Parvin Mohammadi
Parvin Mohammadi has been vice-president of the Free Union Workers of Iran (FUWI) since 2010 and a member since 2008. She was one of the six main organizers of the 40,000 signatures campaign against minimum wage in Iran in 2011. Between 2011 and 2013, the labour rights defender was subject to judicial harassment from the intelligence service for her work for improved labour rights. From the Semnan province in Iran, Parvin Mohammadi is a retired metal industry worker.
On 30 April 2013, Parvin Mohammadi’s door was broken-in, in reprisal for the FUWI’s call for peaceful assembly on Labour Day, and on 1 May 2013 while peacefully demonstrating outside the Ministry of Labour, the labour rights defender was arrested along with many other demonstrators.
Hope for political reform in Iran surfaced when President Hassan Rouhani assumed office in 2013 and dozens of opposition political figures and human rights defenders were released. However, violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and movement of HRDs continue to be prevalent.
