Iranian motocross champion Shahrzad Nazifi sentenced to 8 years
NCRI Women’s News | June 9, 2021
Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Baha’i Iranian motocross champion Shahrzad Nazifi, a Baha’i citizen, to 8 years in prison.
The court was also banned Mrs. Nazifi from leaving the country for two years. As a complementary punishment, the court also obliged Mrs. Nazifi to provide services to the mentally disabled for three months, four hours every day.
The charges brought against this Iranian motocross champion in
Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court brought the following charges against Mrs. Nazifi: “Managing illegal groups with the aim of disrupting the country’s national security” and “incorrect motive and inner desire to destroy the religious system”!
On November 18, 2018, the clerical regime’s intelligence forces arrested Shahrzad Nazifi and her daughter, Nora Naraghi, on the motorcycle track. Then, they took them in a car to their house. They ransacked Mrs. Nazifi’s residence for about 5 hours and took some personal belongings with them.
Shahrzad Nazifi is an Iranian motocross champion of Baha’i faith, born in 1971 and living in Tehran. She and her daughter Nora Naraghi are among the pioneers of women‘s motocross in Iran.
In May 2019, Mrs. Nazifi and other family members were barred from attending motorcycling tracks, participating in competitions, and exercising with a motorcycle without receiving a court order.
Mrs. Nazifi’s daughter, Nora Naraghi, a top moto-crosser, has been deprived of any athletic activities along with her mother because of her faith.