Mahvash Sabet (born February 4, 1953)[1] is an Iranian poet and former educator. She was one of the Baháʼí 7.
Mahvash Shahriyari was born in Ardestan, Iran.[1][2] When she was in the fifth grade, her family moved to Tehran.[1] Shahriyari graduated college with a bachelor's degree in psychology.[1]
Shahriyari married her husband, Siyvash Sabet, on May 21, 1973.[1] The couple has a son and a daughter.[1]
Sabet first worked as a teacher, before later working as a principal at several schools[1][2] and collaborating with the National Literacy Committee of Iran.[3] After the Iranian Revolution, she was barred from working in public education due to her faith.[1][2]
Sabet became the director of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education,[1][2] where she worked for 15 years.[4]
In 2006, Sabet was asked to become a leader of Iran's Baháʼí community.[5] She and six other leaders "tended to the spiritual and social needs of the Iranian Baha’i community given the absence of formally elected Baha’i leadership".[1]
While in prison, Sabet wrote poems about her experiences on scraps of paper, napkins, and paper towels, which were then given to family members during visits.[1][2] Initially, she wrote poetry for her family, but with time Sabet began using poetry as a way to express and process her emotions, with it becoming a "means of survival".[2]
In 2011, some of her poems were shared with Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, a relative living in the United Kingdom, who translated some of the poems into English.[2] In 2013, 70 of Sabet's poems were compiled and released as a book, titled Prison Poems.[1][2]
PEN International recognized Sabet as an "International Writer of Courage" in 2017,[2] and she received honorary membership in the PEN organizations of Austria and Denmark.[6]
Sabet was first released in 2005 on the day of her daughter's wedding, but was released after questioning.[4]
On March 5, 2008, Sabet was detained while visiting Mashhad, becoming the first of the Baháʼí 7 to be arrested.[1] She was kept in Raja’i Shahr Prison, and later in Qarchak Prison in Varamin.[7] In February 2009, she was charged with spying for Israel, propaganda against the Islamic Republic, insulting sacred sites, and establishment of an illegal administration.[1][8] In June 2010, she and the rest of the Baháʼí 7 were tried, convicted, and given sentences of 20 years in prison.[1][8] The group was represented by Shirin Ebadi during her trial,[4] who said that there was "not a shred of evidence" for the crimes which they were charged with.[3]
Sabet was held in Tehran's Evin Prison for the duration of her sentence.[1] While in Evin, she developed tuberculosis[4] and osteoporosis, for which she was allowed a five-day furlough in October 2016 to pursue treatment.[7] In 2011, Sabat was included in a series of Dutch postage stamps recognizing victims of human rights abuses in Iran.[9]
In 2016, the Baháʼí 7 were informed that their sentences had been reduced to ten years, in light of a 2013 penal code reform.[1]
She was released on September 18, 2017,[1] a day earlier than scheduled.[2] Sabet had to borrow a stranger's phone to call her family and let them know she had been released.[2]
Sabet was arrested again on July 31, 2022.[6] At the time, she was at a friend's house in northern Iran while recovering from COVID-19.[6] A statement released after her arrest accused her and other detainees of "participating in groups to act against national security through teaching and preaching the Baha’i faith to children in kindergartens, [and] agitating against Islamic Sharia through holding coaching courses".[5] She was beaten during interrogations, according to her daughter, and kept in solitary confinement for 42 days.[6] She was then transferred to Evin's Ward 209, and, five months later, to the women's political-ideological ward of Evin Prison.[6] On November 21, 2023 she was sentenced to another ten year prison sentence in Evin Prison after an hour-long trial shared with Fariba Kamalabadi, another member of the Baháʼí 7.[6][10]
Sabet's daughter moved to Australia in 2017, and as of 2022 she lives in Sydney with her daughter.[4]