Age: 46
Activism/rights: Workers' rights activist
Status: Rasht Central Prison
Judicial status: 30 years’ imprisonment
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention; denial of access to lawyer; denial of fair trial and due process; deprivation of medical care; prolonged solitary confinement; incommunicado detention; torture and ill-treatment
Age: 46
Activism/rights: Workers' rights activist
Status: Rasht Central Prison
Judicial status: 30 years’ imprisonment
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention; denial of access to lawyer; denial of fair trial and due process; deprivation of medical care; prolonged solitary confinement; incommunicado detention; torture and ill-treatment
Sharifeh Mohammadi is a workers’ rights activist from Mianeh in Eastern Azerbaijan who lived in Rasht prior to her arrest on 5 December 2023. She was held incommunicado in solitary confinement where she was subjected to severe psychological and physical torture to extract forced confessions. On 11 January 2024, she was transferred to Sanandaj Central Prison for interrogation. According to her cellmates, signs of torture were visible on her face after she returned to Sanandaj Central Prison. During a 26-day period, she was only allowed to make two telephone calls to her family, and after three months she was finally permitted an in-person visit with her husband and 12-year-old son. Despite suffering severe spinal disc pain and an infection in one of her fingers, she was deprived of medical treatment. The initial charge against her was announced as “propaganda against the regime,” but after some time, security bodies alleged that the “Coordination Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organisations” was affiliated with the Komala Party and accused Sharifeh of baghy (armed rebellion). Sharifeh was sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Rasht Revolutionary Court on 4 July 2024. The sentence was issued despite the fact that the “Coordination Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organisations” had denied any links to armed groups and stressed the entirely sectoral nature of its activities. Mohammadi’s relatives also stated that she “had never engaged in armed activities and had only been sentenced to death for her peaceful activities in workers’ organisations.”
Vida Mohammadi, Sharifeh’s cousin, stated during Iran Human Rights’ weekly Spaces programme that the judge had attributed the charge of baghy to Sharifeh based on files found on her mobile phone. The files included materials relating to left-wing movements, leaflets concerning the release of female prisoners in Rasht, “No Death Penalty” leaflets and an article about the impact of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising on the workers’ movement.
On 13 October 2024, Branch 39 of the Supreme Court overturned her death sentence and referred her case to a court of equal standing for retrial.
On 12 February 2025, Branch 2 of the Rasht Revolutionary Court resentenced Sharifeh to death. According to her lawyer, Amir Raeesian, the ruling contained serious flaws and the court, without responding to the lawyers’ criticisms, fully accepted the investigating authority’s opinion without scrutiny and ignored its deficiencies.⁴²⁸ Her sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court on 16 August 2025. According to her lawyer, despite all the flaws in the case remaining unresolved, Branch 39 of the Supreme Court upheld her sentence. Ultimately, in November 2025, Sharifeh’s death sentence was commuted to 30 years’ imprisonment. She remains imprisoned in Rasht (Lakan) Central Prison.