Two Ahwazi contract workers of Razi Petrochemical in Mahshahr (Ma’shour), Ahmad Asakereh and Javad Rashidi, attempted suicide by climbing onto the company’s pipelines in protest against being banned from entering the workplace and illegal wage deductions. They were dissuaded from the act after the intervention of firefighters, the county governor, and company officials.

In a statement, the Free Workers’ Union of Iran held the contractor, in collaboration with the governor’s office and the labor department, responsible for the repressive treatment and pressures on the workers. The union warned that the continuation of such conditions could lead to irreparable tragedies.

The two workers had previously been arrested and imprisoned for several days due to union activities. The roughly 1,500 workers of Razi Petrochemical have repeatedly protested in recent weeks against wage discrimination and the non-payment of promised benefits. Despite officials’ promises to address their demands, three workers—including Asakereh and Rashidi—have been banned from entering the company.

According to the workers, their main demand is the elimination of discrimination and the equalization of wages and benefits with other petrochemical plants in Mahshahr. However, security crackdowns and psychological pressure have pushed their protests to a critical stage.

Earlier, the Karun Human Rights Organization reported that security forces in Mahshahr had arrested two Ahwazi Arab workers—Ahmad Asakereh and Ahmad Rashidi, both employees of the contracting company Petrosaman Avaran Razi—on Thursday, August 14, 2025, on charges of union activity and posting critical content on social media. The organization added that these two workers had also been detained earlier, on August 11, 2025, by Razi Petrochemical’s security unit and released with a non-prosecution ruling, but were again pressured with new accusations: “publishing protest content on social media” for Asakereh, and “a verbal confrontation with the company’s CEO” for Rashidi.