The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) and the Protestant news agency IDEA have named the Iranian Christian Ismail Narimanpour as “Prisoner of the Month for February”. Employees of an Iranian secret service arrested the former Muslim on Christmas Eve 2023 in the city of Dezful in the south-west Iranian province of Khuzestan. Narimanpour belongs to the “Payram-e-Rahai” free church, which translates as “message of freedom”. He had already been imprisoned in 2021 for alleged “propaganda against the regime” and was mistreated in the process During the arrest, the intelligence officers searched the convert’s home and confiscated his computer and a mobile phone. When his wife and brother contacted the security forces the same day to enquire about Ismail Narimanpour’s whereabouts, they were also initially arrested and only released after several hours of interrogation. The day after he was taken away, Narimanpour was finally allowed to inform his family. He was transferred to the central prison in Ahvaz. It is not yet clear what the Iranian authorities are accusing him of.