Executions Surge in Iran 

As the deadline for an appeal of the death sentence of rebel rapper Toomaj Salehi looms,¹  Iran’s Islamic Republic (IRI) continues a surge in executions with a reported 40 prisoners being executed by hanging in just the first 10 days of May. The World Coalition against the Death Penalty estimates there are 5,000 prisoners “currently under the death sentence” for various offenses under Iran’s draconian Sharia law.

Weeks before the execution order for Toomaj, Amnesty International alerted:

The number of executions in 2023… marks a 48% increase from 2022 and a 172% increase from 2021. Iran’s killing spree is continuing into 2024.... Execution numbers recorded by Amnesty International are minimum figures and the organization believes the real number is higher.²

Many of the executions are for “drug-related” charges which are supposedly prohibited by international legal standards as these disproportionately consist of the poor and ethnic minorities, e.g., in Iran, the Baluch are about 5% of the population but are 20-30% of those executed in recent years.³ 

Yet the evidence indicates that the IRI is using executions as revenge against political dissidents including targeting the most beloved and defiant voices such as outstanding rap artist Toomaj. He is a representative and example of the uncompromising Woman, Life, Freedom uprising of and for women. The executions surge coincides with other ultra-repressive measures, such as the recent “Noor Plan” using police/vigilante violence, even using drones and facial recognition tools to demonize, brutalize and terrorize Iran’s women and their supporters.⁴ 

The historic Woman, Life, Freedom uprising (2022-2023) had won the support of millions around the world as it rocked all of society in Iran and set the misogynistic mullah regime back on its heels. The ever-intensifying repression since then serves to bolster the regime’s damaged legitimacy, to reassert social control and as warning against further resistance, especially among women and youth rebels. If the IRI gets away with an unopposed murder of Toomaj, it can open the floodgates to kill off many more (e.g., those lesser known). His execution order is in itself an outrage but also a live threat to all political prisoners there. A commensurate response to this is needed by the world’s lovers of justice, art and Iran’s heroic “best of the best” resisters who refuse to be victims and model prisoners.

Rising Resistance Faces Off with Execution Surge

There are many posts on social media of widespread graffiti by youth and others across Iran against the execution of Toomaj and against forced hijab. There are many forces, including political prisoners, issuing statements and protests by the Iranian Diaspora as we reported on last week.

In several of Iran’s prisons, the courageous “no to executions” Black Tuesday weekly hunger strike is now into its 15^th week. There have been protests of various sizes against execution, including one in Lordegan where a doctor held up a sign against executions of political prisoners and was jailed. Many took the opportunity of the widespread actions and concern about Toomaj to hold posters and spread information about him, but also other less well-known political prisoners on death row. 

More than 100 figures from the worlds of music, culture and human rights activism—including Coldplay, Sting and Margaret Atwood—have signed an Index on Censorship statement calling for Toomaj’s immediate, unconditional release. 

This has been echoed by many artists, activists and revolutionaries around the world, including on May Day 2024 and in viral posts of thousands on social media. Quemar La Jaula held a “Day of Culture for the Life of Rebel Rapper Toomaj Salehi” in Medellín, Colombia on May 11. They have been subtitling music videos in Spanish to bring Toomaj’s searing lyrics to the Spanish speaking audience. 

All this is heightening the stakes for the IRI which has responded by doubling down on repression and executions. Last week, the IRI even confirmed the sentence of world-renowned film director Mohammad Rasoulof to 8 years in prison and flogging (whipping!) after he refused to withdraw his latest film from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. It also arrested other rappers, Danial Moghaddam and Wafa Ahmadpour, holding them in solitary for posting a protest video “Be Ready.” The attacks on artists are part of suppressing a whole society’s ability to dream.

U.S. and Iran Are Both Gangsters but the U.S. Is the O.G.

In the context of the extremely fraught and dangerous situation in the Middle East, where the genocidal assault on Gaza escalates with Israel’s invasion of Rafah, a yet relatively small but growing number of voices inside Iran and in the Iranian Diaspora are fighting to link their struggle against the executions of Iran’s oppressive theocratic regime with the struggle to stop the U.S./Israeli genocide in Gaza. A statement from a group in the Iranian Diaspora @NoToExecutionCampaign, posted a call for Iranians broadly to stand against Israel’s genocide in Palestine, and for 

…all liberators … to combine the protests of ‘no to execution’ and ‘no to Islamic Republic’ with ‘no to war’ so that both sides do not commit crimes against humanity, i.e., neither the Islamic Republic and its proxy groups in the region nor the Israeli criminal regime should take advantage of this strategic situation. (excerpted and translated by IEC volunteers)

Immediately upon learning of Toomaj’s execution order, our campaign jumped into the fray with our statement to Defend the life of Toomaj with its clarifying political demands. 

Many of the IEC’s Emergency Appeal signers (e.g., Noam Chomsky, Raymond Lotta, etc.) are well versed in the original genocidal history of the U.S. and why the IEC demands are on point. Now, as the U.S. imperialists and IRI traffic in pointing fingers at each other’s crimes to score political points, it is at the expense of real lives of the people in Iran, Gaza and around the world as to who is the supposed “liberator.” The IEC statement makes clear that we—the people of the world—are the ones we must mobilize in our own interests to act now and not look to or rely on these oppressive regimes and their institutions or mouthpieces.

Over 100 people have signed on to the IEC statement on defending the life of Toomaj. This includes people or groups from Canada, Bangladesh, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Colombia, Iceland, Ireland, and France. It includes individuals from organizations (for identification by individual signers only) like Veterans for Peace, MAWO-Mobilization Against War and Occupation (Canada), an Amnesty International chapter member in the U.S., Zanan Group of Northern California, The Dogdoge Collective (Bangladesh), Bangladesh Students Federation and Bangladesh Students Front. Some notable renowned voices of conscience include author/playwright Ariel Dorfman, Mothers of Khavaran’s Mansoureh Behkish and poets Farnaz Fatemi, Rafael J. Gonzalez and D.L. Lang, as well as Ron Jacobs (Counterpunch), Jamileh Davoudi (Journalist, and Zanan Group of Northern California), Jennifer Moore (University of New Mexico Law School), and Gregory "Joey" Johnson (flag burner and Revcom Corps).

We call on everyone to continue sharing our statement and urging others to sign it as part of advancing the struggle to defend Toomaj’s life in the coming tense days and to free ALL Iran’s political prisoners