Parvin Mohamadi, the prominent workers’ activist, deputy director of Independent Workers’ Union of Iran, was arrested on 20thJanuary 2019. On January 21st she was released on bail but a day after branch 12 of Pardis judiciary issued a temporary arrest warrant against Parvin Mohamadi.
The authorities sent Parvin to Kachooei prison but unexpectedly, overnight, she was moved to Evin prison.
On 4th February 2019, Parvin’s lawyer, Mr Mohamad Ali Jedari Forooghi, released a statement to announce that “Branch 102 of criminal court of Fardis has approved the temporary detention of Parvin Mohamadi on the bases of proves of propaganda against the regime and
actions against national security”
Parvin is currently in the notorious Evin prison. The accusation, the arrest and imprisonment of Parvin is another proof of the regime’s aggression against the defenders of workers, their rights, and those who fight for a humane life for everyone.
Miss Sharafodin, Parvin’s mother, in an interview with N
ew Channel TV (an Iranian satellite television channel) said:
“Parvin Mohamadi was workers’ representative. She
defended workers. She defended the destitute. Me and my child grew up with struggle and hard work. I raised my children with struggle. We defend the hard-working people. Is defending the workers who don’t have food to eat, the workers who don’t get paid or don’t have a job is a crime? What kind of crime is it? Doesn’t making it a crime mean that human is not entitled to humanity? Human isn’t allowed to share another’s pain? If someone speak of others’ pain must that person be arrested and thrown into prison? We did the revolution 40 years ago for a better life but since then we haven’t seen any progress. Only we heard they arrested someone. Only we heard they executed someone. They killed someone and we suffered.
When they arrested my child my heart went to those mothers whose children are in prison. My heart went to those mothers whose children have been executed. What have they done to deserve it? What have they said? What is their crime? Where have they caused any destruction? Where ha
ve they cause fire? As if they have picked up guns to fight. What have they done?! If someone raises voice is either hungry or is jobless? If people are not hungry and provided for they wouldn’t intervene in the affairs. Then there wouldn’t be a problem. It’s the same for my child.
Obviously I was sad when they arrested her, I feel sad fo
r the others too. But in the other hand I am happy to have raised my child to this age without her doing anything wrong. She has done nothing wrong. Whatever she has done has been humane. She has shown her humanity. She sacrificed her life, her wealth and everything else. She nev
er pursued authority and wealth and comfort. Because she grew up with struggle and felt the pain, she understands the pain of poverty and misery. So I wasn’t too sad and am
proud of her. I’m just upset for not knowing where they have taken her and why.
Answer to why they have taken her is the difficulty for me. For what crime and what evidence have they taken her? People who steal or commit murder get arrested. Is speaking in defence of workers’ right a crime? No, I’m not sad and am very proud of myself. Despite being a worker and an illiterate, I have raised a child who has made me proud. It’s my pride that in this world she didn’t do money laundering, she didn’t commit any fraud, she didn’t steal, she did nothing wrong. She defended workers’ right and if the people say that’s wrong then I accept.
Parvin from the when she became a worker has been defending workers’ rights. She has been defending the homeless and the right-less. Never wanted anything for herself. I too, grew up in poverty and struggled a lot and am proud to have raised such a child who helps the people today. In the past 40 years we struggled a lot. In the beginning of my youth when my children were very young I struggled a lot to raise them and it’s been 40 years that we endure. From the time of revolution I ha
ven’t seen any progress. We were revolutionaries at the time. We made that revolution happen for a better life. We wanted to be free from poverty and misery. Now we see everyone around us is suffering. One’s son is jobless. One’s daughter is jobless. One is single. One can’t afford to get married. One can’t afford deposit for a home. I hear this kind of things and suffer. I have suffered and I suffer.
Let the world hear me. Let me say that Parvin and other activists in prision haven’t done anything wrong. Parvin is not alone. In this world she isn’t the only Parvin Mohamadi, there are thousands like her who defend rights and people’s rights. They defend their rights.
I’m an old woman sitting here, I have no home nor anything else and live in poverty. Why should it be this way? Why should I be in poverty and endure misery in this country where there is everything for everyone? It’s normal to think it and ask that. Why should I be hungry. What
should I do when the country doesn’t take care of its people and day by day people get hungrier and poverty and unemployment goes up. With this low wages we can’t afford to pay for food, we don’t have money to pay, then we suffer. What should we do?
I ask the people to be aware. Parvin is not the only who has been arrested like this. There are many like her that I have heard of. We are not deaf and blind, we know. We see and hear what kind of misery has been imposed on the people. And now they have arrested my child. She is not the only one who has been arrested. I am mother and I endure. My relatives endure and feel sad. Why should the people endure all the pain and deal with such things? Why? What for? These “whys” trouble me.”
The moving words of Miss Sharafodin reflect the reality of life for the many in Iran who suffer from poverty, hunger, oppressions, injustices, embezzlemen
ts, and the whole system that serves a bunch of capitalist parasites.
Parvin is not alone, and is not the only passionate defender f humanity in prison:
Parvin Mohamadi, Jafar Azimzadeh, Esmaeil Bakhshi, Sepideh Ghoiyan, Behnam Ebrahim Zadeh, Esmaeil Abdi, Mohamad Habibi, Abdolreza Ghanbari, Rohollah Amini, Mahmood Beheshti, Atena Daemi, and many more are currently in custody of Islamic Republic of Iran and we urge you to demand immediate and unconditional release of all the political activists, workers’ activists and civil right activists in Iran.