Labor activists arrested in Iran

Labor activists arrested in Iran

Ms. Parvin Mohammadi and Mr. Jafar Azimzadeh

Reported by PMOI/MEK

Iran, Jan. 30, 2019 - On January 29, Iranian regime intelligence and security agents arrested the Mr. Jafar Azimzadeh, Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Free Union of Iran Workers, at 5:30 pm local time.

According to reports, Azimzadeh is detained at the 11^th police headquarter in Karaj, west of the capital, Tehran, and will be kept there until the judge's announcement. The agents confiscated Azimzadeh’s laptop, cell phone, and personal belongings.

A few hours later, security forces also arrested Ms. Parvin Mohammadi, the Vice President of the Free Union of Iran Workers, in Fardis district of Karaj and confiscated her belongings, as well.

Airing the news, the Free Union of Iran Workers condemned the arrest of its members.

Ms. Parvin Mohammadi and Jafar Azimzadeh participated in a labor rally

Azimzadeh was previously sentenced to 17 years behind bars for defending workers’ rights against the Iranian regime’s corruption and mismanagement. However, the Iranian regime considers these measures as acting against the regime’s security and propaganda, and against the mullahs’ rule in Iran. In 2016, Azimzadeh went on hunger strike in prison for 63 days.

“Where else in the world is a worker whose wage is four times below the poverty line forced by the police to work?” Azimzadeh asked in his August 2018 video message posted on Telegram, a popular messaging app used extensively in Iran. “This is a crime. This is slavery,” Azimzadeh said in his description of the workers’ situation in Iran.

Parvin Mohammadi was a former representative of Iran Metal Industries. In December 2018, she published an open letter strongly criticizing the clerical regime for ordering nightly raids targeting the houses of workers of Iran National Steel Industrial Group (INSIG) in Ahvaz and arresting them. In parts of this letter, Mohammadi addressed the oppressive rulers of Iran and wrote:

“Gentlemen, you arrested and incarcerated (some workers). From now on, however, what will you do with the rage and fury of thousands of INSIG workers and their families, and millions of workers and toiling wage earners across the country whose lives have turned into hell at your hands?

“Gentlemen, if the arrests and imprisonments of dozens of INSIG workers have put them in a position to stop their street protests for several days, you should rest assured that this is not the end of it.

“Because these are only moments and days when the rage and fury of INSIG workers and all workers throughout Iran are accumulated to soon erupt like a giant volcano.”