According to reports from Iran, a number of Gonabadi dervishes have been detained by the security forces of the Islamic Republic in Tehran and Karaj, and there is no information available about their condition and fate. Additionally, three Gonabadi dervishes are set to be sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of “membership in deviant sects and disturbing public minds,” and they will be sent to Evin Prison. 
As reported by human rights sources, on Monday, April 11, 2021, Zahra Entesari and Maryam Moradi, two female activists in the field of dervishes, were arrested at their home in western Tehran. On the same day, Hamid Faraji, an activist of the Gonabadi dervishes’ order, was arrested at his workplace in a bookstore in central Tehran.
Continuing this wave of suppression and detention of Gonabadi dervishes, on Thursday, April 15, 2021, two other members of this order, named Sarang Bani Bayat and Vahid Chehrehsaz, were beaten, arrested, and detained in Karaj.
No news has been published about the detention and status of these five individuals.
In another report concerning the violation of the rights of dervishes in Iran, it has been announced that the sentences of imprisonment for Mohammad Gholami, Mohammad Yousefi, and Daniel Arjmand, three detained Gonabadi dervishes who were accused of “membership in a deviant dervish sect” and “actions against national security” and each sentenced to ten years in prison, were carried out on Saturday, April 17, 2021. These three individuals were transferred to Evin Prison. They had been held in detention by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ detention center since late 2019 to February 2020.
In recent years, thousands of followers, activists, and leaders of the Gonabadi dervish order have been subjected to detention, abduction, summoning, execution, and physical abuse.
