Iran’s Government Should Respect—Not Crush—Workers’ Rights
On the eve of International Workers’ Day, state security forces in Iran have been summoning, arresting and harassing activists to prevent them from protesting on May Day… ...
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February 15, 2022
Crackdown on Labor Activists in Iran
Amid an intensifying campaign of political repression in Iran, state authorities have been summoning, detaining, and imprisoning peaceful labor rights activists and a journalist in various cities throughout the country…. ...
February 3, 2022
Interview: Suppressing Teachers’ Protests Would be a “Great Risk” for Iran’s Government
Sattar Rahmani, a former teacher and political prisoner in Iran, is an expert on the country’s burgeoning teachers’ rights movement. A grassroots teachers’ rights movement is gaining steam in Iran,… ...
November 11, 2021
Iran Rights Lawyer: Judicial Process is a “Means to Settle Political Scores”
One of the few remaining defense lawyers in Iran willing to take on human rights cases, Nasser Zarafshan is an expert at navigating the Islamic Republic’s judicial system, which criminalizes… ...
June 1, 2021
More Defense Attorneys Prosecuted in Iran for Defending Human Rights
The state policy of persecuting and imprisoning independent defense lawyers under false charges for doing their jobs is continuing under Iranian Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi, who is running for the… ...
April 28, 2021
Crippling Economic Hardship Enflames Iranian Protests
Protests in Iran over high inflation and unpaid wages are spreading in Iran as the working class and retirees struggle to make ends meet. The largest organized rallies were held… ...
March 24, 2021
Iran’s New Minimum Wage Set “Below Poverty Line”
Labor Ministry Calculations Ignore Actual Rate of Inflation At the end of every year in Iran, the Labor Ministry sets the national minimum wage for the following year, determining a… ...
March 24, 2021
Traditional New Year Furloughs and Other Privileges Denied to Iran’s Political Prisoners
Lawyer: “Humanity, in addition to the rule of law, has vanished” Political prisoners in Iran, long subjected to especially harsh treatment in Iran’s prisons, have been largely left out of… ...
February 1, 2021
Dying of Hopelessness: Suicides on the Rise in Iran
Suicides increased in Iran in 2020, according to state medical data. Blue-collar workers as well as students who’ve been disproportionately impacted by the country’s struggling economy dominated media reports of… ...
September 30, 2020
Showdown at Haft Tappeh Sugar Factory: Minor Win for Workers, Larger Abuses Left Unchecked
…a big wave of labor protests spreading from the south to other parts of the country” It has been almost three months since the workers at Iran’s Haft Tappeh Cane… ...
August 11, 2020
New Conviction against Imprisoned Labor Leader Upheld to Keep Him Behind Bars
Jafar Azimzadeh Should Have Been Released, Instead Given Another 13 Months Now Activist Has Contracted COVID-19 in Iran’s Overcrowded Prisons The prominent labor activist Jafar Azimzadeh, who should have been… ...
August 4, 2020
Strikes Break Out in Iran’s Critical Oil Industry Amid Continuing Labor Unrest
New Fact Sheet Highlights Widespread Rights Abuses, Protests Likely to Continue August 4, 2020—With workers in Iran’s critical oil refining, petrochemicals and drilling industries striking in southern Iran over working… ...
June 25, 2020
Sepideh Qoliyan Refuses to Beg for Pardon, Goes Back to Prison
She Must Serve Five-year Sentence for Reporting on Peaceful Labor Rally Freelance reporter Sepideh Qoliyan, issued a five-year sentence for reporting on a peaceful rally by sugar mill workers for… ...
December 20, 2019
“This Verdict Means Any Protest Will Be Considered an Act of Violence”
Nine Labor Rights Activists and Journalists Sentenced to Prison Without Right to Appeal Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi Eliminated Appeal Process with Supreme Leader’s Blessing Nine labor activists were each sentenced… ...
October 28, 2019
Iran Releases Seven Political Prisoners on Bail Without Explanation
Six Prisoners Posted Extraordinarily High Bail, Unclear Why Fellow Prisoners of Conscience Remain Jailed A Christian convert, four journalists and two activists were released from prisons in Iran on October… ...
October 16, 2019
Reign of Evin Prison’s New Director Begins with Denial of Political Prisoners’ Rights
Female Prisoners of Conscience Denied Phone Contact with Children The appointment of Gholamreza Ziaei, former director of two disreputable prisons in Iran, as the new chief of Evin Prison on… ...
October 7, 2019
Sepideh Qoliyan Said She Was Tortured in Iran, Now She’s Serving an 18-Year Prison Sentence
Female Activist Described Inhumane Conditions of Detention in Video Statement *Warning: This article contains content that could be upsetting or disturbing for some readers. Sepideh Qoliyan is currently serving an… ...
September 27, 2019
Striking Iranian Sugar Plant Workers Add Colleagues’ Freedom to List of Demands
…are now also calling for their imprisoned colleagues’ freedom. Hundreds of workers of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-industrial Complex in the city of Shush, southwestern Iran, attended a fifth consecutive… ...
September 20, 2019
Audio Message From Gharchak Prison Reveals Intense Pressure on Labor Activist Sepideh Qoliyan
Mehdi Qoliyan Acquitted of All Charges After Violent Home Raid On September 14, 2019, the BBC aired an audio file containing the voice of labor activist Sepideh Qoliyan saying that… ...
September 9, 2019
Mass Sentencing of Labor Activists, Journalists Prelude to Reign of Repression Under New Judiciary Chief
Seven Sentenced to Lengthy Jail Terms in Connection with Peaceful Protests September 9, 2019—Less than a year after workers’ rights activists in southwestern Iran publicized evidence that Intelligence Ministry agents… ...
August 12, 2019
Supporters of Detained Workers’ Rights Activists Arrested Outside Courthouse
The family of labor activist Roham Yeganeh has not heard from him since he was arrested in front of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran on August 3, 2019, his mother,… ...
August 8, 2019
Major Trade Union Federations Call on Iran to Release Detained Workers’ Rights Activists
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) have called on Iranian authorities to release detained workers’ rights activists including… ...
August 8, 2019
Three Women Issued Lengthy Prison Sentences for Peacefully Protesting Iran’s Mandatory Hijab Law
Mojgan Keshavarz has been sentenced to 23.6 years in prison while Monireh Arabshahi and her daughter Yasaman Ariyani have each been sentenced to 16 years in prison for peacefully campaigning… ...
June 20, 2019
At Least 40 Detained in Connection With Protests at Ahvaz Sugar Mill
A group of workers of the Hafteh Tappeh sugar mill company in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, published a list of 40 names of colleagues and supporters who’ve been detained in recent… ...
June 7, 2019
Haft Tappeh Workers Urge International Labor Organization to Investigate Suppression of Labor Protests
…on the International Labor Organization (ILO) to investigate state suppression of workers’ rights protests at the local Half Tappeh sugarcane mill. “We hereby submit a brief report and our official… ...