Atekeh Rajabi denied access to indictment before court session
On 20 August 2023, woman human rights defender Atekeh Rajabi received a phone call from Branch 7 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court summoning her to a court session for the following day. This occurred despite Atekeh Rajabi not receiving any official summons via SMS or in writing. The woman human rights defender was not given an opportunity to see the content of the indictment before the court session.
Atekeh Rajabi is woman human rights defender, educator and former primary school teacher. She works on children’s rights, women’s rights and right to education in Iran. In the aftermath of the September 2022 protests in Iran, she has been vocal, including through her social media posts, about teachers’ rights, prisoners’ rights and violence against young protestors, especially the poisoning of school girls in Iran.
On 20 August 2023, woman human rights defender Atekeh Rajabi received a phone call from Branch 7 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court summoning her to a court session for the following day. This occurred despite Atekeh Rajabi not receiving any official summons via SMS or in writing. The woman human rights defender was not given an opportunity to see the content of the indictment before the court session.
Atekeh Rajabi is woman human rights defender, educator and former primary school teacher. She works on children’s rights, women’s rights and right to education in Iran. In the aftermath of the September 2022 protests in Iran, she has been vocal, including through her social media posts, about teachers’ rights, prisoners’ rights and violence against young protestors, especially the poisoning of school girls in Iran.
On 20 August 2023, the woman human rights defender Atekeh Rajabi learned of a summons to a court session in Branch 7 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court, scheduled to take place the following day, on 21 August 2023. The woman human rights defender had not received any official summons via SMS or in writing and was not given a chance to see or review the content of the indictment against her. The woman human rights defender has had previous hearings on several charges of “propaganda against the state,” “gathering and colluding against internal and external security,” and “promotion of corruption and immorality.” The woman human rights defender was also previously charged with “engaging in activities with the intention of toppling the Islamic republic in Iran,” in relation to a hunger strike while in detention in May 2023. In the absence of access to the indictment content, the nature of the charges being brought against her at Branch 7 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court remain unknown.
On 9 May 2023, Atekeh Rajabi was violently arrested during a teachers' peaceful assembly organised by the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Associations (CCITTA) to protest against the series of deliberate poisonings of school girls across Iran. The poisoning had been taken place in reprisal against women and young girls vindicating their rights not to conform to Iran’s discriminatory veiling rules. While in detention, the woman human rights defender began a hunger strike in protest for the violence against her and threats against her family. She was released on 14 May 2023 on a bail of IRR fifteen billion.
On 21 November 2022, Atekeh Rajabi was terminated from her job as a primary school teacher in a case related to her engagement in the September 2022 protests. On 24 September 2022, the woman human rights defender had initiated a strike by refusing to go to school, to demand justice and the release of detained teachers’ rights defenders. The verdict was issued by the oversight committee for offences committed by staff of the Ministry of Education, in the Razavi Khorasan province branch. According to this verdict, the woman human rights defender’s termination was decided based on three grounds: ongoing absence from work from 24 September 2022 until the issuance of the verdict; not respecting the country’s mandatory veiling rules and publishing videos of herself without a hijab on social media; and participating in school strikes to support detained teachers. On 24 September 2022, the woman human rights defender initiated a strike by refusing to go to school, to demand justice and the release of detained teachers’ rights defenders.
Front Line Defenders is seriously alarmed about the arrests, temporary detentions, physical assaults and legal actions against human rights defenders in advance of the anniversary of the September 2022 protests and believes the ongoing judicial harassment of Atekeh Rajabi is part of a wide crackdown on human rights defenders in Iran.
Front Line Defenders is particularly concerned by the breach of international human rights law in Iran’s treatment of human rights defenders where hundreds of human rights defenders have been arrested, charged and subjected to hefty prison sentences without adherence to due process or fair trials. Front Line Defenders believes that the women human rights defenders Atekeh Rajabi is being targeted as a result of her legitimate and non-violent human rights work towards the promotion of women’s rights and children’s rights, including the right to education, in Iran.
