Iran sentences female labour activist to death

Iran carries out the most executions per capita in the world

Sharifeh Mohammadi, a 45-year-old industrial design engineer and campaigner for workers’ rights, was condemned to death on 4 July on charges of “bagh-ye” (“armed rebellion”). She has been held in Lakan and Sanandaj prisons, northwestern Iran, for over 240 days.

Ms. Mohammadi was arrested at her home by regime intelligence agents on 5 December 2023 and was subsequently held in solitary confinement as well as subjected to physical and psychological torture by interrogators to extract a “confession” from her.

Human rights organisations have reported that the death sentence on Ms. Mohammadi was passed by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Rasht. She was accused of “armed rebellion” for her involvement in a coordinating committee for trade union activity in Iran and her alleged membership of the banned Komala party. The decision was based on articles 211 and 287 of the Islamic Republic’s penal code.

Ms. Mohammadi’s family have adamantly refuted the accusations, stating she was a trade unionist but had nothing to do with Komala.

Membership of the national Coordinating Committee for Assisting Trade Unions in the Formation of Labour Unions (CCATUAFLU) is legal in Iran. However, Ms. Mohammadi’s ordeal yet again serves to illustrate how the regime treats conscientious objectors.

The campaign against Ms. Mohammadi’s sentence has the support of the main workers’ organisations in Iran – notably the Coordinating Committee of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations (CCITTA) which declared that the targeting of civil, political, and trade union activists following the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement underlines the growing and sharpening divide between the people and the government in Iran. 

Syndica-e Sherkat-e Vahed (the Tehran public bus company union) has also called upon human rights advocates in Iran and around the world to condemn Ms. Mohammadi’s death sentence and to demand its immediate annulment and her unconditional release.

The Tudeh Party of Iran have already openly denounced Ms. Mohammadi’s sentence as well as those of several others in similar cases.

CODIR and other human rights organisations specialising on Iran have reported that in the first six months of this year there were at least 249 executions, of which ten were women. The Islamic Republic of Iran carries out the most executions per capita in the world every year.

Ms. Mohammadi’s case is particularly troubling given that she is a woman, a labour activist, and a Kurd… All three attributes being grounds for her targeting by the cruel ruling theocracy, a “crime” in their eyes!

In summer 1988, the Islamic Republic executed around 5,000 political prisoners originally sentenced on account of their affiliation to left and progressive political organisations. None were afforded legal representation or anything remotely resembling due process. Those representing Iran’s brightest hope, from an exalted generation, were among this number. It is rightly referred to as the “National Catastrophe” in Iran to this day.

CODIR calls upon all those supporting human and democratic rights and opposing the death penalty to join its campaign against executions in Iran!