Urmia Prison; 23 Days of Detention and Deprivation of Visits and a Lawyer for Shelir Mam-Qaderi She is Battling Cancer and is a Single Mother
April 30, 2026; After 23 days since the arbitrary detention of “Shelir Mam-Qaderi,” a 34-year-old Kurdish woman from Mahabad, the latest information indicates that she is being held in Urmia Prison. Reports obtained from inside the prison indicate severe physical torture during her detention. Furthermore, her deprivation of the right to access a lawyer, visits, and contact with her children continues. Given her battle with breast cancer, there is serious concern regarding her physical condition, especially as she has been subjected to torture in an undisclosed location while ill.
Shelir Mam-Qaderi, who has been detained in two stages since February 2026, suffers from breast cancer and is the sole guardian of her two children. Despite this, she has been deprived of access to a lawyer, medication, and family visits, leaving her children without a guardian. During her 23 days of arbitrary detention, she was only allowed a single, few-second phone call with her family in the initial days.
On April 25, 2026, Kurdpa reported her arbitrary detention in an exclusive report on its eighteenth day, stating that she was being held in absolute silence at an unknown location in Urmia.
In the early hours of Thursday, April 8, 2026, Shelir Mam-Qaderi was arbitrarily arrested following a raid on her home by security forces without a judicial warrant and transferred to an unknown location. This marks her second arbitrary arrest within the past three months.
At midnight on February 1, 2026, dozens of armed security forces arrested her with violence, threats, and insults after breaking down her front door, not even allowing her to dress appropriately. She was transferred to one of the security detention centers of the Intelligence Department in Mahabad and was released on February 5, 2026, after posting a bail of 2.5 billion Tomans. According to sources, she was subjected to severe physical and mental torture during that period, and one of her legs was broken; such that upon release, she was taken directly to the hospital for surgery and still requires ongoing treatment. During that detention as well, she was deprived of access to a lawyer and visits with her children, having only two brief calls with her family.
These arrests have occurred while Shelir Mam-Qaderi has been struggling with breast cancer for over a year and has been undergoing chemotherapy, requiring continuous medication. Nevertheless, in both stages of detention, she was not permitted to bring her medications with her.
Shelir Mam-Qaderi is the single mother of two daughters, one of whom is a young child. She earned a living through house cleaning to provide for herself and her children.
As of the publication of this news, no information regarding the reasons for this woman's arrest has been released, and security forces have provided no explanation. Furthermore, she remains deprived of access to a lawyer, family visits, medical care, and her required medications; a situation that, alongside her family circumstances, has increased concerns regarding the violation of her human rights and those of her children.
In this regard, Kurdpa, emphasizing the arbitrary detention of Shelir Mam-Qaderi, the continued lack of information on her status, the deprivation of treatment despite her cancer, and her children being left alone, evaluates these instances as examples of systematic human rights violations, particularly against women and children. This violation continues under the structures of the Islamic Republic without any effective support for these vulnerable groups.
