Even amid the rubble of the U.S.-Israeli bombings and threats of renewed attacks, and even under the internet blackout and daily executions of political prisoners by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), sparks of resistance and solidarity exist and continue. Activist women inside Iran call for demanding the release of political prisoners and an end to executions. Iran’s political prisoners persist in their brave hunger strikes amid heightened violence against them. Up against current lack of global protests, a pro-IRI speaker at a university in Colombia was met with protest banners, posters and flyers denouncing both the U.S.-Israeli war AND the IRI regime’s internal repression. Also of note were the scores of U.S. vets arrested for protesting the war on Iran at the U.S. capitol last week. 

Urgent Appeal from Women Activists Inside Iran

A group of women inside Iran described the dual threats on their lives from war and repression, in a statement¹ excerpted below (read in English on IEC website): 

For many of us (especially women and others who have long faced repression under a repressive system) what was already clear was proven in practice: bunker-busting bombs, missiles, and drones bring nothing but more killing, displacement, poverty, unemployment, inflation, and a deeper climate of fear and suffocation…This has created the conditions for the regime to impose its harshest forms of repression, censorship, and control. Hardly a day passes without long lists appearing in tightly controlled domestic media—lists of those arrested, sentenced to death, or stripped of their property under the false accusations of "espionage," across different parts of the country…People who are being kidnapped or sent to the gallows in the current climate of silence and repression are the very forces that could shape future movements, and the current criminal regime is trying to eliminate them to further entrench its authoritarian rule…Nothing is more urgent than saving the life of a human being whose most basic right to live is stripped away by placing a noose around their neck and kicking away the stool beneath their feet. Let’s be the voice of the prisoners! Let's unite against the executions and for the release of political prisoners.

A group of women from [the cities of] Tehran and Karaj in Iran, April 21, 2026

Assault on Prison Protests

Political prisoners, in particular those active in the “No to Executions Tuesday” weekly hunger strike —now is in its 117^th consecutive week in 56 prisons across Iran— face new grave dangers with two new major assaults on the strike movement. 

After the sudden executions of six long-time political prisoners and four recent protesters at the Ghezel Hesar Prison last month, prison authorities of the IRI carried out a brutal transfer of at least eight political prisoners from Tehran’s Evin Prison (and at least one from another prison) into solitary confinement cells in Ghezel Hesar. Since solitary confinement cells are often used to prepare prisoners for imminent execution, and Ghezel Hesar is by far the site of the most executions in Iran, these transfers are a grave threat.

 According to a report reposted by Burn The Cage, “…informed sources [reported that], these prisoners were moved with handcuffs, shackles, and blindfolds during the transfer… and some were beaten in the process, [their hair was forcefully shaved]… the resistance of some prisoners to this action was met with violence and they were beaten again… These prisoners are being held in a confined space…without access to fresh air, telephone calls or visits from their families; conditions that have raised serious concerns about their physical and mental health.”

According to a Human Rights Activists News Agency report, this violent transfer took place after some prisoners held a commemoration and distributed food to other prisoners in honor of their six comrades who had been recently executed. Besides these newly transferred prisoners, Ghezel Hesar is still holding four leading hunger strikers in solitary confinement without any outside contact for weeks. Then, according to a Free Reza Khandan post, the head of Evin Prison distributed a circular in the women’s ward, according to which any prisoners who participate in protests, strikes or even “sloganeering” will be transferred to solitary confinement. The head of Evin Prison has clearly stated that if prisoners participate in the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign, in addition to being transferred to solitary confinement, their phone calls will also be cut off.

These attacks highlight the determined resistance of political prisoners and their potential impact on the larger society not to accept the regime’s repression. More broadly, this highlights the fact that in many cases political prisoners continue to act as principled fighters and thinkers who can play an important role in the debate over finding a liberatory future for Iran — hence they are a danger to the regime and a beacon of resistance to the world.

Death Sentences are Fast Tracked

After several weeks of being unable to send its weekly statement due to communications blackout, the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign sent a statement on April 21: 

Today, many of the protesters of January 2026 are living in solitary confinement and in the regime’s dungeons completely cut off. According to the news received, dozens of people are being held in solitary confinement…[in one prison] alone. Most of these prisoners are young and their lives are in serious danger... We call on all human rights activists, trade unions, civil society, political activists, and anyone who opposes the death penalty not to be intimidated by the oppressive conditions that the government has imposed on the streets with martial law, to protest in any way possible to confront these repressions and the long lines of executions. The future undoubtedly belongs to those who have paid the price for freedom.

Just in the last week, three young protesters falsely accused of setting fire to a mosque were sentenced to death², as was Dr. Ameneh Soleimani, charged with providing medical aid to injured protesters in the January 2026 uprising. Many of the so-called legal processes have been so rushed that when the government announced the execution on the morning of April 25 of Erfan Kiani, accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a January 8 protest in the city of Isfahan, many human rights organizations had not even heard of his case. He was the 19^th political prisoner executed in just one month; so far in 2026 at least 612 prisoners overall have been hanged, according to iranrights.org. 

The attempt by the fascist-imperialist Trump et al. in the U.S. to capitalize on the executions by the IRI is despicable. A frequently shared meme gives a succinct retort on behalf of three U.S. citizens murdered by ICE. Enough said.

From Colombia: No to war for empire; Free political prisoners in Iran

Quemar La Jaula (“Burn the Cage” in Spanish) in Colombia posted on April 23: “Yesterday at the National Pedagogical University in Bogotá, Iran's consul was giving a talk on the situation of the war against Iran. A group of revolutionaries put up a banner about the Iranian women's struggle, placed hundreds of posters and distributed hundreds of leaflets with items from the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran's Political Prisoners in the hallways leading to the presentation by the pro-Islamic Republic of Iran event.”

This action from far across the ocean gives heart to the internationalists who stand with our people in Iran, and brings joy to all those in Iran calling for global solidarity to their struggle for a better world.

68 U.S. Vets Arrested at Capitol

On April 20, a group of U.S. veterans staged a protest condemning the war on Iran by occupying the U.S. Capitol rotunda. Wearing T-shirts with “Veterans Against Fascism” and carrying red tulips in memory of Iranians killed in the U.S.-Israeli war of aggression, 68 of them were arrested. They represented different veterans’ organizations (including Vets for Peace, About Face) and points of view, but this opposition to the war from inside the “belly of the beast” is something too missing in the face of Trump’s threats on April 7 to annihilate Iran’s entire civilization overnight. We need much, much more of this!

In view of this, we want to highlight a statement “We stand with the people of Iran” sent by some members of Vets4Peace in Seattle to the January 28 event by the IEC and the Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco Human Rights Working Group as the U.S. attack loomed. 

We veterans of the U.S. Imperialist war machine stand with the Iranian people as they rise up in the face of 2 oppressors— the United States-Israel alliance and their own theocratic regime…We have learned some of the horrors U.S. imperialism inflicts on the people of the world through being part of its war machine. We have come to realize that people everywhere have basic rights as people — and on this basis we stand with people anywhere who are denied those rights. The question is sharply posed — will the people of the world be able to break out of these horrors, or will they be forever at the mercy of oppressive ruling classes.

More than ever, it is urgently demanded that those of us inside the U.S. loudly protest the unjust war of aggression on Iran by U.S.-Israel as well as continue the fight to free all Iran’s political prisoners NOW!