One hundred doctors in the country sent a letter to the head of the judiciary calling for the release of Nazila Nouri, a Darvish doctor, who was arrested at the Golestan Haftum street event.
The Majzoban Nour’s website, which publishes Dervishes’ news, introduced the doctors as a collaborators and classmates of Nazila Nouri and listed part of the letter as follows: “Dr. Nouri is an honest, competent, and humane physician, very kind, thoughtful and always cared for the people of the country. She was arrested for helping the wounded in the Pasdaran Avenue in Tehran (at the Gonabadi Dervishes gathering) and have been in Gharchak prison since then. “
Nazila Nouri, an Obstetrics and Gynecology doctor, was arrested along with hundreds of other Gonabadi dervishes during the arrest on Golestan Haftum street event in Tehran, on February 19th, 2018. Later, she was sentenced to 5 years in prison with the ruling of the Revolutionary Court.
So far, many Gonabadi dervishes have been detained since the protest rally called Golestan Haftum street on February 19th, 2018. According to news sources from the Campaign, “The detainee’s dervishes have been deprived of their basic rights since the beginning of their arrest, and their trial has been held without going through legal procedures and the right to a lawyer and contrary to the rules of criminal procedure. “
The pressure on Dervishes in the Islamic Republic was mainly started from Qom. Qom is the most religious city in Iran. Due to the historical conflict between Sufis and the Shari’a, the pressure on the Dervishes in this city has a long history and dates to the pre-revolutionary times. In the early 2000s, by publication of number of anti-Semitic books in Qom that accused the group of being Shia antagonistic, gradually atmosphere becoming heavier against them. The tensions in government relations with Dervishes Nematollahi, with the destruction of some of their religious places and the government’s opposition to their gathering, especially in Qom, new era of pressure against Darvishes started that in the next decade in Tehran led to physical conflict and bloodshed.
In recent years, numerous reports and news have been published on summons, threats, arrests and, finally, trial and sentencing for dervishes – especially the Gonabadi Darvishes.