Reza Sharif Bokani

Reza Sharifi Boukani is a Kurdish-Iranian journalist and human rights activist, with particular focus on executions, human rights violations, and the persecution of Kurdish activists and political prisoners in Iran.

With over 20 years of experience reporting to international media, Sharifi Boukani has worked for a variety of media outlets and human rights organisations.

Between 2005 to 2007, Sharifi Boukani led the Kurdish section of the Persian language human rights news platform HRANA, which is now closed. There, he was responsible for preparing and writing reports on the human rights situation in Iran, with special focus on the Kurdish ethnic minority. Being well-connected with other civil rights defenders providing first-hand information, including from inside Iran’s prisons, the pressure from the regime’s authorities led to the closure of HRANA’s Kurdish section.  

Despite threats, Sharifi Boukani continued working as a freelance reporter and journalist for a variety of news agencies and the Iranian Kurdish Writers’ Association, until he was arrested for his work in 2010.

Following his release from prison in 2013, Sharifi Boukani continued to and report for publications within and outside of Iran. Between 2013 and 2015, he worked for the Kurdistan Press Agency as a writer and editor.

After fleeing to Turkey, Sharifi Boukani worked as freelance reporter, as well as with human rights organisations, such as the Norway-based Iran Human Rights, the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, and the Human Rights Defenders Association of Kurdistan.

Throughout his career, Sharifi Boukani has faced censorship, harassment, threats, interrogations, torture, and detention because of his journalism and activism.

In the summer of 2022, Sharifi Boukani arrived in Oslo, where he in ICORN residence until 2024. He continues reporting on human rights abuses in Iran, including working on the 17th Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran (2024).