February 19, 2025

Death Sentence for Woman Labor Activist In Iran Re-Issued

Sharifeh Mohammadi’s Second Death Sentence Imposed on Her Son’s 13th Birthday

Three Women Political Prisoners Face Execution on Sham Charges

February 19, 2025 — Iranian authorities have once again sentenced female labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi to death, despite the Supreme Court previously overturning her initial death sentence. Mohammadi was arrested on bogus charges solely in retaliation for her peaceful activism and handed a death sentence following a sham trial marked by torture, forced “confessions,” and grave due process violations.

Now, three women political prisoners—labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi, Kurdish social and humanitarian worker Pekhshan Azizi, and Kurdish activist Varisheh Moradi—are at risk of execution by the Islamic Republic.

“The three women political prisoners facing execution in Iran—Mohammadi, Azizi, and Moradi—are running out of time. The international community must act now to pressure the Iranian government intensively to immediately revoke their unjust death sentences,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director at the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

CHRI calls on top UN officials—including the special rapporteurs on Iran, on freedom of expression, and on arbitrary executions—as well as government leaders worldwide to urgently and directly call upon the Iranian authorities to:

Immediately revoke the death sentences against Sharifeh Mohammadi, Pekhshan Azizi, and Varisheh Moradi.
Halt all pending executions given the systematic denial of due process and fair trial rights in Iran.
Institute an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Iran given the Islamic Republic’s refusal to adhere to international standards and law regarding capital punishment.

Sharifeh Mohammadi: “I have to be strong and get up for the sake of the children.”

Mohammadi received the news of her death sentence on her son Aydin’s 13th birthday. A source close to Mohammadi, who cannot be named for security reasons, told CHRI that Mohammadi had been baking a cake for her son despite the prison’s limited facilities and had dressed in special clothes to see her son. Just hours before visitation time, the prison guards informed her of the court’s decision. Though devastated, she composed herself to see her son.

The source described Mohammadi as a strong and cheerful woman who has formed a close bond with the two-year-old child of a fellow prisoner:

“Sharifeh is a very, very strong and cheerful woman. For a long time, she has been sharing a cell with a woman who has a two-year-old child. The bond between Sharifeh and the child is very strong. She is always playing and joking with the child and does not let the child be upset. When Sharifeh was initially sentenced to death, she asked fellow inmates to leave her alone for a while. She went to lie down on the bed and pulled the blanket over herself. A few minutes later the child pulled Sharifeh’s leg to try to wake her up. Sharifeh said she told herself, ‘I have to be strong and get up for the sake of the children.’”

Arbitrarily Arrested, Held Incommunicado, Tortured, and Denied Access to Lawyer

Mohammadi, a 45-year-old industrial design engineer and mother of a 13-year-old son, was arbitrarily arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence on December 5, 2023, and held incommunicado for months, denying her family any information about her status, condition, or whereabouts.

On December 28, 2023, she was transferred to a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, where she was subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including repeated beatings to the face and head while blindfolded, to force her into making “confessions,” and she was denied access to a lawyer.

After she was transferred to solitary confinement in Sanandaj prison, she filed a complaint regarding her treatment at the Sanandaj Ministry of Intelligence detention facility. However, no investigation was initiated and four weeks later, she was pressured into withdrawing the complaint. In February 2024, she was transferred to Lakan prison, in Rasht province.

She was initially sentenced to death on July 4, 2024, in Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Rasht on charges of “armed rebellion” following a grossly unfair trial. Her lawyer was given only 10 minutes to present a defense.

However, the Supreme Court later overturned the verdict on October 13, 2024, and ordered a retrial. Mohammadi’s second death sentence was reissued on February 13, 2025, following a grossly unfair retrial in Branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court that was marred by numerous due process violations. Mohammadi was only permitted to attend via video conference, and her lawyer was again denied sufficient time to present a defense.

The first trial was presided over by Judge Ahmad Darvishgoftar, and the retrial was presided over by his son, Mohammad Ali Darvishgoftar. This is a blatant conflict of interest, severely violating standards of judicial independence.

Sham Charges and Evidence Used Against Mohammadi

According to information received by CHRI, Mohammadi was subjected to extreme pressure during her detention to extract forced “confessions” to be used as torture-tainted “evidence” against her. A source familiar with her case expressed grave concern, stating, “Although Sharifeh is incredibly strong and determined, no human being should have to endure such conditions.”

Initially, Mohammadi faced charges of “propaganda against the state,” but within days, this was escalated to “armed rebellion against the state” based on alleged membership in the national Labor Unions Assistance Coordination Committee (LUACC), an independent labor organization which operates legally in Iran, and alleged membership in the banned Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, which she has repeatedly denied.

LUACC was established by a group of well-known labor activists in the early 2000s in Iran. Its primary goals include empowering workers by helping them to organize, raising awareness about labor laws, and abolishing child labor.

“If membership in the LUACC is an act of rebellion, come and arrest us too, because we were once members of the committee as well,” said Mahmoud Salehi, a former board member of the LUACC, in a post on Instagram on June 28, in which he strongly refuted the charges against Mohammadi.

During the first trial, the court cited Mohammadi’s possession of an anti-death penalty poster, her files on women political detainees in Gilan province, her information on workers’ involvement in the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, and her membership in the Goftegoo Telegram channel.

Additionally, her articles, “Jina’s Place in the Uprising” and “A Guide for Detained Labor Activists on How to Respond to Interrogators” were presented as “evidence.”

Authorities also referenced the contact details of the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations found in her files, attempting to link it to the Komala Party of Kurdistan. However, the Coordinating Committee, which Mohammadi was a member of until 2011, denies any affiliation with Komala, emphasizing its focus on workers’ rights and trade unionism.

Women Activists Especially Targeted by State

Iran’s prosecution of Mohammadi for her peaceful labor activism severely violates the country’s obligations under international law and treaties to which it is a signatory.

Iran is a member of the International Labor Organization, whose Fundamental Principles guarantee the right to independently organize, collectively bargain, and strike. It is also a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which mandates in Articles 21 and 22 freedom of association and guarantees the right to form trade unions, and to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which guarantees in Article 8 the right to form or join trade unions and protects their right to strike.

Yet in the Islamic Republic, peaceful labor rights advocacy is treated as a national security offense, independent labor unions are not recognized, strikers are often fired and risk arrest, and labor leaders are prosecuted under catchall national security charges and sentenced to long prison terms.

However, the harsh persecution and sentencing to death of Mohammadi is more than a product of the authorities’ contempt for international labor rights—it reflects the particularly draconian punishments that the state is increasingly imposing on women activists in Iran.

While peaceful advocacy for women’s rights has long been criminalized in the Islamic Republic, and women activists have long been persecuted and imprisoned, after the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising that erupted in Iran in 2022-2023, and the widespread participation of women across the country in those protests, the authorities moved to aggressively suppress women activists, and they were subjected to increasingly harsh state reprisals.

Detainment, torture, and imprisonment have now been augmented by death sentences handed down by the authorities to peaceful women activists, in a clear effort to terrorize and silence the women of Iran. That three women political prisoners now face possible execution—with one of them, Azizi, already having exhausted her appeals—reflects this intensifying state violence targeted at women.

It is also no accident that two of these three women are members of Iran’s Kurdish minority community. Minority communities have long been discriminated against and persecuted, but the intersectional persecution of minority women has also greatly intensified in the wake of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.

Protests were significant—and indeed have continued—in the marginalized provinces that are populated by Iran’s oppressed minority communities, and Islamic Republic authorities and security forces have moved ruthlessly to violently suppress any activism in these communities. This suppression has included greatly increased use of the death penalty against its members.

Other Women Political Prisoners Sentenced to Death: Pakhshan Azizi Faces Imminent Risk of Execution Despite Lack of Evidence

On February 6, 2025, the Supreme Court rejected a request for a retrial in the case of Pakhshan Azizi, a political prisoner sentenced to death. Azizi was convicted on July 23, 2024, by Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, on charges of “rebellion” and “membership in opposition groups.” The verdict was upheld by Supreme Court Judges Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghiseh.

According to Azizi’s lawyer, Amir Raesian, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal that pointed out numerous investigative flaws and a lack of credible evidence.

“[The Supreme Court] ignored the flaws in the investigation and paid no attention to evidence that showed Ms. Azizi’s case does not merit the death sentence, and that her activities in refugee camps in northern Syria and other locations for people displaced by the war with ISIS, were peaceful activities that had no political dimensions and centered around providing aid to victims of ISIS attacks,” he added.

In a letter published in July 2024, Azizi detailed the torture she was subjected to during her detention, including being subjected to mock executions.

Read more about Moradi’s case here.

Widespread Protests Against Death Sentences of the Three Women Activists

On January 22, businesses and shopkeepers went on strike across Kurdish cities to protest the death sentences against Kurdish women activists Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi. At least 12 Kurdish civilians and activists were arrested in less than a week, and security forces forcibly shut down many businesses in Sanandaj, Mahabad, and Kermanshah for participating in the strike.

In an interview with CHRI on January 29, 2025, a knowledgeable Kurdish source said:

“Exactly one day before the strikes, intelligence agents held a meeting with civil society and trade union activists in a hotel. At that meeting, the agents openly threatened the activists and said they had no right to protest the execution of Varisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi. The agents showed films about Moradi and Azizi, to try to convince the activists that the two should not be supported because they were involved in armed activities and had ties to foreign countries. These films clearly showed that the methods used by the Ministry of Intelligence in fabricating cases against the two prisoners were the same. This is not a good sign as it could indicate that the government intends to deal with these prisoners in the harshest possible way.”

Additionally, on January 24, 2025, Amjad Amini, the father of Mahsa Jina Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman killed in police custody in September 2022, revealed that he was charged with “propaganda against the state” after protesting Pakhshan Azizi’s death sentence.

On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, activists and the families of political prisoners, including family members of Varisheh Moradi, gathered outside the notorious Evin Prison to protest against the widespread issuance of death sentences in Iran.

On February 18, 2025, more than 200 lawyers signed a statement addressed to Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, condemning the death sentences against Mohammadi, Azizi, and Moradi. The letter warned that executing them would have severe consequences, exacerbating societal distress and deepening feelings of discrimination among Kurdish citizens.

“Carrying out the death penalty in these cases would not only erode public trust in the justice system but could also inflict lasting harm on national unity,” the statement read.

Alarming Escalation of Death Sentences for Political Prisoners

Iranian authorities have been increasingly using executions as a tool of political repression against protesters, activists, dissidents, and other critics of the state following sham trials, including, as this article discusses, against women, especially women from minority communities.

Currently, a shocking 57 political prisoners are on death row in Iran. Among the political prisoners at risk of execution are six young protesters involved in Iran’s 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, and political prisoners Behrouz Ehsani, Mehdi Hasani, Manouchehr Fallah, and Shahriar Bayat.

In 2024, executions in Iran surged to nearly 1,000 known hangings—making the Islamic Republic the leading per capita executioner in the world. The Islamic Republic disproportionately applies the death penalty to Iran’s minority communities—at least a third of those executed in 2024 were from the Kurdish and Baluch communities.

These executions violate every single international law and standard regarding capital punishment. In addition to the aforementioned violations, the vast majority of executions are carried out for drug offenses, which do not meet international thresholds that allow the death penalty only for the “most serious” crimes, and Iran is one of the very few countries in the world that executes children and juvenile offenders.

“Anyone who defends basic rights and freedoms is going to be in the Islamic Republic’s crosshairs, but the Iranian authorities are now using the death penalty on a mass scale to silence them permanently,” said Ghaemi. “The international community must speak out against the lawlessness, terror, and state-sanctioned murder that underpins the Islamic Republic’s power,” he said.

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