ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iranian court on Saturday charged two Kurdish sisters from Mahabad with “propaganda against the regime” over their alleged membership in a Telegram group, amid a surge in arrests of Kurds in recent weeks.
Roya and Pari Samani were charged by the First Investigation Branch of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Mahabad, according to the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
The sisters were temporarily released on bail after being charged, KHRN said.
Their alleged membership in a Telegram group was cited as the basis for the charge, though KHRN said security authorities have not presented evidence supporting the allegation.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence officers searched the sisters’ family home in Mahabad on August 26, confiscating Roya’s mobile phone and laptop as well as Pari’s phone.
The sisters were subsequently summoned to the IRGC intelligence office in Mahabad on August 29 and questioned. They were summoned again on Saturday to the prosecutor’s office, where they were formally charged.
The case comes amid an increase in arrests in Iran’s Kurdish areas, weeks before the fourth anniversary of the September 2022 death of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police, which triggered months of nationwide protests.
Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman from Saqqez, had been detained in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory dress rules.
Figures compiled by the Oslo-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights show that Iranian security forces detained at least 117 people whose identities it verified across the country in August, including 75 Kurds.
Kurds accounted for around 64 percent of all arrests documented by Hengaw during the month. The watchdog also documented the detention of at least 20 women and two children.
In another case, Kurdish journalist and activist Shiva Zarei, originally from Qasr-e Shirin in Kermanshah province, was fined 50 million tomans ($220) in July for “propaganda against the state,” according to the Kurdistan Press Agency (Kurdpa).
A source cited by Kurdpa said Zarei was prosecuted for “propaganda against the state through reposting stories on Instagram.”
The arrests come amid a broader crackdown following nationwide protests that began in late December 2025.
In early August, a group of United Nations experts urged Iranian authorities to halt what they described as escalating arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and executions targeting ethnic minorities, particularly Kurds and Baluchis.
