During a week of worldwide protests in support of prisoners in Iran and the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Burn The Cage, Free The Birds held an important panel of diverse speakers in Cologne, Germany on October 11. The speech by Somayeh Kargar, former political prisoner speaking for the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) (cpimlm.org), is translated from Farsi to English by volunteers with the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now. Bracketed words and footnotes are added by translators for clarification. (Watch video in Farsi)

The other announced speakers on the panel were: Hamid Narviei (activist on matters related to Balochistan, Iran); Sara Sadighi (activist and analyst on queer issues and an ex-political prisoner); Shoresh Karimi (Communist Party of Iran in Cologne, Germany); and Atefeh Huseini (women’s rights activist and ex-political prisoner under Taliban rule in Afghanistan).

“No to Execution Tuesdays”¹  is a conscious and hopeful activity of a part of the society against the crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran [IRI] and a call to the society not to remain silent and to continue the struggle.

There have been changes in the practical crimes of the IRI over the years. I would like to talk about that today and the conditions and responsibilities that we have on our shoulders. Today, among other issues, we are faced with the issue of the struggle to free the political prisoners and the struggle for the abolition of the death penalty. The IRI, in the face of the threat of escalation of a widespread and bloody war in the Middle East, at the time as the genocide of the people in Gaza by the criminal Israeli regime, and in the disastrous economic and social conditions in Iran, and fearing the revolt of the impoverished masses, has carried out daily killing of ordinary prisoners, who are among the most oppressed and impoverished strata and regions of Iran. Also, they are issuing death sentences to women activists. Since the presidential election [in Iran], the IRI's killing apparatus has accelerated the execution and murder of the people. The targets of these executions are prisoners [accused] of so-called ordinary crimes.

I have the experience of being in [Iran’s] Qarchak General Prison. To start the discussion, I would like to begin with some points in this regard. Not just to express my own memories, but to give a glimpse of who are the prisoners [accused] of ordinary crimes and what their conditions are. They are not the monsters that the IRI says [they are].

After 110 days of imprisonment in the IRGC's 2A Intelligence Detention Center, the investigator of the case (Mahmoud Haji Moradi) exiled me to Qarchak Prison in Varamin² for further punishment. He told me, “I will send you to Qarchak, so that your hair will become the same color as your teeth and so that the ISIS prisoners there will bring a calamity on you every day!”

I remember well the first day I went to Qarchak on Wednesday February 4, 2021. When I entered the ward, everyone was happy and talking about a happy event. The reason for that joy was that the day before, one of the prisoners had been taken to solitary confinement to be executed. Wednesday is the [usual] day of execution in Qarchak. Instead, she had come back alive. The whole prison was happy because she was alive. Not free, only alive. We were all happy -- but she wasn't [happy], because she had almost lost her mental balance. However, this joy did not last long. A few weeks later, they told us again [of mock and then her real execution].

The IRI takes the lives of people whom it has dehumanized and does not give them the “right to live and eat.” They are punished twice. It both puts them in miserable living conditions that prepare the ground for "crime" and it takes their lives. No one deserves such a life and death, but the IRI is trying to control the situation with the principle of "victory by terror" and relying on outdated Sharia laws and mass killings of people. Of course, the failure of this policy has been shown many times during various uprisings with the resistance and struggle from inside the prisons, but this regime has no other choice. And we have no other choice but to make revolution to overthrow the IRI.

The situation of prisoners on death row is a window through which we can see and recognize the criminal reality of the IRI and the larger system of which the IRI is a part. Human lives can be bought, sold, and eliminated in this imperialist world system. Even if this was the only crime in the system, it is enough to bring it down.

The capitalist system, as a result of its internal dynamics, not only produces competition, war, and the destruction of the environment. One of the important aspects of the necessity of the movement and expansion of capital is the transformation of a large section of human beings into the "garbage" and "surplus" [population] of the system. It does this constantly and in different forms and in different parts of the world. From US prisons with two million prisoners, to refugee camps with millions of people, to domestic violence and honor killings, to the drowning of refugees at sea, to people who are killed daily in war, with bombs and military weapons. But no one's voice is being heard because it has become part of the "normal process" and people have become accustomed to living with it.

Why? Because it is necessary for the life and the functioning of the system! These conditions should not be tolerated. This system continuously deprives people of their homes and livelihoods, and it tosses them to the outskirts of cities as if they were garbage. As a result of their anger at this process and not being aware that this is how the system functions, a section of these destitute and destroyed people, either fall into the embrace of the fascists or of the jihad, or they go to prison as criminals and thugs, and are executed.

The importance of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign lies not only in opposing the issuance and execution of the death penalty, but also in raising the voices of this silenced segment of the population.

Any discriminatory treatment of prisoners and death row inmates should be avoided because this is what the IRI does. I remember that during the Jina Uprising³ at the same time as the mass arrests of the general public, they also attacked the university and arrested students. In the gathering of families in front of Evin Prison [in Tehran], people paid more attention to the families of the students and sympathized with them, while a large number of families who came to follow up on their imprisoned children in [ethnic] clothes from different parts of Iran, such as Baluchistan and Kurdistan, were less noticed. This is not good. Our understanding of solidarity must be different from this. The IRI consolidates itself by capitalizing on just such differences, and by killing those from the sectors it thinks are low-cost. We should not differentiate like that! They are all our dear ones, our people, and our comrades.

It is not a good thing that the struggle for the release of political prisoners and a halt to executions has not become widespread. When teachers and workers protest, they say that such-and-such imprisoned teacher or imprisoned worker should be released. But in any case, they are arrested, persecuted, and dismissed in Iran. So, when we move abroad and take action [against these injustices], it creates an atmosphere that can act as a shield for the struggle inside [Iran] against the regime. Especially in a situation where the outside world [opinion] is very important to the regime— and Europe is especially important to them — if we make good use of this opportunity, we can create an atmosphere of support for resistance at home.

One of the lessons of the Jina uprising should be that people's dissatisfaction and anger over various issues in society is always present. But should this struggle start and proceed spontaneously, or can the existing potential be used to organize and turn it into a conscious and purposeful movement? In different struggles, we need leadership at different levels, and the most important of which is ideological and political leadership, to define the outlook and goals, and how you want to move and fight in that direction.

The IRI is facing numerous domestic and international problems. As a regime that has no legitimacy in society, it is forced to constantly exercise repression in order to survive. These conditions give us a positive opening and potential to fight for the revolutionary overthrow of the IRI. But we must remember that these favorable conditions are not permanent and can be lost. We must be aware of the special situation we are in and try to make the most of it.

The criminal policies of the IRI over the decades have led to a numbness in society. By protraying their “enemies” as “criminals and thugs,” they have gotten people accustomed to being spectators at public executions, to the suppression and imprisonment of those who are activists. By those means, they eliminate the possibility of a new generation developing into fighters who could bring a part of society along with them.  Most of these “criminals and thugs” come from the lowest, most oppressed, and most voiceless strata of society. Some of these same youths, who face social pressure to become “criminals,” “smugglers,” and “murderers,” are the same “shoeless” masses the regime's security officials warn against, fearing that they will revolt. Some of these young people have the potential, if they are able to acquire revolutionary consciousness, to become emancipators of humanity. There is a history of many young people much like these being attracted to the revolution and getting educated by communist inmates during the time they were held the imperialist dungeons.⁴ This potential and possibility exists today as well.

Part of the struggle for this silent generation takes place inside the prisons, and is the responsibility of the conscious [political] prisoners. The protest of the women of Evin Prison against the death sentences handed to Sharifeh and Pakhshan, their protest against the execution of Reza Rasaei — the support that prisoners in other prisons, and the men in Evin prison have shown for the “No to Execution Tuesdays,” and the [Evin women’s] sit-ins — have [all] been bold efforts. But the full voice of this struggle, and its activists, must come from the wider society – where those who are rebellious and dissatisfied must take responsibility for an important part of this struggle. Certainly, dissatisfaction and opposition to the death penalty exists, like fire under the ashes of the society. But the action being taken in this regard has not been commensurate with its urgency, importance, nor capacity.

We must rebel against treating [any] life as worthless. This is not the sole responsibility of the families of prisoners and those being executed. Human rights activities against execution, imprisonment and repression are commendable measures, and an attempt to get beyond the system's poisonous way of thinking. But [human rights activists] must come to understand that the issue [of execution] cannot be solved within the framework of human rights and the laws and values of this system.

We call on all conscious forces — artists, intellectuals, activists of social movements, all free people, people of conscience, the people of the world, the people who defended and were inspired by the "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising —to join the movement to “Stop All Executions”. Demand the abolition of the death penalty, by holding demonstrations, actions, and agitations against the crimes of the IRI. In addition to enlightening exposure and announcements in opposition to the death penalty, which is of vital importance abroad, we must create an atmosphere in different ways so that everyone can work and do something according to their ability: by holding actions and meetings, by occupying news agency offices, by organizing the participation of world-famous artists, hunger strikes, and any other form necessary to push back the IRI to prevent the execution of the many prisoners, who are among the most impoverished and who spend their nights in the corridors of death.

Launching a strong [anti-execution] movement not only pushes back the government but also changes the thinking of the masses. Changing people's thinking will prepare a future society on how to deal with problems. This is fundamental.

This struggle must be carried out in a framework that is outside this system, in order to become a struggle that will pave the way for the liberation of all the people of Iran and the world, in the form of socialist revolution worldwide. It should simultaneously fight and push back the enemy, and change people's thinking —in order to break with their intellectual and ideological attachment to this system and develop a scientific way to look at and analyze reality — paving the way for the overthrow of the IRI. The struggle must be carried forward in a way that will teach people how to think, how to fight, and how to become the owners and administrators of society in a socialist tomorrow.

Footnotes

¹  In January 2024, a group of political and non-political prisoners in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Iran launched a weekly hunger strike on Tuesdays, often the day that death row prisoners are taken to solitary cells in preparation for imminent execution. They were joined in that inaugural strike by women political prisoners in Evin Prison. As of Tuesday, October 22, the weekly strike entered its 40^th week and has spread to 23 far-flung prisons in Iran.

² It is a cruel common custom for the IRI to exile prisoners to a distant prison far from their families or support network. Somayeh is from the oppressed region of Kurdistan, far from the notoriously foul Qarchak women’s prison in Tehran province.

³ The “Jina” or “Woman, Life, Freedom” Uprising shook Iran for five months after 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini was beaten and killed in September 2022 by “morality police” in Tehran because her hijab (Muslim headscarf) did not fully cover her hair. At least 500 people were killed during the protests and some 22,000 arrested.

⁴ She is referring to prisons becoming sites of revolutionary activity in Iran during the era of the U.S. puppet Shah (1953-79), as well as in prisons worldwide such as in the U.S. in the late 1960s and early 1970s.