In early December 2023, three published reports together paint a horrific picture of the methods used by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) to punish and break especially political prisoners, as a key part of enforcing their stranglehold over society.
Human rights organizations with close ties inside Iran reported1 that as of December 2, the IRI had executed 707 people in the first 11 months of 2023. They note that almost 200 of these took place in October and November, while the world’s attention was focused on the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza. Among those executed suddenly and in secret were at least two young protesters from the unprecedented Woman, Life, Freedom (WLF) uprising.2 Other political prisoners who had already spent long years in prison were hanged in gruesome group executions, including an activist who had been acquitted for lack of evidence in the murder of a government official in 1981, who was rearrested on his return to Iran and executed with the exact same lack of evidence, and two Kurdish Sunni religious activists in prison since 2010.
Executed protester Milad Zohrevand, 21 years old. See Footnote 2.
Most of the executions were for alleged drug-related “crimes”. These executions rose by 94% in the year after the start of the WLF uprising (September 2022 to August 2023) with the executed victims overwhelmingly from oppressed ethnic groups.3 Iran Human Rights reports that since 2021, a shocking 40% of those executed for alleged drug-related charges have been Baluchs, an oppressed minority who make up only about 5% of the population. Sistan and Baluchistan is the southeast region of Iran with the most severe poverty where protests sparked by the WLF uprising continued many months longer than other regions in the face of deadly repression.
The Sadistic and Misogynistic Sexual Assault of Protesters
Also in December, Amnesty International published a 120-page report titled, “They violently raped me: Sexual violence weaponized to crush Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom uprising,” based on their interviews with 45 victims, including 26 men, 12 women and 7 children.
“The harrowing testimonies we collected point to a wider pattern in the use of sexual violence as a key weapon in the Iranian authorities’ armory of repression of the protests and suppression of dissent to cling to power at all costs,” Amnesty International’s Secretary-General said. “Iran’s prosecutors and judges were not only complicit by ignoring or covering up survivors’ complaints of rape, but also used torture-tainted ‘confessions’ to bring spurious charges against survivors and sentence them to imprisonment or death.”
Interviewees reported being gang raped by Iran’s Special Forces police. One told Amnesty that “Plainclothes agents made us face the walls of the vehicle and gave electric shocks to our legs…They tortured me through beatings… and raped me… I was really being ripped apart….” Another interviewee recounted being raped by the Special Forces police described the long-lasting psychological toll: “I don’t think I will ever be the same person again. You will not find anything that will bring me back to myself, to return my soul to me… I hope that my testimony will result in justice and not just for me.”
Torture by Drugs
The IRI has “updated” its gruesome punishments for resisters to its oppressive rule, adding high-tech pharmacological torture to its tools of repression like floggings and public hangings. In November, the UK-based Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI), published a well-documented study of this. It summarizes:
“Recently released prisoners have reported to the CFPPI that it has now become standard practice for prison guards to forcibly administer drugs to the prisoners as part of psychological and physical torture to extract a confession. It is reported that drugs have been added to the prisoners’ food and drinking water. Many prisoners have reportedly developed addictions in prison, which continue even after their release…
“Pharmacological torture is the use of psychoactive, psychotropic drugs or other types of drugs to punish, extract information, or to subdue prisoners into compliance by causing distress in the form of pain, anxiety, panic, psychological disturbances, immobilization, hallucination, paranoia, disorientation, and addiction. Of all forms of torture, pharmacological torture is the most egregious as there may be little or no violence involved, leading [to] no obvious visible physical signs which would cause suspicion of torture.”
Among the detailed case studies is the translation of an audio message from Saman Yasin, Kurdish rapper arrested for his support of the WLF uprising. The message, translated from Persian to English by CFPPI, describes pharmacological torture in Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital. The visit took place after Saman had already undergone physical torture and a horrifying mock execution in which he was taken to a gallows blindfolded and cuffed, and a rope put around his neck. He asked for medical treatment, and instead was taken to the psychiatric hospital.
“… They forced me, over these ten months, to confess and pressured me to take drugs and injected me! The last time they claimed in the news that Saman Yasin had attempted suicide, I hadn't done it! They forcibly fed me four pills in prison that time. When I regained consciousness, I was inside the infirmary, and I really don't know what had happened and how long it took me to come to my senses… I urgently need to be hospitalized outside the prison in a specialized facility. My balance is not returning, everything is dark, and I have dizziness… Then when I sleep I see dreams of execution or torture.”
Screenshot from Saman Yasin’s video Haji, in which he wears a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt. Photo: Screenshot from Saman Yasin's video
He concludes: “I, myself, was a child laborer, the voice of injustice for Kurdish children and the poverty of Baluch people…. That's why I'm a rapper. Why have they targeted me? Is my crime singing?” July 2, 2023, Rajai Shahr Prison
There is a thread of defiance such as this that runs through the statements from Iran’s many heroic political prisoners in the face of the regime’s brutal treatment. Rebel rapper Toomaj Salehi noted in a video during his brief release from prison last month, “Even there a little news of the support you are giving to me and others was very, very welcoming and heartening news, and was giving us a new energy. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to endure these psychological injuries.”
As a North Carolina prisoner recently captured in a letter to the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF) “…The Iranian struggle is particularly heartening and heartbreaking.” Which will it be is up to all of us, not just the brave fighters and dreamers inside Iran and its dungeons.
Added Importance of Global Spotlight to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners
Toomaj’s comment testifies to the crucial role of the grassroots movement that the International Emergency Campaign is part of. As ex-political prisoner Somayeh Kargar said recently… “As someone who has experienced imprisonment, white torture, solitary confinement, interrogation and government pressure, I'd like to tell you not to underestimate your struggle and your protest movements…. The prisoners are under harshest pressure to either surrender or be isolated. But they resist, hold up their heads, and say No! Our responsibility is to not forget about them. We should be their voice and show in any form possible that we are alongside them. When I was in Gharchak Prison, I heard that a statement was written for the freedom of political prisoners, and in it people like Ariel Dorfman was a signatory. To see this, and hear about such news, was so inspiring and heart-warming. Yes! We are the people of the world, and we create our own justice seeking movement.”
Narges Mohammadi: “I am one of millions of proud and resilient Iranian women who have risen up against oppression”
Narges’ image is projected onto the hotel where Nobel Prize winners traditionally greet the crowds. A large crowd marched to the spot carrying torches and chanting “Woman, Life, Freedom.” December 10, 2023 Photo: AP
The recent Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Narges Mohammadi puts emphasis on the continuing urgency to step up struggle to free Iran’s political prisoners. On December 10, Narges was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Oslo, Norway. The award was accepted by her husband Taghi Rahmani with their teenage twins Kiana and Ali as Narges is in Iran’s Evin prison. She is serving a 10-year sentence for supposedly “spreading propaganda against the state”— in defiantly exposing their reactionary regime and upholding the righteous Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.
At the same time as Narges delivered her acceptance speech in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, Ali and Kiana in Oslo were delivering the same acceptance speech4 which had been smuggled out of Evin Prison. In it their mother said:
I am one of millions of proud and resilient Iranian women who have risen up against oppression, repression, discrimination, and tyranny. I remember the unnamed and courageous women who have lived a life of resistance in various areas of relentless oppression. I write this message from behind the high, cold walls of a prison… I am an Iranian woman, a proud and honorable contributor to civilization, who is currently under the oppression of a despotic religious government… the widespread Women, Life, Freedom movement emerged as a continuation of historical struggles, shaped by the agency of Iranian women, following the killing of Mahsa Amini… and accompanied by extensive support from men and youth in Iranian society… Resistance is alive, and the struggle endures….
Iran’s theocratic rulers had arrested Narges 13 times, convicted her five times, and sentenced her to 31 years in prison and 154 lashes yet she remains determined in her resistance and said in a letter to the Nobel Committee: “I am going to stand up for freedom and equality even if it costs me my life." This should inspire all who hunger for justice and a better world to stand with Iran’s political prisoners who have stood up for themselves and others. To paraphrase Taghi Rahmani’s remark in Oslo about Narges that we should all emulate that “she always thinks of others before herself.” This is the spirit that the world needs more of — and so urgently — in our common struggle to be free from oppression and repression in Iran and all over the world.
We demand the immediate release from prison of Narges Mohammadi and ALL Iran’s political prisoners NOW!
#FreeNahid on the soccer field in Germany on Human Rights Day
During the whole Bundesliga (Federal League) soccer match in Cologne, Germany, on Human Rights Day, December 10, the demand for Freedom for political prisoner Nahid Taghavi appeared writ large: On a banner out on the field, on the jerseys of the @Hawar.help scoring-girls team, even on the big screen:
This was an inspiring example of building struggle for political prisoners globally based on initiative of people themselves. A participant says afterwards: "We want many people to know about Nahid's situation and to fight for her release. It feels good to help others that need it." Watch a short video and read IEC’s English translation of the full German post on Instagram.