ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish language teacher was handed a two and a half year prison sentence by an Iranian appellate court, a Norway-based human rights monitor reported late Monday, on charges related to anti-state propaganda and 'spreading false information.'
A Tehran appellate court upheld a previous court decision issuing Sajad Haeri, a Kurdish language teacher, writer and director from Ilam province, a prison sentence of “two years and 6 months” on charges of "propaganda against the state" and "disturbing public opinion through publishing false information," Hengaw Organization for Human Rights published late Monday.
The court also sentenced him to a two-year ban on membership in political party involvement, as well as “a two-year complete ban on activity in cyberspace,” wrote Hengaw. The ruling renders the court’s previous decision by Iran’s Revolutionary Court in Tehran conclusive, noting that “These sentences have now become final.”
The decision follows a precedent of prison sentences and increased pressure on civil institutions and Kurdish language teachers across various cities in Iran’s majority Kurdish areas (Rojhelat) who have faced security charges, leading to their arrest and severe prison sentences.
Haeri’s arrest took place in July 2025, after intelligence forces affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) raided his home in Damavand, Tehran province. During the arrest, authorities allegedly confiscated his mobile phone, laptop and more than 100 Kurdish language education books.
After his release later that month on bail of 500 million tomans (about $3,600) after interrogation, Haeri was summoned in August on additional charges and was temporarily released on bail of one billion tomans ($5,300), a sum prone to steep fluctuations depending on the market.
Rights groups describe a disturbing trend of intensified crackdown on activists, protesters and individuals in Iran accused of links to dissident groups or espionage of which a disproportionate number includes Kurds.
A 2025 Hengaw report documented 6 Kurdish language teachers arrested, and 7 others sentenced by the Iranian judiciary to a total of 20 years 8 months of punitive imprisonment, and 1 year of suspended imprisonment in 2024 alone.
The report stated that “policy of linguistic homogenization and denial has persisted” and even “intensified” following the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, “with security forces exerting full control over educational, cultural, and judicial policies” and authorities refusing to “implement Article 15 of Iran’s Constitution, which minimally acknowledges the right to use minority languages in education.”
Hengaw has also documented recent incidents which include the temporary detention in July 2025 of Kezhal Saleh, a 14 year old Kurdish girl from Naveh, in North Khorasan along Rojhelat, for reciting Kurdish poetry - whose father was also detained and remained in custody after her release three days later - as well as the arrest of Mohammad Rezaei, a Kurdish civil activist known for promoting Kurdish-language rights from Iran's Kurdish city of Sanandaj in June of this year.
Kurdish language teachers have faced increasing risk following the nationwide January anti-government protests triggered by the devaluation of currency and the killing of Kurdish woman, Zhina Amini, in police custody in 2022 which coincided with the Israel’s strikes on Iran in 2024 and US and Israel-led aerial bombardments on the country in late February.
