The Persecution of Teacher Activists in Iran: A Report on Sacking and Disciplinary Actions, Including the Forced Exile of Esmail Abdi

A recent report by prominent labour union the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations (CCITTA) has drawn attention to the continuing disturbing, indeed escalating, trend of teachers and education workers being targeted for persecution by the authorities in Iran […]

Fire at Rajaee Quay; Completely Charred Bodies Retrieved

CODIR: Thousands of port workers were victims of a catastrophe waiting to happen… Last week, CODIR published a detailed account of the catastrophe that hit Rajaee Quay, the Iran’s principal national seaport for international trade in the vicinity of Bandar […]

Labour activists have been arrested! Prison is Not a Place for Labour Activists!

CODIR has received verified reports and information from inside Iran that May Day and events to mark International Workers’ Day have yet again served as the precursor to the arrest of scores of labour activists and a wider clampdown by […]

CODIR demands justice for Iranian workers following the deadly blast at Bandar Abbas!

On this International Workers’ Memorial Day, Iran is reeling in the immediate aftermath of the latest in an all too long line of disasters to have befallen its long-beleaguered working people. Over the weekend just passed, international news outlets have […]

CODIR welcomes initial signals from US/Iran talks

23rd April 2025 Press release The Committee for the Defence of Iranian People’s Rights (CODIR) has welcomed the progress made so far in talks between the United States and Iran as a step towards limiting the possibility of a military […]

 

Massive teachers strike underway in Iran

CODIR calls for solidarity from the trade union and labour movement internationally Since December 2021, Iranian teachers and education staff – including retirees – and their representatives in the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association (ITTA) have been engaged in a new […]

Iranian women’s rights defender, Ms. Narges Mohammadi, stands defiant: “I do not recognise the verdict of the Revolutionary Court!”

Narges Mohammadi’s letter from Qarchak Prison: “During the sixty-four days I was held in Ward 209 [of Evin Prison], a prosecution was initiated against me and I was hastily investigated, tried, and sentenced, in a completely illegal, illegitimate, inhuman, and […]

CODIR Calls for the Release of Teacher Trade Union leader from the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, Iran:

CODIR today reiterated its call for the immediate and unconditional return of Mr. Mohammad Taghi Fallahi to his family, as well as the release of Mr. Esmail Abdi, the former General Secretary of the ITTA, and all other trade unionists, […]

Joint Letter of Nobel Laureates and Academics to UN for Release of Elite Students

23 January 2022: Several Nobel laureates & distinguished scholars have asked António Guterres and Michelle Bachelet to make every effort to ensure Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi, two students at Sharif University arbitrarily detained in Iran since April 10, 2020, are released […]

Firefighters protest for their rights

Thursday, 20 January 2022 – Marking the fifth anniversary of the horrific Plasco Building fire, which took the lives of sixteen of the firefighters who went to tackle the blaze in extremely hazardous conditions, and which saw the collapse of […]

Iran nuclear talks deadlock risks dangerous vacuum

A man walks past barriers in front of the Palais Coburg hotel in Vienna, where the Iran nuclear deal talks are taking place. Photograph: Alex Halada/AFP/Getty Images

Analysis: As clock runs down on Vienna talks, key obstacles remain to be cleared by Tehran and the west The countdown to the end of the six-month-long talks in Vienna on the future of the Iran nuclear deal has begun. No deadline […]

What’s at Stake in the Iran Nuclear Talks

GEORGE PERKOVICH,  KARIM SADJADPOUR While the United States needs Tehran to stop its enrichment program, the Islamic Republic is fighting for survival. Nuclear talks with Iran have resumed in Vienna, after former president Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Joint […]

Press Statement: “Death in custody of Iranian filmmaker and poet constitutes extrajudicial killing” says CODIR

Saturday, 8 January 2022 CODIR has joined the Iranian Writers’ Association (IWA) and other progressive and labour movement organisations in Iran to condemn the theocratic regime’s direct role in the death of political prisoner, Bektash Abtin, the renowned filmmaker, writer, […]

Communiqué of the Iranian Writers’ Association:
The “freedom-killer” regime has murdered Bektash Abtin!

People of Iran! Freedom-lovers of Iran and the world! Bektash Abtin (1974-2022), poet, filmmaker, and distinguished member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, has been murdered by the “freedom-killer” regime. On 3 December, Bektash Abtin presented himself to Evin Prison’s medical […]

The Looming Threat of a Nuclear Crisis with Iran

The Biden Administration faces a potential confrontation with a longtime rival that is better armed and more hard-line than at any time in its modern history. By Robin Wright December 27, 2021 Shortly after his Inauguration, Joe Biden appointed Rob Malley […]