ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Three Kurdish women activists arrested earlier in January have been transferred to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence detention center in Urmia, a Kurdish human rights monitor reported on Monday.
Asrin Mohammadi, Darya Talabani, and Azima Naseri, who were among those detained in mass arrests in Buchan, Mahabad, and Tehran earlier in January were transferred to al-Mahdi detention center, the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported on Monday.
Human rights organizations have said they do not know why they were arrested, or if charges have been brought against them.
“The security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have detained at least 24 Kurdish civilians and political activists across the country since 9 January,” informed sources told the KHRN on January 15.
On January 11, the network reported at least 11 Kurdish students and activists arrested across Iran in the span of just three days.
The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported on January 11 that at least 14 Kurdish students had been arrested since January 7.
The whereabouts of many of those arrested are yet to be known by their families, but family members of some of the detained have told Hengaw that they received a one minute call from their loved ones to notify them of their arrest. They were reportedly forced to speak in Persian.
The IRGC is known for torture and harsh treatment in its prison wards, usually holding political prisoners.
At least 2,000 people were arrested in Iran in 2019 for joining armed Kurdish forces or for activism deemed suspicious, according to data provided to Rudaw by KHRN founder Rebin Rahmani.
At least 400 people were arrested in 2020, Rahmani said.
In January, at least 34 people were arrested, two of which were later released, Hengaw’s director Arsalan Yarahmedi told Rudaw English on Monday.
Since the heightening of US-Iran tensions and re-imposition of US sanctions on Iran in 2018, Iranian authorities have tightened the noose on labor activists, journalists, satirists, environmentalists, anti-death penalty campaigners, and researchers, detaining them in droves and sentencing some in trials whose fairness has been questioned.
Tens of thousands of people are held as political prisoners in Iranian jails, for charges including advocating for democracy and promoting women's or workers' rights.
Ethnic minority groups, including Kurds and Azeris, are disproportionately detained and more harshly sentenced for acts of political dissidence, according to a July 2019 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran.
