A US-based rights group condemned Tehran for shutting down one of its oldest child welfare organizations and detaining its founder, calling it an assault on civil society as Iran faces worsening child labor and poverty.
Iran's security forces arrested child rights defender Hossein Mirbahari, a founding member of the Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children, at his sister’s home in Tehran on October 15.
New-York based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said on Monday Mirbahari has been held without charge and denied access to his family and lawyer, with his whereabouts still unknown.
“Mirbahari’s unlawful arrest and the closing of the organization mirror the Islamic Republic’s dismantling of other NGOs, and reflect its intensifying drive to wipe out independent civil society organizations,” CHRI’s executive director Hadi Ghaemi said in a statement.
He added that the government’s actions showcase what he called the Islamic Republic's "lawless thuggery", accusing it of fearing “any independent societal activities, no matter how vital a role they play.”
Security forces sealed the organization’s office in Tehran the same day as Mirbahari’s arrest and confiscated equipment and communication devices, effectively halting its operations.
The NGO's closure and Mirbahari's arrest were first reported by the Iranian outlet Emtedad in mid-October.
The group had been operating legally since 2002 after receiving official registration from the Interior Ministry, providing education, health services, and psychological support to vulnerable children.
CHRI called on the United Nations, UNICEF, and the European Union to press Iran for Mirbahari’s immediate release and to demand the reopening of the organization, citing his fragile health following chemotherapy.
The closure comes amid what CHRI described as an escalating campaign by Iranian authorities to criminalize humanitarian work and silence advocates for children, women, and marginalized communities.
The group said the shutdown has already disrupted schooling for many children the NGO supported.
Iran faces a worsening child labor crisis, with estimates ranging from 1.5 to 7 million working children. Official figures cited by Iran’s Parliamentary Research Center in 2023 said 15% of the country’s children are engaged in labor, while Tehran’s City Council estimated 70,000 child laborers in the capital alone.
The Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children had served as a rare legal platform for advocacy and assistance to working and street children across Iran, employing specialized units in education, health, social work, and research before its forced closure.
The closure marks a continuation of previous crackdowns on independent civil society organizations.
Past Iranian NGO closures
Last April, Iran shut down the Mehr-e Shams-Afarid NGO safe house, which provided support and empowerment programs for vulnerable women.
In August 2022, Iran shut down the Noor Sepid Hedayat Social Harm Reduction Institute, an NGO that supported women with substance abuse issues and vulnerable children in Shoush, a neighborhood in southern Tehran.
Iranian authorities shut down Khaneh Khorshid, an NGO aiding women with substance abuse in southern Tehran, in March 2022.
In 2020, Iranian security forces arrested Sharmin Meymandinejad, the founder and director of the largest anti-poverty NGO in the country, Imam Ali's Popular Student Relief Society (IAPSRS), and subsequently closed down its headquarters.
In August 2019, another independent charity supporting marginalized women and girls in Tehran, Omid-e-Mehr was forcibly closed by the Iranian authorities.
Those targeted include economists Parviz Sadeghat and Mohammad Maljoo, sociologist Mahsa Asadollahnejad, writers and translators Shirin Karimi and Heyman Rahimi, and researcher Rasoul Ghanbari.
Tehran's reformist leaning Shargh daily reported that security forces arrested Sedaghat early on Monday morning after searching his home and seizing books and electronic devices, while fellow economist Maljoo was summoned for questioning.
“We still don’t know why this happened. Up to this moment my father has not contacted us,” Shargh quoted Sedaghat's daughter Mahtab as saying.
Shargh also said that Maljoo had been scheduled to appear before security authorities for questioning. According to his family, after his belongings were confiscated he went to the location specified by the security agencies.
The report added that there is currently no information about Maljoo’s status and the reason for Sedaghat’s arrest remains unclear.
In a July article, Sedaghat had written that despite the ceasefire with Israel, “we continue to live within the same rhetoric, the same confrontational tone.” He warned that Iran’s economy “has been caught in structural blockage” and that without political reform, it is “pushing the country toward systemic collapse.”
In a separate report, Shargh said Mahsa Asadollahnejad, a PhD graduate in political sociology, was detained on Monday morning while at her parents’ home after agents seized her electronic devices.
Her whereabouts remain unknown and she has not yet contacted her family, it added.
Radio Zamaneh reported the arrest of Shirin Karimi, a writer, translator and researcher, after security forces raided her home in the morning searched the premises and confiscated her books and electronic devices before taking her to an undisclosed location.
Her family has received no information about the reason for her detention, according to the reports.
In another report, Shargh said security agents confiscated the electronic devices and books of writer and translator Heyman Rahimi on Monday morning.
Rahimi has been ordered to appear at a designated location on Tuesday for questioning, according to the report. No further details have been released about the reason for the summons.
Activists say Monday’s arrests targeted left-leaning intellectuals.
“The arrests of Parviz Sedaghat, Rasoul Ghanbari, Mahsa Asadollahnejad, Shirin Karimi and Mohammad Maljoo — all prominent leftist figures — show that the government is more concerned about the growing influence of independent leftist movements than about criticism from within the system (reformist or conservative),” Iranian Kurdish activist and journalist Kaveh Ghoreishi said on X.