Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has raised the detention of Bita Shafiei on 13 November 2025 with her Iranian counterparts.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are aware of Bita Shafiei's case and continue to raise the rights of women and girls and human rights defenders with the Iranian Government in multilateral fora. The UK co-sponsored an Iran Human Rights Resolution, adopted by the UN Third Committee on 19 November, which condemned the targeted repression of women and girls and called on Iran to release women human rights defenders imprisoned for exercising their rights. We delivered a statement at the Committee, which highlighted Iran's bolstering of surveillance capabilities to monitor and target women and girls, and we will continue to work with international partners to hold Iran to account.