The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), which monitors rights violations against Kurds in Iran, reported the arrest of at least 11 students and social activists from different cities in the Kurdish west of the country.
According to KHRN, Iranian security forces arrested Dana Samadi, an activist and environmentalist from the city of Mariwan, on Friday.
On Thursday, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence arrested two students – Farzad Samani from Mahabad, and Sohaib Badroj from Mariwan – who were staying at the Kharazmi University dormitories in Karaj, KHRN said.
Security forces also arrested eight activists and environmentalists in Mahabad and Rabat in the same three-day period, the network added.
The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported on Monday that at least 14 Kurdish students have been arrested since Thursday.
The whereabouts of the arrested are still unknown to their families and the media, both Hengaw and KHRN said.
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. Another 25 to 30 people were arrested this year, he added, with some of this year’s arrests yet to be confirmed.
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.
