Signers of the Appeal

Join the over 5,000 people who have signed the Emergency Appeal or an earlier Statement.
A partial list*:
  • Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus MIT; Professor, Univ. of Arizona
  • Ariel Dorfman, Author, Death and the Maiden
  • Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize 2003
  • Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize 1997 for her work to ban landmines
  • Gloria Steinem, Writer, feminist activist
  • Cornel West, Scholar-activist, Union Theological Seminary
  • Daniel Ellsberg (dec.), Author, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
  • Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Professor, Citizen Ambassador Free Rohingya Coalition
  • Judith Butler, Professor, author, University of California, Berkeley
  • Kia Corthron, Playwright, Novelist
  • Jeff Kaufman, Director, producer, writer of NASRIN documentary
  • Marcia Ross, Producer, NASRIN documentary
  • Naomi Wallace, MacArthur Fellow, Obie award-winning playwright
  • Jean Ziegler, Sociologist, writer, Switzerland
  • William Bourdon, Lawyer, Paris
  • Dr. Saroj Giri, University of Delhi, India
  • Dieter Karg, Spokesman, Iran Coordination Group of Amnesty International Germany
  • Mariam Claren, Daughter of political prisoner Nahid Taghavi, campaigner to #FreeNahid
  • Raymond Lotta, Revolution Books NYC; revcom.us
  • Mansoureh Behkish, Mothers of Khavaran
  • 30 former political prisoners of Iran

John Buehrens, Past President, Unitarian Universalist Association  •  David Hartsough, Quaker Peace Activist; co-founder, World Beyond War, Nonviolent Peaceforce  •  Elika Ashoori, Daughter of former political prisoner Anoosheh Ashoori •  Kylie Moore-Gilbert, British-Australian academic, former political prisoner in Iran  •  Satar Rahmani, Former teacher union activist in Iran; spokesperson for Mehran Raoof  • Carol Downer, Women’s reproductive rights advocate; co-initiator of IEC  • Dolly Veale, Co-initiator and spokesperson of IEC; revcom.us contributor  •  Kit Kittredge, Steering Committee Women’s Boat to Gaza  •  Kave Milani, Spokesman, Burn TheCage/Free The Birds, Europe  •  Shekib Mosadeq, Revolutionary Afghan artist, activist  •  Farhang Ghassemi, Président de la commission des droits humains de la Fédération d’Européens des Écoles  •  Taghi Rahmani, Activist, journalist and writer •  Drucilla Cornell, Professor Emerita, Rutgers Univ.; founder and director, uBuntu Project, SouthAfrica  • Taraneh Roosta, Women’s rights activist  •  Gordon Rogdoff, Theater director, professor, Yale School of Drama  •  Joshua Frank, CounterPunch  •  Greg Ó Ceallaig, Barrister  •  Shahrzad Mojab, Professor, Univ. of Toronto •  Robert Bossie, Priests of the Sacred Heart  •  Rev. Dr. Robert Brashear, Pastor Emeritus West Park Church, NYC  •  Peter Phillips, Former Director, Project Censored; former President, Media Freedom Foundation  •  David Palumbo-Liu, Professor, Stanford Univ. •  John Hutnyk, Researcher, Ton Duc Thang Univ., Vietnam  •  Hamit Bozarslan, Historian, social scientist  •  Liz Bernstein, Activist, Canada  •  Peter Tatchell, Director, Peter Tatchell Foundation  •  Aida Ghajar, Journalist  •  Gün Zileli, Author  •  Jill Godmilow, Filmmaker, retired professor, Univ. of Notre Dame  •  Rev. Glen Thamert  •  Ferhat Tunc, Artist  •  Cecile Pineda, Novelist  •  Ron Jacobs, Writer  •  Arlene Rakoncay  •  Larry Everest, IEC spokesperson; contributor, revcom.us  •  Nicholas Mottern, Coordinator, Knowdrones.com  •  Azam Niroomand-Rad, Professor Emerita, Georgetown Univ.

*Institutions for identification purposes only

Original signers who were once political prisoners in Iran

Former prisoners & years imprisoned in Iran

Anahita Rahmani - 8 years (3 years awaiting execution, 10 months in solitary); her sentence was commuted to life in prison; she was released after 8 years

Mina Zarrin - 9 years (4 years in solitary)

Mercedeh Ghaedi - 3 years (9 months in solitary)

Arash Kia

Susan Golmohamadi ~ 3 years (8 months in solitary)

Ashraf Ghiyasi - 3½ years

Monireh Haghighatjoo - 3 years (1 year in solitary); pregnant when arrested

Nasser K.H. - 8½ years; witnessed many IRI crimes including 1988 massacre

Mona Amiri - 3 years (1 year in solitary)

Ebrahim Toghian - 5 years (1 year in solitary); tortured‚ Strappado style

Shokat Mohamadi - 3 years (4 months in the "Coffin")

Alireza Azin - 7 years (1 year in solitary)

Mohamad Alabakhshi - 7 years (1½ years in solitary)

Referenced Torture Techniques

* Solitary confinement – prisoner is confined alone in a cell. (Sometimes, due to shortage of jail cells, there may be more than one person in the small cell.)

** Strappado – prisoner is hung from the ceiling with her/his arms tied behind the back (sometimes called the Spread Eagle posture). 

*** Coffin, also called Resurrection, Cage, Grave, Box, or Hell – used exclusively in the women’s ward of Ghezel Hesarprison in Karaj. The prisoner was placed in a coffin-shaped box adjacent to other coffins separated by prefabricated walls, and guards were present 24 hours a day. Inside the coffin they could only sit or lie down; they were kept blindfolded at all times, even during meals. Guards forbade any talking. However, in the brief periods when guards would move around, the prisoners seized the opportunity to hold each other's hands through small spaces in the walls, encouraging each other and expressing solidarity.  

See further description of these and other “techniques” used on prisoners in Iran in Amnesty International’s report on Torture in Iran.

Pictured: "Strappado" - Video from Amnesty International