Pouran Nazemi

Age: 55
Activism/rights: Human rights activist
Status: Released on bail
Judicial status: Subject to an open case
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention; prolonged solitary confinement; denial of access to a lawyer; lack of a fair trial and due process; physical and sexual abuse during detention; harassment of family members

Pouran Nazemi, a civil activist, poet, and writer, has for many years supported political prisoners and civil activists and has worked in southeastern Iran to empower women and support children. She has participated in anti-death penalty campaigns and is one of the signatories of a statement by 14 political activists calling for the resignation of Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Republic. Due to her civil activities, Pouran has been repeatedly summoned and arrested since 1986, when she was a 15-year-old teenager. On 27 May 2021, together with a group of former prisoners, she filed a complaint at judicial offices in Tehran against those responsible for abuses in solitary confinement cells. A few days later, she participated in a protest gathering in front of Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison in support of the Afkari brothers, where she was again arrested and released after several hours. One month later, Pouran was arrested during two protest gatherings—one in support of protesters in Khuzestan and another against the Taliban—and was released on the same day on both occasions. During an attack by security and plainclothes agents on the second gathering, her nose and ribs were fractured.On 19 October 2022, she was arrested at her home and transferred her to Ward 209 of Evin Prison. On 1 February 2023, she was rearrested, along with her sister, while they were visiting their ill father at Mehrgan Hospital in Kerman. She was subjected to violence and sexual assault during the arrest. She was initially taken to Police Station 21 in Kerman (a narcotics detention facility) and subsequently transferred to Kerman Central Prison, and was released on bail after several days. On 2 September 2023, Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Jiroft charged her with “enmity against God (moharebeh)” and “corruption on earth (efsad-fil-arz)”. Among the charges against her were “insulting Islamic sanctities, disrupting national security, inciting people to commit crimes, insulting officials, armed action against the Islamic Republic and propaganda against the system”. Pouranstated that she would not participate in the courts of the Islamic Republic and lived in hiding for approximately two years, while continuing her civil activism. The documentary film "Panahgah 25" was made based on her life in hiding.

On 6 February 2025, Pouran stated in a video message that, due to her disclosures regarding systemic corruption among officials in southern Kerman, judicial authorities and the IRGC Intelligence Organisation had declared her mahdur al-dam (a person whose killing is legal) and had called on the public to kill her. After months of uncertainty, and at a time when it appeared that her case had been closed, Branch 1 of the Jiroft Prosecutor’s Office issued another indictment against her in September 2025 and informed her that her previous case, involving the charges of “corruption on earth” and “enmity against God”, had been reopened for reconsideration. On 12 December 2025, Pouran was violently arrested with several other civil activists, during the seventh-day memorial ceremony for Khosrow Alikordi (see page 12). Following her transfer to prison, Pouran's physical condition severely deteriorated as a result of interrogation pressure, to the extent that her sister announced that she had been transferred to hospital in a coma in early February 2026. Ultimately, on 4 February 2026, after the end of interrogations and due to the deterioration of her physical condition, she was temporarily released on bail.