Parviz Ahsani
Parviz Ahsani is a Kurdish human rights defender, biology teacher and trade unionist from Divandarreh, Kurdistan Province, and a member of the Kurdistan Teachers’ Trade Association. He is the co-founder and director of the NGO, Jileh Mo, which focuses on promoting socio-cultural rights and capacity building for women and youths in Divandarreh.
He has been actively involved in defending the rights of teachers and advocating for better educational conditions in Iran. In June 2022, Parviz Ahsani was arrested along with several other union members in a crackdown aimed at preventing a peaceful teachers’ protest. He was detained by the Divandarreh Intelligence Office for 76 days before being released on bail. On 19 August 2025, Parviz Ahsani was permanently dismissed from his teaching position by a decision of the Board for Administrative Violations of the Ministry of Education after 21 years of teaching.
Hope for political reform in Iran surfaced when President Hassan Rouhani assumed office in 2013 and dozens of opposition political figures and human rights defenders were released. However, violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and movement of HRDs continue to be prevalent.
Human rights defenders and journalists are arrested, detained and prosecuted in unfair trials. HRDs continue to receive death threats and are subjected to harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention. They are refused bail or receive extreme bail conditions. HRDs are additionally subjected to systematic surveillance and their family members are targeted. Journalists have been subjected to flogging for criticising the government.
