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 […]

 

Iranian Teachers Jailed, Shackled After Peaceful Protest

Retired and active Iranian teachers demonstrate outside Tehran’s planning & budget office, May 10, 2018, to demand greater government funding for education. In this image protesters hold a sign advocating free education for Iranian children. Iranian security forces later broke […]

Teachers, Environmental Activists Arrested Across Iran

Thousands of teachers, both active and retired, took to the streets in Tehran and several other Iranian cities May 10 to protest their paltry salaries and what they view as a lack of investment in education on the part of […]

Trump sabotages Iran nuclear deal

9th May 2018 Jane Green, on behalf of the Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights (CODIR), assesses the impact of US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. US President, Donald Trump, has ended the engagement of the […]

Trump revives worries of war with Iran

Posted by Saeed Kamali Dehghan at The Guardian, 20:37: Ordinary Iranians were on tenterhooks, monitoring the developments closely, particularly any immediate impact on the country’s national currency, which hit an all-time low last month, prompting panic-buying of hard-to-find dollars amid […]

Netanyahu’s Performance Only Proves Exactly Why Iran Nuclear Deal Needs to Remain in Place

CounterPunch by PATRICK COCKBURN The trove of Iranian documents about its nuclear programme presented by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as proof of Tehran’s duplicity contain nothing of substance that was not known before. Though the disclosure was made in order to justify […]

Iran: New evidence reveals deliberate desecration and destruction of multiple mass grave sites

Bulldozing, road construction, mass rubbish dumping and new burial plots used to compromise and destroy mass graves Iranian authorities deliberately eradicating vital forensic evidence that could hamper the rights to truth, justice and reparations At least 4,000-5,000 people secretly buried […]

Iranian teachers’ leader on hunger strike

Jailed Iranian teachers’ leader Esmail Abdi has gone on hunger strike in protest at his continuing unlawful detention and the “massive violations of civil rights of teachers and workers in Iran”. Mr Abdi, of the Trade Association of Teachers in Tehran, was […]

Imprisoned Iranian teacher, Esmail Abdi, to begin hunger strike as of 17th April 2018

Esmail Abdi: “I will start hunger strike in protest against widespread violation of civil rights of teachers and workers.” This spring of 2018 is also the fortieth spring since the revolution, a revolution which promised overcoming dictatorship, establishing democracy, creating […]

Solidarity with hunger strikers demanded

8th April 2018 Press release For immediate use The Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights (CODIR) has called for the immediate release of hunger striking human rights activists unjustly held in Iranian prisons. Following their arrest without […]

“When God Sleeps”: An Iranian musician critiques his society

Till Schaudner’s new documentary When God Sleeps is a robust, thoughtful account of punk rocker Shahin Najafi’s struggle to have his music and ideas heard despite death threats from the Iranian government. Shahin grew up in a small northern Iranian town near […]