Khabat Fadaei

Khabat Fadaei, a Kurdish artist and political prisoner from Sarvabad, Kurdistan Province, was previously arrested by security forces on 24 September 2022 during the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising.

He was provisionally released from Evin Prison on bail on 14 November 2022.

Following his arrest, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Varamin, presided over by Judge Ashkan Ramesh, sentenced Fadaei to one year’s imprisonment on charges of “membership of groups and associations with the aim of disrupting national security” and to five years’ imprisonment for “propaganda against the state”.

Arrest

Ministry of Intelligence forces rearrested Fadaei with violence outside his family home in Marivan on 8 September 2026.

He was arrested without a warrant and has since been denied access to a lawyer and family visits.

Current Status

Fadaei is being held at the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Sanandaj.

Notes:

1. The “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” (“Women, Life, Freedom”) uprising began in September 2022 following the death in custody of Jina Amini, also known as Mahsa Amini. Amini, a Kurdish woman from Saqqez, was arrested by the morality police in Tehran on 13 September for allegedly failing to comply with compulsory hijab regulations. She fell into a coma after being taken to a detention facility and died at Kasra Hospital on 16 September. The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran concluded that her death was unlawful and resulted from physical violence in custody, holding the Iranian government responsible.

Her funeral at Aychi cemetery in Saqqez on 17 September became one of the first major centres of the protests, which spread across Iran under the central slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi”. The protests included demands against compulsory hijab, discrimination and the political structure of the Islamic Republic.

State forces suppressed the protests through the use of firearms, mass arrests and torture. In March 2024, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran cited a credible figure of 551 people killed, including 68 children. It found that some documented violations – including murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and gender-based persecution – amounted to crimes against humanity.