ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian authorities have arrested four Kurdish individuals in separate incidents across west Iran's Kurdish regions (Rojhelat) over the past two days, with some detentions carried out without legal warrants, a Paris-based Kurdish human rights monitor reported on Monday.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said the detainees include a Sunni cleric, a Kurdish language teacher, a civil rights activist and a woman accused of having ties to the opposition Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), which is banned by Tehran.
According to KHRN, Simko Yousefi, a Kurdish language teacher, was arrested during a raid on his home in Bukan, a district in West Azerbaijan province.
“During the raid, members of Yousefi’s family were subjected to insults, and several personal items, including mobile phones, were confiscated,” KHRN reported, adding that “no information is currently available on the whereabouts of the teacher or the charges he faces.”
Yousefi teaches at the Adab Institute in both Bukan and Miandoab districts in West Azerbaijan. Volunteer-run centers like these aim to preserve and promote the Kurdish language in daily life, but several teachers have been arrested over alleged links to opposition groups.
Despite Article 15 of Iran’s 1979 constitution allowing the use of regional languages in media and literature, Persian remains the country’s sole official language.
In a separate case on Monday, Barzan Maleki, a Sunni cleric and religious instructor from Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province, was detained a day after he had been questioned by intelligence officials in Sanandaj, and appeared before the Special Clerical Court in Hamadan in western Iran.
Maleki was transferred to a detention facility in Sanandaj, “with bail set at 10 billion rials (nearly $12,500),” according to KHRN.
The Paris-based civil rights monitor further noted that this marks Maleki’s second arrest this year. In January, he and several students were briefly held en route to a religious gathering in Zahedan.
A day prior, two other Kurdish individuals were arrested.
KHRN reported that Mahsa Zarei, a Kurdish civil rights activist, was arrested by security forces “without a warrant during a raid on her home in Kermanshah province,” in west Iran.
The human rights monitor added that “despite repeated efforts by her family to find out what has happened to her, security and judicial authorities have so far declined to provide any information about her condition or whereabouts.”
Meanwhile, Bafrin Maroufi, a Kurdish woman from Bukan district, was sent to Urmia’s central prison to begin serving a four-month sentence. She was convicted of “acting against national security” for alleged involvement with the KDPI.
Maroufi had initially been arrested in January and released on bail in February.
Iranian authorities have consistently targeted Kurdish individuals for arrest, particularly in the context of political activism, civil rights, and protests. Many of the arrests occur without due process and with detainees facing arbitrary detention and lack of legal representation.
Such actions notably intensified following the 2022 death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, ollowing the 2022 death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini—a Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in custody after being detained by the morality police for allegedly wearing a lax hijab. Amini’s death sparked the most intense nationwide protests Iran has seen in decades.
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