What it means
بازداشت (bâzdâsht) refers to detention, the state of being held in custody by authorities, typically before any charge or verdict has been issued. It is a pure Persian compound formed from باز (bâz, meaning back or again) and داشت (dâsht, from داشتن, to hold or keep), giving a literal sense of holding someone back from freedom. The register is formal and it appears regularly in legal texts, court documents, and journalism. Compared to دستگیری (dastgiri), which emphasises the act of arrest, بازداشت emphasises the ongoing condition of being detained. The related verb phrase is بازداشت کردن (bâzdâsht kardan), to detain.
How to use it
- اون خبرنگار سه روز در بازداشت بود. (oun khabarneghâr se ruz dar bâzdâsht bud.) “That journalist was in detention for three days.”
- قاضی دستور بازداشت موقت صادر کرد. (qâzi dastur-e bâzdâsht-e movaqqat sâder kard.) “The judge issued an order for temporary detention.”
- بازداشت خودسرانه نقض حقوق بشر است. (bâzdâsht-e khodsarâne naqz-e hoqouq-e bashar ast.) “Arbitrary detention is a violation of human rights.”
- بعد از بازداشت، باید ظرف ۲۴ ساعت در برابر قاضی حاضر بشی. (ba’d az bâzdâsht, bâyad zarf-e 24 sâ’at dar barâbar-e qâzi hâzer beshi.) “After detention, you must appear before a judge within 24 hours.”
Cultural note
In Iranian legal practice, بازداشت موقت (bâzdâsht-e movaqqat), provisional or temporary detention, is a mechanism that has attracted significant human rights scrutiny, as it can be extended by courts for weeks or months without formal charges being filed. Human rights organisations regularly document cases of prolonged بازداشت used against journalists, lawyers, and civil society members. The word also appears in everyday speech when someone is briefly held by police for questioning, so its range runs from the mundane to the politically charged depending on context.