(Beirut) – Iran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced a labor activist to death on a charge of “armed rebellion against the state,” based on an allegation of membership in an opposition group, Human Rights Watch said today. The court on July 4, 2024, communicated the verdict against Sharifeh Mohammedi to her husband, Sirous Fathi, Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported.
HRANA reported on July 4, that intelligence agents arrested Mohammadi at her home in Rasht on December 5, 2023. A source close to Mohammadi’s family told HRANA that she had been a member of the Association of Labor Organizations until 2013. This group has no connection to Komala, a Kurdish social democratic party that had previously engaged in armed conflict in Iran and reportedly still maintains an armed wing, to which she was accused of belonging.
“Iranian authorities’ not only relentlessly target women activists, but they carry out additional attacks and repression on women from ethnic and religious minorities, said Nahid Naghshbandi, acting Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “If incoming President Pezeshkian wants to signal that he represents real change, he should start by halting this ongoing repression, including death sentences.”
Mohammadi was born in East Azerbaijan and was a member of the Coordination Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations. The committee was founded in 2005 by several Kurdish activists to assist and facilitate the creation of independent labor organizations. Iran’s security agencies considered this committee to be affiliated with the Komala group without evidence. Although the founders and members of this committee have been arrested and imprisoned multiple times, none of them have been accused of “armed rebellion against the state.”
Sixteen women political prisoners from Evin prison wrote in a letter on July 9, that they “stand alongside Sharifeh Mohammadi and all those threatened by the death penalty.” The letter stated that “Sharifeh Mohammadi, a labor activist, was sentenced to death after seven months of detention, torture, and interrogation based on baseless accusations.” The Nobel Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was among the signatories.
Since the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, Iranian authorities have intensified their crackdown on women activists and human rights defenders, employing harsher measures and issuing severe sentences to suppress dissent and silence opposition voices. This includes sentencing 11 women's rights and political activists to prison terms on March 27.
The targeting of ethnic and religious minorities is apparent in state crackdowns in regions like Kurdistan and Sistan and Baluchistan. Two other Kurdish women political activists, Pakhshan Azizi and Warisha Moradi, are on trial in Tehran on charges of “armed rebellion against the state.”
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported that intelligence agents arrested Moradi, a member of the East Kurdistan Free Woman Society (KJAR) on August 1, 2023, in Kermanshah. She is also accused of “armed rebellion against the state.”
KHRN said that she faced pressure and threats to make forced confessions. On December 26, 2023, after five months in solitary confinement, she was moved to the women's ward of Evin prison. She continues to be denied her right to make phone calls and meet with her family.
KHRN said that intelligence agents arrested Azizi on August 4, 2023, also on charges of “armed rebellion against the state.” She was previously arrested by security forces in 2009 during a protest gathering of Kurdish students at the University of Tehran against political executions in Kurdistan. She was released on bail after being detained for four months. Several members of her family were also detained but released after a few days of interrogation. She has not been allowed to see a lawyer and has faced threats and pressure to confess, according to KHRN.
Jina Modares Gorji, a journalist and women's rights activist from Sanandaj, was sentenced to 21 years in prison and exile by the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj in May 2024. She faced charges of “forming illegal groups with the aim of overthrowing the state,” “collaborating with hostile groups and governments,” and “propaganda against the state.”
“Iranian authorities have demonstrated their disregard for minority and women's rights through the brutal repression of protests and arrests and mistreatment of women’s activists,” Naghshbandi said. “They should release Sharifeh Mohammadi without delay.”
