ProtectDefenders.eu received worrying information about the sentencing of Kurdish women human rights defender Serveh Pourmohammadi, a board member of the Nozhin Socio-Cultural Association. On 26 November 2024, woman human rights defender Serveh Pourmohammadi was sentenced to five years in prison on the charge of “forming a group with the intention of acting against national security”.
The woman human rights defender has been advocating for the socio-cultural rights of the Kurdish community by teaching Kurdish, and organizing cultural events. The Nozhin Socio-Cultural Association raises awareness of the legal and cultural rights that ethnic groups are entitled to exercise in Iran, and has been active in promoting cultural education through the organisation and holding of Kurdish language classes in various cities in the region.
Because of its work promoting socio-cultural rights of the Kurdish community in Iran, the organisation and its members have been targeted with prosecution and subjected to humiliation during the different stages of their arbitrary trial.
These case are believed to be in retaliation of the defenders’ peaceful and legitimate work defending and promoting human rights in Iran, and raising awareness about the legal and cultural rights of ethnic minorities in the country.
ProtectDefenders.eu has also received news regarding the case of women human rights defender Narges Mohammadi, who was temporarily released from prison on December 4, 2024.
She was released following a complicated surgical procedure to remove a bone lesion in her leg suspected of being cancerous, bearing severe pain while battling several other medical conditions under a long period of detention. Although the reprieve fell short of the authorities’ initial promise of one month’s suspension, it was welcomed as a necessary first step in her recovery.
Narges Mohammadi is a woman human rights defender, journalist, author, and deputy director and spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) in Iran. Mohammadi has spent more than 10 years of her life in prison, with her current period of detention starting in November 2021. She is currently serving sentences totalling 13 years and nine months in prison, on charges including committing “propaganda activity against the state” and “collusion against state security.
Her case is exemplary of the repressive system put in place by the Iranian government to suppress critical voices advocating for a freer civic space in Iran.
