A month ago, the IEC translated and published a letter from forty fearless sisters and brothers chained inside Iran’s Evin Prison, which we called on people to endorse:
They call to you—the people of Iran and the world—to treasure their humanity and your own. Again, we call on all to join their fierce fight to stop the rampant executions. It is our blood down there.
IEC’s mass email about this call (Dec. 24) was opened by a higher percentage of recipients than previous IEC emails: 49%, with over 150 who opened/forwarded twice or more; with heartwarming messages for the prisoners by people from all walks of life in 26 cities of five countries (U.S., England, Australia, Canada and Ireland):
*Solidarity with Iran’s political prisoners. Set them free!—Peter Tatchell, director of Peter Tatchell Foundation in London.
*My heart and prayers go out to you. You speak words of love and wisdom.—Robert Bossie, retired Roman Catholic priest.
*Show Clemency and free these prisoners. They have done nothing wrong.
*We are with you in spirit.
*In solidarity with political prisoners in Iran, with revolutionary love. We need and we demand: A whole new way to live, a fundamentally different system!
*You are not alone! Many care and stand with you! Blessings for freedom!
*We support you, stay strong!
*We stand with you, dear friends! Thank you for your courage!
*I stand with you in prayers, in heart, in love, in solidarity, in speaking out, in marching, in writing letters, in my days, nights & quiet time! God bless you.
*Your bravery is inspiring.
*Stop the executions. You have no idea how big an inspiration your struggle is!
*The whole world is watching.
*These prisoners are teaching us all how to respond to, and act against injustice and oppression.
*The time is UP for these fascist theocrats! STOP executions! NO to the IRI! NO to Trump, Putin, and global capitalism. Evin prison must be dismantled forever. Iran’s political prisoners are going through immense pain. Their undaunted struggle is humanity’s patrimony.
*Stop the executions! Abolish the death penalty in the US, Iran and throughout the world!
*For all the brave resisters in Iran! Humanity needs a real revolution! Adelante!
*Support across all borders for this just struggle to stop executions!
*The state’s actions against its dissenters demonstrate its weakness, not its strength. Stay strong and remain hopeful, change is coming!
*The world remembers and supports you.
*May you be free!
*Your strength and resistance is an inspiration. You have our support in the U.S. and around the world, always.
Artwork posted by @womanlifefreedomart
Only the Beginning
The above is a good start but far from what is possible. It’s time to get energized and stand firmly with Iran’s prison resisters who are standing up to the theocratic vile bloodlust. To cite words of a popular 1960s song by the Chambers Brothers:
Time has come today/Young hearts can go their way/ Can’t put it off another day/I don’t care what others say
These lines echo the 40 Evin prisoners’ own urgent sentiment in their early December letter. Their appeal needs to be taken up with much more support to wrench a better outcome for them and for humanity as we enter a challenging and tumultuous 2025.
“We believe that silence in the face of such tragedies should be considered complicity with it. And we must take a stand”—this is part of the “No to Execution Tuesday” December 31 statement by the Burn the Cage, Free the Birds movement in Europe. They note that “In recent days, we have witnessed widespread support for this campaign from activists inside and outside the country.”
November 23, 2024: Protesters at San Jose State University in California demand an end to executions and freedom for political prisoners in Iran while grouped around a huge statue of the iconic raised fists of Black athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics. Photo: BayArea4Iran
Throughout the autumn, there were public protests on every continent—relatively small, mainly within the Iranian diaspora; some developed into weekly Tuesday protests in solidarity with Iran’s prisoners-led “no to execution Tuesdays” weekly hunger strikes. Prominent human rights organizations and individuals have signed statements of solidarity calling for an End to Execution in Iran. More recently, groups of workers, retirees and others inside Iran have begun to add “No to Execution” to banners and demands of their weekly protests and gatherings.
The Burn the Cage Dec. 31 statement continues,
…in recent days the judiciary has declared it permissible to chop off body parts (arms and legs) of those accused of theft and making war, in order to normalize its brutal crimes and spread fear and suffocation in society with these repressive methods… The misogynistic government ruling Iran, continuing its repression, has sentenced a number of female prisoners in Qarchak Prison to the medieval punishment of stoning on charges of having illicit relations, which in the best case scenario may be converted to death by hanging instead of death by stoning.
They continue to call for end to ALL execution, not just of political prisoners. This is in sync with the 40 Evin prisoners’ statement of early December that calls for a LEAP in determination, type of action, and society-wide participation—for people to take to the streets in mass collective action. It said in part:
Today is the time to form up in the streets against the executions! Today is the time to save the lives of the political prisoners! No to Execution!
…We believe that the struggle for liberation requires collective solidarity in defense of basic human rights, including by carrying out social resistance to the death penalty.
Executions Continue to Surge
In late December 2024, the Iranian human rights group, HRA, issued its Annual Report1 documenting the regime’s use of the death penalty as well as the regime’s abuses affecting a broad spectrum of Iranian society, including, women, children, culture, religion, workers, ethnic minorities, and prisoners. Up to December 20, 2024, the regime executed at least 883 people, which included at least 29 women and five juvenile offenders last year. HRA News Agency further reports that at least 137 people were executed in the month of December alone, and on New Year’s Day 2025 there were at least 15 more executed in one day! Along with the carrying out of official executions there has been a spike in the number of death sentences issued—a 33% increase. The same report noted that the 2024 surge in executions in Iran included at least 29 women, some of whom were sentenced to death by stoning!
Over half the men were executed for drug-related charges after what Amnesty International has called “grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts…[in] a grotesque abuse of power.” (April 4, 2024 Amnesty International report, "Don't let them kill us": Iran's relentless execution crisis since the 2022 uprising). Many of those executed, both men and women, are young and members of minority nationality communities who are “increasingly being sentenced to death for political offenses, amidst an alarming overall surge in politically motivated executions in the Islamic Republic. The Iranian authorities have increasingly used the death penalty against protesters, activists, and dissidents in order to intimidate the population and silence dissent in the country—especially amongst its women—in the wake of the Woman Life Freedom protests that erupted across Iran in 2022-2023.” All this serves as a stark reminder of the need to uphold and support the political and other prisoners who are fighting not only for an end to the executions and their own freedom, but for a much better world, free from such injustices.
The IEC is once again calling on people to act now by endorsing the statement of the 40 Evin Prison: “Today Is the Time to Form Up in the Streets Against Executions! Today Is the Day to Save the Lives of Political Prisoners!!”
A global grassroots mass movement is needed to free Iran’s political prisoners with due urgency. For those who place hopes that the U.S. will come to the aid of the oppressed in Iran or elsewhere, it should be noted that according to the Death Penalty Information Center, the U.S. ranks fifth among countries in the world that executes its people “…behind Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and North Korea.” This does not include the documentation by mappingpoliceviolence.com that in 2024, police in the U.S. killed 3.6 persons per day. Trump will be inaugurated, and a fascist regime installed in the U.S. before month’s end. All this should give emphasis to what the IEC’s political direction to this struggle from our inception:
All of Iran's political prisoners must be unconditionally and immediately released.
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 POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW!
We say to the U.S. government: NO THREATS OR WAR MOVES AGAINST IRAN, LIFT U.S. SANCTIONS!