Hajar Saeidi, a long-standing activist for women’s and workers’ rights, has been summoned, arrested, and sentenced several times due to her activities.

In August 2020, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, sentenced her to five years in prison, suspended for four years, on charges of “acting against national security” through membership in the Communist Party of Iran (Komala), as well as participating in protest gatherings and maintaining connections with labour activists.

Security forces arrested Saeidi and seven other labour activists while they were visiting the family of Houman Abdollahi, one of the protesters killed by state forces during the anti-government uprising of Women Life Freedom in Sanandaj on 17 May 2023.

Saeidi was provisionally released from the Juvenile Detention Centre of Sananda on bail of to 5 billion rials – nearly 10,000 USD – after a month in detention.

Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj, presided over by Judge Ali Saeidi, sentenced her to two years in prison on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” by forming a communist group.

The sentence was later reduced to one year’s imprisonment by Branch Four of the Kurdistan Province Court of Appeal.

On 18 November 2023, Saeidi was sent to the women’s ward of the Juvenile Detention Centre of Sanandaj to serve her sentence.

1. Komala Kurdistan’s Organisation of the Communist Party of Iran: The Komala of Revolutionary Toilers of Iranian Kurdistan, known as Komala, a Marxist-Leninist organisation with Maoist inclinations, after nearly a decade of clandestine activities, publicly declared its establishment on 15 February 1979, simultaneously with the victory of the 1979 revolution.

In 1984, Komala and several other leftist Iranian groups founded the Communist Party of Iran (CPI), and Komala was renamed to Komala Kurdistan’s Organisation of the Communist Party of Iran.

The purpose of forming this party was described as the struggle to “establish a workers’ government and create a socialist society” in Iran.

Since 1991, the CPI has experienced several splits. Currently, apart from Komala Kurdistan’s Organisation of the Communist Party of Iran, two other parties that split from the organisation also use Komala in their official names. The central headquarters of the Komala Kurdistan’s Organisation of the Communist Party of Iran is in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

2. Women, Life, Freedom Uprising: Jina Amini (Mahsa Amini), a 21-year-old Kurdish woman from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, was arrested on a street in Tehran on 13 September 2022 by the morality police because of the way she was dressed. Shortly after her arrest, she was transferred to Kasra Hospital in Tehran with head injuries and symptoms of brain death, and passed away three days later on 16 September 2022. The government’s killing of Jina sparked unprecedented anti-government protests, which began with a large turnout at her funeral at Aichi Cemetery in Saqqez and quickly spread to many cities across Iran. These widespread protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which lasted for several months, resulted in at least 527 protesters being killed and thousands injured and arrested. The protests are known for their central slogan of “Women, Life, Freedom” (Kurdish: Jin, Jiyan, Azadi).

3. Article 610 of the Islamic Penal Code: “If two or more individuals gather and conspire to commit crimes against the internal or external security of the country or to facilitate the means for committing such crimes, they shall be sentenced to two to five years’ imprisonment, unless they are considered mohareb (those who commit enmity against God).”