An Iranian gender nonconforming human rights defender Zahra Sedighi-Hamadani, known as Sareh, has been arbitrarily detained in Urumieh, West Azerbaijan province, since 27 October 2021 due to her real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity as well as her social media posts and statements in defence of LGBTI rights.
Authorities have ill-treated her and threatened to convict her of “spreading corruption on earth”, which carries the death penalty.
Following her arrest, she was forcibly disappeared for 53 days. It subsequently transpired that the Revolutionary Guards held her in solitary confinement in a detention centre in Urumieh. During this period, she says a Revolutionary Guard agent subjected her to intense interrogations accompanied by verbal abuse and insults directed at her identity and appearance and threatened to execute or otherwise harm her and take away the custody of her two young children.
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