“We will not be satisfied with anything less than the downfall of the oppressors” 

Until a moment ago, she was by your side. You would have been drinking tea together and walking side-by-side in the dreary prison evening. Then she is gone suddenly and forever, never to return. This is the most bitter reality of prison. They come and snatch one of us, and kill her. Sometimes they return her lifeless body to her family, sometimes not. 

The suffering of prison is not because of the walls or the endless futility that never loosens its grip, but from the constant dread that shadows each tedious night: that this night that may be her last, and your hands are tied. The guards will come to take her away, the doors slamming one by one, her voice growing dimmer until it is lost to you. On the last night of her life, sitting or standing, she will wait for the morning call to prayer and the sunrise that will be her sunset.

The anguish of prison is heightened and given new meaning when you see your cellmate sent to the gallows. This kind of suffering changes you, it tears open your soul and toughens you, so nothing can make you tired, nothing can slow you down. You are dissatisfied with anything less than actual liberation. You become a link in what my comrades call the chain of free people, the chain forged from the resistance of friends who continued to cry out for liberation, despite the boots and blows of the dictatorships of Shah¹ and Sheikh [the Mullahs]… 

During years of living in the environment of security prisons and in forced coexistence with the [prison administration] that rains down endless repression, I have come to believe that we cannot be satisfied with anything less than the downfall of the oppressors. What we see going on today reflects the desperation of the servants of religious and royal tyranny. 

The conditions of struggle are not always the same for all of us, but the important thing is that our resistance is of the same kind…that it is like that of the “Golsorkhis”² who refused to bow down to the regime’s courts, and put the defending the people ahead of defending themselves.

The above is excerpted from a letter from Evin prisoner Golrokh Iraee³ on January 1, 2025. Read it in full on IEC's website. It is providing a visceral as well as lofty view of the leftist political prisoners, especially the women, who are calling on the world to note their humanity and their hopes for liberation and a far better world. 

Kurdish Woman in Danger of Execution Amid Regime’s Rampant Hangings 

The Islamic Republic of Iran lurched into 2025 by lashing out, having hanged some 900 people in 2024 and ramping up death sentences for 2025. At least 54 political prisoners have been sentenced to death in opaque trials, torture and no legal representation, says a recent HRANA report.⁴ First on the list are two women activists of the Kurdish oppressed nationality⁵: Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi. 

On January 8, Pakhshan Azizi’s lawyer, Amir Raesian, reported that Iran’s Supreme Court denied her appeal of her July 2024 trial and affirmed a death sentence for the unfounded charge of “armed rebellion.” Pakhshan Azizi is a longtime activist and social worker who rendered humanitarian aid to women and children in refugee camps in war-torn Kurdish regions in Syria and Iraq. She has been subjected to horrific torture, including guards carrying out mock executions and burying her alive 10 meters underground [approx. 33 feet]. If Pakhshan is executed, she will be the first woman political prisoner executed in 14 years, establishing a terrible precedent.⁶ 

The heightened execution threat to Pakhshan Azizi (as well as to Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, two other political prisoners whose death sentences were confirmed) sparked widespread outrage and acts of solidarity. Statements condemning the death sentences came from diverse forces including the Kurdish Women’s Union. Inside Iranian prisons, 68 prisoners signed a statement⁷ protesting the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the death sentences of her and two other political prisoners:

We call on the people of Iran, as well as international forums and organizations, especially human rights organizations, to use all their capacities to take effective measures in order to save the lives of political prisoners who are at risk of the death penalty, as well as the abolition of the death penalty altogether.

On January 9, a letter from a member of Iran’s Teacher’s Union was posted by @burnthecage challenging fellow teachers in saying: 

…teachers have a duty to speak out against the highest level of violence in society, namely structural and targeted violence such as executions. How can one be against violence in school but remain silent about violence in society?... But the problem is not limited to the government, the silence of society in the face of this repression also plays an important role in the continuation of this trend. A society that is indifferent to executions is practically [complicit] in this violence… Without a doubt, as the striking prisoners in the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign have emphasized, the only way to stop the execution machine is through unity and collective action. Although this path is difficult, by abandoning sectarian behavior and adopting a humane and collective approach, results can be achieved.

On January 10, award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi posted on Instagram a statement condemning the death penalty that said in part, “These executions reflect the political, ideological and economic collapse of the Islamic Republic system.” And rebel rapper Toomaj Salehi’s X account posted these words: “For a free world / For speaking freely / For #PakhshanAzizi / No to executions.” By the next day multiple videos show the same words sprayed onto walls across Tehran, Iran’s capital. 

“We cannot and will not remain silent” — Sepideh Gholian

Sepideh Gholian,⁸  a courageous young journalist and leftist political prisoner held in Evin, responded to the news of Pakhshan Azizi’s death sentence confirmation with a letter posted by @burnthecage. Read this and her second letter in full here.

Pakhshan is a symbol of love for humanity. But now she is facing a death that does not stem from justice but from hatred and revenge…. But this is not just the story of one person…. The story of Pakhshan is tied to the story of all of us, to the story of the expectant mothers whose children's blood is on the streets, to the story of the people for whom "life" has become a dream…. We cannot and will not remain silent. If we do not raise our voices today, tomorrow it will be yet another story. We want you to strengthen this chain. Don't let the story of Pakhshan be an endless story of regret and silence. Be her voice, be her story. We must fight "death" with "life." Let's make a chain out of life, against every loop of the hangman's rope. Will you take my hand to be the next link in the chain?

--Sepideh Gholian, Women's Ward, Evin Prison, January 12, 2025

U.S.: Bloody Hands Out of Iran and the Middle East!

Amidst this situation, the website Akhbar-Rooz reported that former U.S. Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo spoke at a January 9 conference in Paris, organized and sponsored by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). It is important that Iran’s political prisoners call for a non-sectarian approach to defending and freeing all political prisoners, of diverse political perspectives, given the lack of any semblance of due process in Iran’s fascist theocracy. But it should be noted that there is a section of Iran’s political prisoners such as Golrokh who oppose both the U.S. (who backed the Shah) as well as the current Islamic (mullah) regime. Forces such as the MEK have cozied up to fascist ruling forces in the U.S. for years, including during the first Trump presidency, and do not represent any kind of liberating alternative to the Islamic Republic fascist theocrats.

Stand with Iran’s Heroic Prisoners, Mark Anniversary of Weekly Hunger Strike

The end of January 2025 marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the “No to Execution Tuesdays,” the weekly hunger strike launched by political prisoners in the huge Ghezel Hesar prison. It has now spread to 30 prisons throughout the country. People throughout the world should find ways to join or share support for these heroic prisoners. Stay tuned to further news from the IEC on activities in solidarity with this prisoner-led movement against executions in Iran.