June 4, 2025

Iran’s Truck Drivers’ Strike Sweeps 163 Cities, Dozens Arrested

Families Pressured to Remain Silent to Obtain Release of Loved Ones Largest Labor Protests in Years Gain Momentum as Strike Enters Third Week June 4, 2025 — A nationwide truck… ...

April 30, 2025

Iran’s Workers: Battered by Brutal Repression and Lethal Work Conditions

19 Labor Activists Still Imprisoned, One Woman at Risk of Execution Over 2000 Workers Dead in Last 12 Months Due to Unsafe Working Conditions April 30, 2025 – On this International… ...

August 28, 2024

Nurses’ Strikes Escalate Across Iran as Authorities Intensify Repression

Peaceful Protests for Fair Wages and Improved Working Conditions Met with Arbitrary Arrests August 28, 2024 – As nurses’ strikes surge across Iran, the Center for Human Rights in Iran… ...

May 4, 2023

Dozens of Labor Activists Detained, Thousands of Workers Threatened as Strikes Roil Iran

ILO Must Speak Out Forcefully Against Islamic Republic’s Abuses Against Labor Strikers in Iran’s oil, gas and petrochemicals industries are being threatened with firing and labor activists are being rounded… ...

February 10, 2023

Iran Protests: More Doctors Treating Protesters Killed, Tortured and Detained

Global Medical Community Must Speak Out Against Severe Violation of International Law February 10, 2023 — An increasing number of doctors and medical workers continue to be arrested, detained, tortured… ...

April 29, 2022

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… ...

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… ...

February 27, 2020

2020

The Center for Human Rights in Iran received over 4,000 news media citations from international print, radio, TV, and online news media outlets between January 1, 2020 and December 31…. ...

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… ...