Iran bars Christian convert from leaving country after releasing her from prison

The Iranian government has barred a Christian convert, who recently completed a four-year-jail sentence, from leaving the country for six months.

Maryam Naghash Zargaran, who was jailed in 2012 for "violating national security" in connection with her work with house churches, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that she has been banned from leaving the country for six months.

"With the completion of my sentence, there's no reason for me to be banned from traveling abroad. It's against the law," she said in an interview with CHRI on Aug. 18.

"I wanted to go in front of the prison and sit there in protest until the ban was removed, but I was worried about what would happen to my family," she added.

During her incarceration, the 39-year-old Christian convert had undertaken several hunger strikes in protest against being denied medical treatment for her long-standing health issues.

In her interview with CHRI, she noted that the clinic prescribed her with unnecessary antipsychotic medication.

"The clinic staff lack experience and empathy. When I went there for depression, they gave me a medication that I think was called Haloperidol," she said.

"When I got out of prison, I did some research and found out that it was prescribed for seriously insane patients. These pills paralysed me. I couldn't even think. I could hardly stand up and I fell from the stairs several time," she continued.

Zargaran's case was cited by Amnesty International last year when the organization accused Iran of "cruel" denial of medical care in its prisons. On some occasions, Zargaran was temporarily released from prison for medical treatment, but each time she was forced to return before it could be completed.

Before her scheduled release, Zargaran recounted that she was taken to Evin Prison Court to hear the testimony of a prison medical staff who accused her of insulting them during one of her visits to the clinic. She noted that the judge had decided not to put her on trial, and she asserted that the prison staff only wanted to "raise trouble" and scare her.

Zargaran, who had worked as a children's music teacher, was arrested on Nov. 5, 2012 after being accused of seeking to buy a property in northern Iran for a Christian orphanage with Pastor Saeed Abedini, who was also imprisoned in 2013.

Having no access to a lawyer, she was sentenced to four years in prison in July 2013, and the sentence was upheld on appeal in October that same year.