JOIN US: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2026: POETRY READING

"Poetry is what they most fear, what they cannot suppress, what they cannot twist, what will remain after those who accumulate power in order to damage the world disappear. Poetry is what the bodies of the prisoners in Iran speak with each day of their resistance and fierce love."

In solidarity,
Ariel Dorfman*
Author of What She Saw, which contains the story “Stew”, inspired by the women of Iran

* Award-winning writer and activist Ariel Dorfman sent this message to the October 17 poetry reading, along with a video of one of his poems, read by Harold Pinter. He is a signatory to the IEC’s Emergency Appeal.

‍PLACE: THE HISTORIC STARRY PLOUGH PUB, 3101 SHATTUCK AVENUE, BERKELEY, CA

TIME: DOORS OPEN 4PM, PROGRAM 5PM

HONOR THE 2022 WOMAN, LIFE, FREEDOM UPRISING IN IRAN – ITS PAST AND ITS FUTURE

FREE IRAN’S POLITICAL PRISONERS / STOP EXECUTIONS

END U.S.-ISRAELI WAR

Four years since the fierce Woman, Life, Freedom uprising touched off by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in police custody, Iranian society is racked by expansive and intensive war and destruction, mass imprisonment and daily executions. All this is up against the backdrop of the relentless U.S. backed Israeli Nazi genocide in Gaza. We hold this poetry reading to honor the fighters and dreamers for a better world – in unity with all the masses of people in Iran and worldwide to burn the cage and free the bird for our collective future.

POETS: Mahnaz Badihian, Rafael Jesús González, Karen Melander Magoon, Kim Shuck, Raymond Nat Turner, Lorene Zarou-Zouzounis

and Ariel Dorfman has sent a poem in absentia

We demand of the Islamic Republic of Iran: FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW! STOP EXECUTIONS!

We say to the U.S government: NO THREATS OR WAR MOVES AGAINST IRAN, LIFT U.S. SANCTIONS!

"No to Execution Tuesday" Weekly Hunger Strike
Every Tuesday, Wherever You Are, Promote and Support the Prisoners' Weekly Hunger Strike in Iran #NoToExecutions
‍
Since January 28, 2024, prisoners --now in dozens of prisons across Iran-- have gone on hunger strike every Tuesday. "Black Tuesday" is often the day death row prisoners are taken to be executed the next morning at the dawn call to prayer.Their brave and unifying statement from that day reads:

‍We, a group of prisoners on death row, are asking for your help. …In Ghezel Hesar, thousands of prisoners have been sentenced to death, and the cases of hundreds of us have been sent for enforcement. We may be executed in the coming days and weeks. Among us are people with all kinds of charges, drug offenders, qisas (retribution) cases, as well as political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, waiting to be executed.

In order to be heard, every Tuesday starting this week, we will go on hunger strike. We chose Tuesday because often it is the last day our cellmates are alive before being transferred to solitary confinement for execution.
‍
We ask you to defend all prisoners sentenced to death, regardless of their political or non-political charges, because we have all been unfairly tried. [The authorities] want to take away our right to live. With your support, perhaps these executions could be stopped. Be our voice, and the voice of our families, in any way you can because prisoners on death row are not just male inmates in Ghezel Hesar, but others in prisons throughout the country as well who reach out for your support.

‍Immediately, all the prisoners in Evin Prison’s Women’s Ward in Tehran also joined the weekly hunger strike. Since then the number of participating prisons has grown steadily.In an attempt to break up this powerful campaign and remove its leaders, Ghezel Hesar Prison authorities very violently attacked and emptied the political prisoners' ward in August 2025.
‍
Weekly statements direct from the campaign: instagram.com/no_to_execution_tuesdays/
‍Coverage and analysis of political prisoners in Iran: Burn the Cage

Previous Events & Initiatives

Emergency Appeal Published on New York Review of Books Back Cover

August, 2021

Free Nasrin and All Iran's Political Prisoners - Revolution Books YouTube

Feb 7, 2021

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International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran's Political Prisoners Now

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FreeIransPoliticalPrisonersNOW@gmail.com

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