Haleh Sahabi was a journalist, human rights activist and a member of the “Mothers of Peace” organization.

Sahabi worked as a Quran scholar, authored a number of books, contributed to the journal Bimonthly Overview of Iran, and also advocated in the defence of the rights of imprisoned political prisoners. A graduate in Physics from the University of Tehran, she was fluent in English, French, and Arabic, and she composed poetry in French as well as taught the language.

Sahabi was arrested during the widespread protests that followed the controversial results of the 2009 presidential election in Iran. In December 2010, Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts sentenced Haleh Sahabi to two years’ imprisonment on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “disturbing the public order.”

When Sahabi’s sentence was published, the Council of National-Religious Activists of Iran, a reformist, religious and semi-opposition political group that is banned in Iran, issued a statement expressing their concern about Sahabi’s health. “Given Ms. Sahabi’s diabetes and the fact that she was beaten and injured as she was being arrested, her health is gravely endangered. Despite this, authorities refuse to grant her release.”

Haleh Sahabi’s father, Ezzatollah Sahabi, was the president of the Council of National-Religious Activists of Iran and he had previously been elected to be a parliamentary representative in the Islamic Consultative Assembly. After Ezzatollah Sahabi became seriously ill, Haleh Sabahi refused to write a letter of commitment [to return to prison] which was the prison authorities’ prerequisite to granting her leave. Eventually, her father died and security officials agreed to grant Sahabi one day’s leave from prison so that she could attend her father’s funeral.

On June 1, 2011, Haleh Sahabi was attacked by security agents while she carried out the funeral rites for her father’s ceremony. She was holding up a photograph of her father when she was attacked. Mansour Sahabi, Haleh's uncle, described his niece’s death: “Ms Sahabi suffered a heart attack and subsequently passed away because the security agents repeatedly struck her in the stomach and chest.”

Although government sources eventually announced that Haleh Sahabi’s death had been caused by a heart attack, her friends and family believed that it was the security agents who killed Haleh Sahabi and that her heart attack had been caused by their physical assault and beatings.

On the day of the funeral, Yahya Shamki, Haleh Sahabi’s son, published a post on Facebook dedicated to his grandfather Ezzatollah Sahabi. “When we brought out Mohadess [Ezzatollah] Sahabi’s body for the funeral ceremony, security agents intervened, stopped the ceremony and did not allow us to bury his body. There were intense arguments [between the security forces and the funeral attendees] and it became very tense. The security forces continued to harass [us] and eventually they forcibly and violently took the body away. As they were forcibly taking the body away, my mother fell to the ground. She fell unconscious and the doctor told us that she had suffered a heart attack and passed away.”

An eyewitness at the funeral spoke to Radio Farda about the incident. “Haleh, several other women and I, walked forward to make way for the body. Then a security officer came toward Haleh, who was holding a picture of her father. He grabbed the picture from Haleh’s hand. I cried out, ‘She’s mourning, what are you doing?’ Then Haleh fell to the ground. The security agents thought Haleh was trying to make a scene. They started shouting and kicking her to make her get up and telling us to lift her up. We tried to wake her up by slapping her on the cheeks and pouring water on her head and face. Some doctors who were in the area tried to administer CPR but Haleh didn’t regain consciousness and she wasn’t breathing.”

Hossein Shah Hosseini, a National-Religious political activist who attended Ezzatollah Sahabi’s funeral, spoke to the Jaras news website about Haleh Sahabi’s death. “I saw a young man hit Haleh Sahabi in the chest with the base of his elbow and then Haleh fell to the ground.”

On that same day, June 1, 2011, Haleh Sahabi’s body was transferred to the Behesht Fatemeh Lavasanat Cemetery by security agents and she was buried in the cemetery at night without any of her family present.

Ali Motahari, who was at the time the elected representative for Tehran in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, spoke about Haleh Sahabi’s death in December 2011. “I asked the Minister of Intelligence to come to the commission and provide some explanations about Haleh Sahabi’s death. They sent us a CD with a video of the events of Ezzatollah Sahabi’s funeral ceremony. It was agreed that we would watch it and that if we were not convinced [by the video], the Minister of Intelligence would openly and publicly explain what happened. In response, the Minister of Intelligence replied that they had not intended to kill Haleh and that what had happened was instead due to the negligence of a security agent.”