A group of civil activists from Sanandaj gathered in support of Zahra Mohammadi

Civil activists in Sanandaj gathered in front of the city's courthouse in support of Zahra Mohammadi, a civil activist and member of the "Nozhin" social and cultural association.

These civil activists and members of the "Nozhin" association gathered in front of the Sanandaj city courthouse in recent days, coinciding with International Mother Language Day, to condemn the five-year prison sentence given to Zahra Mohammadi, a Kurdish language teacher.

According to a video posted on social media, in this peaceful rally, the demonstrators held placards in Kurdish, demanding a prison sentence for this civil activist and a ban on education in their mother tongue.

This civil activist from Dehgolan, who had been teaching Kurdish in Sanandaj and the surrounding villages for ten years, was arrested on Thursday, June 2, 2019, in a raid by the Sanandaj Intelligence Agency on his private home along with two other members of the Nozhin Association. In December of the same year, he was temporarily released on bail of 750 million Tomans until the end of the proceedings.

In July of this year, Zahra Mohammadi was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Branch 2 of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Saeedi, on charges of "forming a gang with the intention of disrupting national security." This sentence was ultimately reduced to 5 years in prison by the Kurdistan Provincial Court of Appeal.

Maya Mohammadi, Zahra Mohammadi’s sister, previously told VOA that the member of the Nozhin Social and Cultural Association was sentenced to prison for teaching Kurdish to children. The Nozhin Association is one of the cultural and social associations in the Kurdistan province that began operating in 2013 and is active in several cities in the province, including Sanandaj, Kamyaran, Dehgolan, Saqqez, and Baneh.

The US State Department has repeatedly condemned the violent confrontations and widespread repression of protesters, as well as the repeated and persistent violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by the ruling regime in that country.

Source: Voice of America