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The Center for Human Rights in Iran reported this week that well-known Iranian labor rights activist, Jafar Azimzadeh, was released from prison on April 10
th. While the picture of Azimzadeh freed and in his home is welcome news, many labor activists and political prisoners continue to suffer in Iranian prisons. A prominent member of the Free Union of Iranian Workers, Azimzadeh has led the struggle of Iranian workers in their right to organize, and to stress improved labor conditions, fair pay, as well as safety in the workplace.
For demanding such basic and universal rights, Azimzadeh along with other labor activists have become the target of Iranian security forces and judiciary. Azimzadeh himself has had several encounters with Iranian authorities and the judicial system in the past decade, and prosecuted on various ambiguous charges, such as “assembling and colluding to act against national security” and “propaganda against the state.”
Defend Iranian Woman Labor Leader Parvin Mohammadi
On December 21, 2020, the Iranian government sentenced Parvin Mohammadi, in absentia, to a year in prison on charges of “sedition.” She has refused to go to prison, continues to challenge the authorities, and has now gone into hiding.
Parvin Mohammadi was born in 1961 in a working class family. After graduating from high school, she was not able to attend university because she needed to work to support her family. This was the period shortly after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. She was hired as a worker by the Melli Shoe Company which had been expropriated by the Islamic Republic’s Mostazefan Foundation (a parastatal entity). In the Winter of 1981, when workers at the Melli Shoe Company went on strike, she became a strike leader. After some workers were arrested and other workers occupied the factory, the state used tanks to take back the factory from the workers. They were severely punished and Mohammadi was expelled.