Members of the Association to Defend Child Laborers visit with Behnam and Nima Ebrahimzadeh

Members of the Association to Defend Child Laborers visit with Behnam and Nima Ebrahimzadeh.

Committee of Human Rights Reporters – On April 22nd, a number of child laborers along with members of the Association to Defend Child Laborers visited labor activist Behnam Ebrahimzadeh and his hospitalized son Nima at Mahak Hospital in Tehran.

According to CHRR, members of the association and a number of child laborers from the Nemat Abad area went to the hospital for a visit and shared their stories with Nima, the hospitalized cancer stricken son of the labor activist, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh.

During the visit, which lasted about an hour, the children made introductions to Nima and shared their stories; what line of work they did, how old they were when they had to start working, and gave a description of their daily life routines.

One child by the name of Jabar described his difficult working conditions and explained how he had managed to obtain his diploma while working with the help of activists from the Association to Defend Child Laborers. Another child named Kabir shared that he continues his studies even though he works as a vendor in the streets and in the subway stations. Nima Ebrahimzadeh told his peers about his illness and shared how the stress of his father being jailed had made him sick. He continued that he would fight his disease and like them, he intended to continue his studies despite his obstacles.

In January 2013 Behnam Ebrahimzadeh wrote a letter from prison insisting on being granted temporary leave to see his cancer stricken child. A group of political prisoners from Rajai Shahr prison also released a statement calling for the release of the father in order to be by the side of his ailing son.

On April 20th while the extension of furlough was denied for incarcerated blogger, labor and child activist Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, his cancer stricken son Nima was hospitalized.

According to CHRR, with the denial of an extension for his father’s furlough, the stressed young Nima Ebrahimzadeh was stricken with thrombocytopenia (low blood platelet count) and was hospitalized in Mahak Hospital in Tehran. The children’s rights advocate had been granted furlough on 200 million tomans bail, but he was ordered by judiciary officials to return to prison despite his son’s illness.

Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, member of Committee to Pursue Establishment of Labor Unions and Association to Defend Child Laborers, was arrested by agents of the Intelligence Ministry on June 12, 2010. Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court handed down a 20-year prison sentence, which was later commuted by the appellate court to 5 years in prison.
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