Kokab Bodaghi Pegah

Age: 41

Activism/rights: Trade unionist teacher

Status: Incommunicado after arrest

Judicial status: Unknown

Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of a fair trial and due process; denial of access to a lawyer; deprivation of salary and benefits; harassment and ill-treatment; unlawful confiscation of property; deprivation of public services; enforced disappearance

Kokab Bodaghi Pegah, a physical education teacher at secondary schools in Izeh, Khuzestan, and a trade union activist, has participated in numerous teachers’ protests and has criticised government policies regarding the suppression of teachers in her speeches. She has called on the government to take action to ensure free education and the right to education for all children. Kokab  has also strongly criticised, in a letter to the Minister of Education, the presence of clerics and seminary students in schools. Due to her trade union activities, Kokab has been repeatedly summoned, threatened with dismissal, and deprived of teachers’ salaries and benefits. In December 2022, the Department of Education of Izeh unlawfully removed her eligibility for benefits under the teacher ranking scheme from her new salary ruling, despite her qualification for it. In February 2023, the Khuzestan Primary Board for Administrative Violations sentenced this trade union activist to three months’ suspension from employment. In July 2023, this penalty was reduced on appeal to one month. On 17 June 2023, a hearing was held at the Revolutionary Court of Ahvaz to examine the charges against Kokab and other teacher activists. The charges included “propaganda against the system”, “assembly and collusion against national security”, and “membership in groups whose aim is to disrupt national security”. Although Branch 3 of the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court acquitted her and other members of the Khuzestan Teachers’ Trade Union, this ruling was challenged by the prosecutor’s representative under pressure from security institutions, and the case was referred to the Court of Appeal in August 2023. On 20 June 2024, the Primary Board for Administrative Violations of the Khuzestan Department of Education sentenced this teacher to four months’ suspension from employment on charges including “membership in a trade union WhatsApp group” and “cooperation and communication with the channel of the illegal Coordinating Council”. Her court hearing in October 2024 was held without her chosen lawyer being allowed to attend. Following the conclusion of the hearing, she was temporarily released on bail set at one billion tomans (approximately $15,000).

On 7 January 2025, Branch 3 of the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court sentenced Kokab to five years’ imprisonment on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” and one year’s imprisonment on charges of “propaganda against the system”. This ruling was later overturned by the Court of Appeal, and she was acquitted.

During the mass arrests that followed the January 2026 nationwide protests, Kokab was arrested at her home in Izeh on 26 January 2026, with her mobile phone confiscated and a summons served for her to appear before the Intelligence Office. She has been held incommunicado and her husband has officially filed a missing person complaint with judicial authorities.

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