Iran Theocrats Launch Brutal Attack on Lawyer’s Memorial
Leading crowd in chants at the 7th-day memorial: Sepideh Gholian, Narges Mohammadi, and the deceased’s brother Javad Alikordi. Photo: Social Media
On December 12, a violent assault by a gang of Iran’s plainclothes and uniformed police forces was unleashed on a large crowd of mourners at the memorial/protest marking the seventh day after the death of Khosrow Alikordi in Mashhad, a large religious city in northeast Iran. Alikordi was a civil rights lawyer who was found dead in his office a week earlier. Many of Alikordi’s clients were protesters and political dissidents, including from the 2022-2023 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising. It was reported that he had passed a letter via a friend to the United Nations stating “I am at risk” and requesting protection shortly before his death. The official story is that the otherwise healthy 45-year-old man had a heart attack and bloodied his own face when he fell. But the authorities’ immediate seizure of his cell phone and all security camera footage from his office area, restrictions on where he could be buried, and pressures on his family raised suspicions among millions that he was murdered at the hands of the authorities.
Fifty memorial attendees were arrested on the spot or in following days, including 2023 Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi (who is on furlough for severe medical conditions) and former political prisoner Sepideh Gholian. Both of these women activists, who spoke and were leading people in chanting protest slogans, were severely beaten. They made only two brief phone calls to family members shortly after their arrests. Prosecutors announced on December 22 a complete cut-off of all phone contact for many detainees. Narges Mohammadi reportedly had to be taken to the emergency room twice after the arrest. Most concerning, there is no further news about many of the detainees over the past week. Several family members of the deceased, as well as other attendees, were also rounded up in the days after the memorial. The regime-affiliated site ISNA on December 26 quoted that the Mashhad prosecutor is reporting that 19 of the 50 had been released, mostly those with no prior record of activism. More ominous, the theocratic regime is doubling down on this repression of protesters. They have since raided Sepideh Gholian’s family house, seizing digital devices.
Below are excerpts of a statement against the attack on the memorial protesters posted by the Narges Mohammadi Foundation that is administered by her family and supporters in Europe:
The Issue: More than 1,000 political, social, and cultural activists condemned the recent arrests in Mashhad Iran in a joint statement.
Issued in protest against the arrest of participants in the memorial ceremony for Khosrow Alikordi, a lawyer and human rights defender, the statement brings together—for the first time—the signatures of figures from a wide range of backgrounds: political, civil, and labor activists; members of the cultural and artistic community; journalists; university professors; families of those killed, veterans, and justice-seeking families; former cellmates; women’s rights activists; independent lawyers; those harmed during the Mahsa movement; and student organizations. The signatories call for the immediate and unconditional release of all those detained.
Among the signatories of this statement are a wide range of well-known figures: from artists and cultural activists such as Jafar Panahi, Taraneh Alidoosti, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Mohammad Rasoulof…. Among the signatories are also notable lawyers…. Families seeking justice,… feminist and women’s rights activists…as well as human rights defenders like… have also expressed their support. Political figures including Nahid Taghavi, Mansoureh Behkish, Naser Mohajer along with student activists… university professors… as well as political prisoners like Saeed Madani, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Zartosht Ahmadi Ragheb, and Mohammad Najafi, are also listed among the signatories. In addition, former cellmates… families of martyrs… veterans… labor and teacher activists… and environmental activists… have also signed and supported this statement. Beyond a simple protest against one arrest, this statement is a rare sign of unity and shared purpose, cutting across the significant political and intellectual divisions currently fragmenting Iran.
Here is the statement:
Over 1,000 political and civil activists, journalists, filmmakers, students, university professors, and former cellmates issue joint statement protesting recent arrests in Mashhad. Collage: @nargesfnd
Over 1,000 political and civil activists, journalists, filmmakers, students, university professors, and former cellmates issue joint statement protesting recent arrests in Mashhad. From the right to mourn to the demand for freedom
20 Dec 2025, Tehran - Iran
More than 50 citizens and civil society activists, including Narges Mohammadi, Alieh Motalebzadeh, Hasti Amiri, Sepideh Gholian, and Pouran Nazemi, were arrested in Mashhad during the memorial ceremony for Khosrow Alikordi, a principled lawyer and human rights defender.
We, the signatories of this statement, strongly condemn the arrest of participants in this ceremony. We condemn the violent arrest and the beating of our loved ones present at the memorial. We also condemn the complicity of those who accompanied this unrestrained violence with inhumane behavior. What happened in Mashhad was a trampling of all aspects of human dignity.
Holding memorial and mourning ceremonies for the deceased is an inseparable part of fundamental human and civil rights. Every person has the right, without fear of threats or arrest, to participate in mourning rituals, peaceful gatherings, and civil activities. What occurred in Mashhad once again showed that even the simplest and most humane forms of collective empathy are met with repression and violence.
Nevertheless, the widespread presence of citizens from various parts of the country at the memorial for Khosrow Alikordi is a clear sign of social solidarity and the deep respect of people who consider the suffering of others as their own and do not remain silent in the face of injustice.
We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all detainees and emphasize their fundamental right to access phone calls, family visits, independent legal counsel, and medical care. We also call on all those who believe in civil liberties and human dignity to stand alongside political and civil prisoners and be their voice….
The above call to support and sign the statement was posted as a petition (https://c.org/SmTJynFMZg) on December 20 at change.org and is being signed by people from around the world.
Brave voices of truth must not be drowned out by regime’s dogs
In addition to the many prominent voices of conscience who have signed the above petition and statement, there have been courageous voices from inside Iran, including immediate support letters from political prisoners held in the Evin women’s ward as well as Ghezel Hezar prison.1 Political prisoner Ahmadreza Haeri wrote, in part:
….The immediate release of all those arrested at the memorial ceremony for the late Khosrow Alikordi is the demand of all of us, and responsibility for any violation of these loved ones’ right to health lies with the entirety of the current ruling establishment…. Among these, the beating of the photographer, journalist, and women’s rights activist—my dear sister Alieh Motalebzadeh, who is undergoing treatment for a serious illness—has caused us even greater sorrow and concern. I think of Alieh’s daughter, who at this very hour, in the loneliness of exile, must be overwhelmed with anxiety and dread for her mother. Truly, what kind of people are you, that Iranians are not safe from your repression—neither in their homeland nor in exile—and from its lasting consequences?
….A human being cannot treat another human being this way. They learned from 1988 that many of their forces still retained some trace of humanity, and so they turned to hiring thugs and assembling gangs of criminals—so that today they could trample Alieh’s body, despite her illness, under the hooves of their inhuman beasts and arrest her; the same beasts who turned their hatred on the bodies of Narges and the others, beating them, and who even show no mercy to the grieving Alikordi family.
“But the voice of truth is heard above the barking of your unleashed dogs, and the courage of the best children of this people multiplies. Very soon it will be too late for you to realize how utterly alone you are before the vast multitude of tens of millions of people whom you have humiliated and from whom you have taken even the right to a normal life.
Ahmadreza Haeri, Ghezel Hesar Prison, December 14, 2025
Solidarity Message from a True Friend of the People
Narges Mohammadi, Ariel Dorfman. Farsi text is the start of Ariel’s message. Photo: @nargesfnd
Ariel Dorfman, the world-renowned author, playwright, novelist, academic, a signatory to the IEC Emergency Appeal and a genuine friend of the Iranian people, sent an endearing message to the Narges Mohammadi Foundation after the mass arrests at Mashhad, reposted in Farsi on Burn The Cage on December 24:
If there is one thing I have learned from the years fighting the Pinochet dictatorship and other State sponsored human rights abusers over many decades, it is that those who misuse their power tyrannically against innocent individuals, are weak and afraid, as well as cowardly. This is proven yet again in the persecution of Narges Mohammadi in Iran. The repression against her, as well as so many other defenders of human rights and dignity, like my friends Nasrin Sotoudeh and Reza Khandan, shows the ethical bankruptcy of the regime. Their only answer to demands for justice is injustice, their only response to demands for freedom is to incarcerate, their only reply to the search for light is to impose more darkness. But justice, freedom and light will prevail against fear and blind hatred. You are not alone in your struggles, my friends. The whole world is watching and sending solidarity.(emphasis ours) – Ariel Dorfman – Dec 2025
Shameless B.S. from a True Enemy of the People
The U.S. State Department issued a memo on their Farsi X account on December 19.
The US State Department called on ICE to release people detained, warning of risks of abuse and unfair treatment. After the arrest of 39 people at a memorial ceremony, and even more afterward, including members of the deceased family, authorities have refused to provide a full list of detainees, the charges against them, or where they are being held,” the department said in a post on its X account. “Without transparency and due process, the risk of torture and fabricated charges increases,” it said. The State Department said detainees had been denied access to legal counsel, necessary medication and contact with their families, and were subjected to violence and threats. We call for their unconditional release, immediate medical care for those in need, an end to violent attacks on peaceful gatherings, and respect for the right of society to peaceful assembly and free expression,” it said.
Oops, wrong memo. The above is actually our mock memo of the one that the U.S. State Department Persian account issued warning Iran, not ICE. The actual memo was titled “US urges Iran to free detainees after arrests at memorial for rights lawyer.”
In any serious struggle for societal change, it is crucial to distinguish real friends from real enemies. Besides the U.S.’s long sordid history of coups (1953) and bombings (June 2025) against Iran, Ariel Dorfman’s letter should remind us of its crimes in Chile and many other countries. Under Trump, the U.S. has already deported two planeloads (with 120, then 55 people) back to the Execution Republic of Iran. As we have correctly emphasized over and over:
The governments of the U.S. and Iran act from their national interests. And, in this instance, we the people of the U.S. and Iran, along with the people of the world, have OUR shared interests, as part of getting to a better world: to unite to defend the political prisoners of Iran. In the U.S., we have a special responsibility to unite very broadly against this vile repression by the IRI, and to actively oppose any war moves by the U.S. government that would bring even more unbearable suffering to the people of Iran.
We demand of the Islamic Republic of Iran: FREE ALL THE MASHHAD DETAINEES! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW! We say to the U.S. government: NO THREATS OR WAR MOVES AGAINST IRAN, LIFT U.S. SANCTIONS!