Zia Nabavi
Zia Nabavi is a human rights defender and campaigner for students’ rights. In 2008, he was denied access to higher education due to his trade union activities and subsequently established “Defend the Rights to Education Committee” (DREC) together with a group of other students, who were deprived of the right to continue higher education in Iranian universities. The human rights defender is a graduate student of sociology at Allameh Tabataba'i University and a member of “United Students' Associations”, which consists of over 30 Iranian student unions. He has previously served eight years and eight months in prison in conjunction with his human rights activities in support of the promotion of civil and political rights in the country.
Judicial harassment is one of the most common tactic used to silence HRDs and independent voices. Vaguely-worded charges of “acting against national security", “propaganda against the regime” or “enmity against God” are often used.
