Twelve labor activists including 3
women, Parvin Mohammadi vice President of the Free Union of Iran Workers, Haleh
Safarzadeh and Valeh Zamani were arrested in Iran on Friday, April 26 in a
gathering observing the International Labor Day. In a bid to prevent formation
of any gathering on the International Labor Day, Iranian regime’s security
forces have been cracking down on workers’ gatherings and arresting labor
activists.
Parvin Mohammadi, Vice
President of the Free Union of Iran Workers, was arrested on January 29, 2019,
and was imprisoned in Evin Prison until March when she was released on bail. She had been arrested for
her activities in defense of the rights of Iranian workers. This workers’
activist has been re-arrested just for her participation in a workers’
gathering.
Ms. Mohammadi has
published a number of open letters exposing the policies of the Iranian regime
against the interests of Iranian workers.
In an open letter, the labor activist expressed her protest
against the corrupt rule of the mullahs and announced her support for the
workers’ protests and wrote, ” Shame on the rulers who responded with arrests
and imprisonments to 38 days of cries of the steel workers of Ahvaz who
demanded their rights. These workers cried out their pains every day on the
streets. Their throats turned sore so much that they cried out for their
rights.”
In another development,
Ms. Sanaz Allahyari has been kept in detention without sentence after over 100
days. In the first 15 days of her arrest, the Ministry of Intelligence took her
under interrogations and urged a heavy sentence for her. However, she has been
kept in pre-trial status without sentence. Ms. Allahyari is under tremendous
psychological pressure.
******
Civil activist Mojgan Keshavarz was
arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). Mojgan
(aka Maya), mother of a 9-year-old girl, was arrested on Thursday, April 25, at
her home in Tehran. She was beaten in front of her daughter, arrested and taken
away to an unknown location. Mojgan was a volunteer helping the flood
stricken residents of Lorestan.
On April 24, a hairdresser was
arrested for advertising her beauty shop in the city of Babol, northern Iran.
She posted a banner in one of the streets and had a young lady sit in front of
it. She then took a picture and posted it on the internet. She is now under
custody and her beauty shop has been sealed.
Babol’s Friday prayer leader called
the act “immoral” and asserted that the decisive step in dealing with such
action will in future prevent such “embarrassing” acts and no one will dare to
cause such embarrassment for the city of Babol by similar measures. (The
state-run Tabnak news agency- April 24, 2019)
In another development on April 20, twenty-five
teenagers were arrested by security forces in Naharkhoran Forests of
Gorgan, in northern Golestan Province, under the pretext of having improper
outfits. (The state-run ISNA news agency- April 20, 2019)
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More than 4,000 child marriages of
girls between 10 to 19 years of age have been registered for North
Khorasan Province in the year 1397 (March 21, 2018 – March 21, 2019). Ali
Zahedinia, the director of Iran’s Census Organization in N. Khorasan province,
announced that the largest number of marriages belong to girls between 15 and
19 years old. Admitting to just one aspect of this catastrophe he added, “In
1397, the marriages of 1,054 girls between 10 and 14 years old have been
registered in North Khorasan province.” (The state-run IRNA news agency- April
20, 2019)
Masihollah Soltani, an
official in Zanjan’s governorate, also announced, “From 36,000 registered
marriages for girls under 14 in Iran, 1,400 took place in Zanjan,” adding,
“Unfortunately, Zanjan ranks among the top provinces with regards to child
marriages.” (The state-run ISNA news agency- April 16, 2019)
Ali Kazemi, advisor for
the legal deputy of the Judiciary Branch, announced on March 4, 2019, that in
the course of just past year, some 5 to 6 hundred thousand child marriages have
taken place in Iran. (The state-run ILNA news agency- March 5, 2019)
In January, Parvaneh
Salahshouri, head of the women’s faction in the mullahs’ parliament, spoke
about early marriages of girl children in a meeting in Tehran. She said, “We
continue to see girls getting married between 9 and 14 years of age… Some 6 per
cent of those who get married are girls between
10 and 14.”(The official
IRNA news agency – January 6, 2019)
She continued her
remarks, “Do we want to realize population growth by marriages of girls under 13?…
There are one million young men and women who do not have the wherewithal to
get married. Instead of opposition to the bill on child marriages (i.e.
increasing the age of marriage) and focusing on the marriage of 40,000 kids, it
might be better to provide these youths the resources they need. How could a
10-year-old, who does not have the right to vote, get married? “
******
On April 15, Sima Entesari, a Sufi
woman confined at Qarchak women Prison along with 4 other Sufi women, was
beaten and brutalized by another inmate. She was injured in the head and
shoulder. The female attacker told her that the prison officials had promised
her to “reconsider” her request for a parole if she harassed Sufi women.
Previously, Ms. Elham
Ahmadi, one of the five Sufi women confined there was beaten up by another
female inmate.
The State Security forces
(SSF) had shot at Ms. Sima Entesari with shot-guns at the time of her arrest.
After a year the shells are still in her leg.
The Sufi women have been subjected
to offense, harassment and battering, times and again, for complaining
about deplorable conditions at Qarchak Prison. They have also been
deprived for long intervals from phone calls and visits because of their
complaints.
On January 31, 2019,
after inmates imprisoned on drug-related charged were transferred to the
cellblock where the Sufi women were incarcerated, they expressed their protest
in a letter to Mohammadi, the warden of Qarchak.
According to prison
rules, the Prisons Organization is obliged to separate prisoners based on their
crimes and incarcerate them in separate cellblocks.
However, the Sufi women
who are prisoners of conscience sentenced on national security charges, are
being kept among ordinary prisoners accused of drug-related charges, theft,
murder and other social crimes.
Three of them were being
kept with prisoners charged with financial crimes but prison authorities
replaced the latter with prisoners convicted of drug-related charges, theft and
social crimes.
The Sufi women were
arrested during the crackdown on the protest of Gonabadi dervishes on February
19, 2018, and have been imprisoned in Qarchak Prison since February 20 last
year. Each of them have received a five-year sentence.
