Support the Immigration application of Yoosef (Aso) Abbas Zadeh

Ref: Yoosef (Aso) Abbas Zadeh
Home Office Number: Z1095300

I am writing in support of the new Immigration application of Yoosef (Aso) Abbas Zadeh from Sardasht in Iranian Kurdistan. His original application and appeal were refused.

Yoosef was a high school teacher and student counsellor in Sardasht. He also lectured in Western Azerbaijan Payam-e-Noor University Sardasht Unit. He was studying in Tabriz in 1999 when a severe crackdown by the Iranian authorities began. Since that time he actively campaigned for positive changes in Kurdistan, including championing human rights.

In recent years Yoosef was involved in the following activities:

• He was actively involved in campaigning for women’s rights, publishing ‘Kurdish Woman and Her Enemies’ in a student magazine called ‘Chia’.

• As a high school and university teacher he discussed Kurdish political issues which resulted in being interrogated by the security forces several times, with threats of expulsion and a prison sentence.

• He was invited as keynote speaker, in 2006 to a conference on the obstacles for women’s social integration in Iran, and in 2008 on ‘honour’ killing of women -both held in Sardasht.

• He was also active in the Non-Governmental Organisations: Sardasht Green Society and Tirozh, on environmental and social issues as they affect women and children.

• He was one of the main speakers at a congress organized on ‘Kurdish Identity’ in Tehran University in 2006.

• He published two articles in a Political-Social magazine (ROJA F) in Tehran University, which was banned in 2011 by the Iranian authorities.

Eventually he became involved in secret political activities against the repressive policies of the government of Iran. He became an active member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) buying books and journals for the party bases in Iraqi Kurdistan, but mainly preparing political and social reports upon the situation in Iran and especially Kurdistan. These books and reports were sent through a friend to party offices in Iraqi Kurdistan.

After two years of underground political activity, in late 2010, his close friend, and member of the KDP was arrested (and subsequently imprisoned). Yoosef was informed by the KDP to go into hiding, as he was also in danger of being arrested. After 10 days living underground in Tehran he was forced to leave Iran. Yoosef continues to campaign on human rights in this country.

Yoosef has lost everything as a consequence of standing up for the rights of women and for Kurdish people in general - against the repressive Iranian regime.

There is no way he can safely return to Iran, to his family, his friends, or to the profession he loved - his teaching. This new application, proving his political activity, is his only hope.