national security.
• Authorities accuse Zargaran of persuading others to convert. 
• She has been on hunger strike for 22 days, despite her failing health, and has written an open letter to protest her innocence.
• Intelligence Ministry interference makes an early release for Zargaran unlikely.
• Judge Moghiseh, known for violating the human rights of defendants, has ruled in Zargaran’s case.

“Believe me, I expect bad news every moment,” says Zahra Pour-Nouhi Langroudi, her voice trembling. Her daughter, imprisoned Christian convert Maryam (Nasim) Naghash Zargaran, has been on a hunger strike for 22 days. Her family is extremely worried about her. 

“Yesterday my daughter went to Evin to inquire about the health of her sister,” Langroudi says. “They told her that Nasim had been taken to the clinic. Her blood pressure had dropped sharply. My daughter suffers from severe depression. At any moment she might do something that she ought not to do.”

Like her co-defendant Saeed Abedini, Zargaran was charged with threatening national security. Abedini, an Iranian-American Christian pastor, was released in January as part of a prisoner exchange between Iran and the United States following the nuclear agreement. But Zargaran remains at Evin, still serving her sentence, after having been arrested on November 5, 2012. “They kept her at Vozara Detention Center until November 10 and then transferred her to Evin,” says Zahra Langroudi. “In December she was released on bail. The court sentenced her to four years in prison, and the appeals court upheld the verdict. She has been serving her sentence at Evin since July 15, 2013.”

Zargaran was charged with activities against national security and conspiracy. She was accused of setting up “house” churches, private homes where Iranian Christians gather to worship.  She has said that she has never been officially informed of the charges against her. 

"She is more feeble by the day"

Maryam Naghash Zargaran, born in 1978, is currently struggling with a variety of ailments. She suffers from Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) and needs special medical care. She has also had to undergo heart surgery. “She suffers from herniated discs in her neck and her lower back, has hearing problems and her legs are so numb that she drags them when she is trying to walk,” her mother tells IranWire. “Believe me, my child deserves early release. But our efforts have gotten us nowhere. It is as though nobody is hearing us.”

On July 27, the same day we talked, Langroudi had called the prosecutor’s office, but was informed that the prosecutor was on vacation and there was no news about whether her daughter would be released early. The family can only visit her on Sundays. “She is more infirm and feeble each time,” says her mother. “We constantly encourage her to break her hunger strike to prevent damage to herself, but she refuses. She says she does not deserve to be in prison, and that she did not deserve the three years she has served already. With my daughter’s condition such as it is, I don’t know what news we will receive before next Sunday.”

This is Maryam’s second hunger strike in the last year. After an 11-day hunger strike, authorities gave her a temporary leave of absence to get treatment outside the prison on June 6. But she was prevented from completing her treatment because her application to extend her leave of absence was not renewed. She was returned to prison on June 27. In July, she resumed her hunger strike.

Intelligence Ministry Interference

On July 27, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported that the Iranian Intelligence Ministry had directly interfered in Zargaran’s case — and in the decision about whether her request for an early release would be granted.

On the sixth day of her hunger strike, Zargaran wrote an open letter entitled, “It is time for me to break my three-year silence.” The letter was published (in Persian) by the Human Rights Activists News Agency on July 10.

In the letter, Zargaran outlines the events that led to her imprisonment. “It has been five years since the day I went to the Passports Bureau to renew my passport,” she wrote. “After 50 days of not receiving my passport, I went back, but they sent me to the Security Police with a sealed letter. For a year after that day they would summon me a few times a week for interrogations...eventually they gave me my passport and I travelled to Turkey. But when I returned, the moment my passport was stamped, two men who introduced themselves as agents of the Intelligence Ministry took it from me.

“They took me by elevator to the airport’s parking lot.” She said agents took her to a location where she had previously been interrogated before. “I was detained there for 12 days without a bathroom, a place to sleep or even clean clothes. They did not even talk to me or interrogate me.” She was not informed of why she was being kept there.

“A policewoman would come to bring me food. She would sometimes open the door so I could use the restroom.

“After 12 days, the interrogator came and laughingly told me ‘Why, Ms. Zargaran! You still here? I had completely forgotten about you. The problem is solved and you can go.’”

But the problem was not solved. They continued to interrogate her a few times a week and eventually arrested and imprisoned her.

“Maryam was sentenced to four years in prison on two charges, but they had no evidence to support either one,” said Langroudi. “They accused her of preaching Christianity in Babolsar [145 miles north of Tehran] with 20 other women.” But she said none of the other women had appeared in court to testify against her, and nor did any of the people she had apparently helped to convert. 

“During the trial Judge Moghiseh joked with his staff,” her mother told  the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.“He said: ‘What should I do, Haji? How many years do you think I should give her? Is five years good?’ And then his colleague said: ‘No! She’s too young— poor thing.’ Judge Moghiseh then said he would sentence her to four years. Can a judge really joke like this about sentencing someone? Shouldn’t he stick to the law and base his decision on evidence?”

Langroudi told IranWire that both the Intelligence Ministry and the medical examiner had to approve the request for her daughter’s early release. “The medical examiner has approved it, but the Intelligence Ministry refuses to answer and doesn’t agree to my daughter’s early release. Ten days ago the ministry told us that they would let us know by this Wednesday. But there has still been no news.”

Langroudi has become even more worried since Tuesday, July 26, when Maryam’s sister reported that she had been transferred to the prison’s clinic. “Her blood pressure was very low,” says Langroudi. “If she goes into a coma...” She breaks off before she can finish her sentence, clearly very emotional at the prospect of what might happen to her daughter, and what the future holds for her family.