Civil rights activist and former political prisoner Parvin Adwai remains detained in the women’s ward of the Juvenile Detention Centre of Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, more than three weeks after her arrest.
During this time, Adwai has been denied family visits and access to legal counsel, and there is no information about the charges against her, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
According to information received by KHRN, for approximately the first two weeks of her detention, the activist was subjected to daily interrogations in the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre before being transferred at night to a solitary cell in the Juvenile Detention Centre at night.
Adwai was arrested on 20 January 2025 after receiving a telephone summons from the Ministry of Intelligence office in Marivan, Kurdistan Province, and taken to the Juvenile Detention Centre in Sanandaj, where she remains detained.
Background
A former political prisoner, Adwai was previously arrested on 27 July 2019 when intelligence agents raided her home in Marivan.
She spent two months under interrogation at the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre before being moved to the women’s ward of the Juvenile Detention Centre in Sanandaj, and was released on bail of five billion rials (nearly 6,000 USD) on 24 October 2019.
The Islamic Revolutionary Court of Marivan later sentenced her to five years in prison on charges of “acting against national security” due to alleged ties with the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).
The sentence was reduced to one year on appeal, and she was re-arrested on 30 January 2020 to serve her term. In April 2020, she was released as part of a general amnesty issued by the judiciary for the Newroz celebrations.
Adwai has been active in women’s rights, child protection, and environmental advocacy in Marivan. She also played a key role in pursuing justice in a case of child sexual abuse in the village of Selin, in the Hawraman region.
