Tuesday, February 11 was the 46th anniversary of the Islamic theocrats' coming to power in Iran. Annually, it is full of officially staged massive rallies to legitimize its rule. This year, protests large and small surrounded this date:

• Several nights of protests with fiery street barricades took place in the small city of Dehdasht.
• Prominent  activists and artists bravely hold a protest outside the infamous Evin Prison against executions.
• Nightly shouting of “Down with the Dictator” from high-rise buildings in many major cities instead of the regime’s promoted and preferred anniversary chants of “Allahu Akbar” (“God is the Greatest”).
• As regime’s executions and death sentences persist and grow, weekly “No to Execution Tuesday” protests also persist and spread.

Protests broke out in Dehdasht, a city in southwestern Iran with a population of less than 60,000, on the night of February 10. Protesters first rose up in one neighborhood and then set up barricades at the city’s main roads to hinder movement of police and security vehicles, forcing them to withdraw. Internet access was shut down for at least four days as protests continued sporadically.

Media reports indicate that the protests initially broke out over economic issues such as electricity shortages and food price hikes, but quickly took an explicitly political turn with chants of “Down with the Dictator!” Protesters held placards and a banner bearing the names of Pedram Azarnoush and Mehrdad Behnam Asl, two young local men killed by the regime in the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising. Pedram died defending a protesting woman, while Mehrdad was shot directly in the street. According to social media posts, the youth of Dehdasht urged other regions to join them, saying “silence in the face of oppression is betrayal.”

In response, a protest broke out in Jayezan-e in a neighboring province, which was shared with the hashtag #Dehdasht_not_alone; graffiti in support of Dehdasht appeared in the major city of Mashhad, over 900 miles away in a different region of Iran.

At least six activists in Dehdasht have been arrested in connection with the protests. According to a video on social media, at least one protester was shot to death on the street by police forces. This situation is still unfolding and the internet remains blocked in the region.

Inside/Outside the Evin Prison Walls

February 11 also marked the 55^th consecutive week of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” prisoner hunger strike, now spread to 35 prisons across Iran.

In a bold and unusual action, activists stood in front of hated Evin Prison in Tehran alongside family members of several political prisoners sentenced to be executed. Among those present were renowned filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Arash Sadeghi, Kambiz Nowrouzi Zadeh, Hossein Razagh, Shaqayeq Moradi, Ariya Sheikhi, Hasti Amiri, and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi (without the mandatory hijab).

The participation of dissident, courageous artist Jafar Panahi is notable. He is among the world’s most acclaimed independent filmmakers. He had been a political prisoner himself for his many outstanding, award-winning movies (e.g., Taxi, No Bears, etc.) He was jailed in 2022 when he went to the gates of Evin to inquire about the imprisonment of his colleagues.

A post by Narges Mohammadi, currently on medical leave from Evin, brought alive the importance of protests inside and outside prison walls:

There were days when, behind the walls of the disgraceful Evin Prison, we shouted against the death penalty. We gathered in the prison yard, chanting: "The women's ward of Evin, united and determined until the death sentence is abolished. We will stand till the end." We held the hands of fellow inmates who are sentenced to execution — Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi….

Nighttime Chanting

Cellphone videos showed that during the February 11 fireworks for state anniversary celebrations, people in major cities of Tehran, Karaj, Arak, Mashhad and Kermanshah, among other cities, chanted from their windows "Down with [Ayatollah] Khamenei the Murderer," "Down with the Islamic Republic" and "Down with the Dictator," “Death to the Execution Republic.” These nighttime chants then continued on subsequent nights, responding to the call from Dehdasht youth. In Tehran, the cries were heard in diverse neighborhoods ranging from middle class to poor districts.

Regime Renews Death Penalty for Two Kurdish Women Activists

This past week, the IRI’s cruel theocratic (in)justice system reissued death sentences for two activist women whose cases have received widespread international attention. Their executions could be ordered at any time.

Sharifeh Mohammadi, a labor rights activist from northern Iran, has once again been sentenced to death. Her initial death sentence had previously been overturned by Iran’s Supreme Court, and the case was referred to a parallel court for retrial, which upheld the verdict and sentence. Her trial in mid-2024 had revolved around charges of propaganda against the regime, actions against national security, and “baghi” (armed rebellion) through her alleged affiliation with the Kurdish party Komala.  A source close to her family said “Sharifeh was a member of the Association of Labor Organizations until 2013, which has no ties to the Komala group. The charge of baghi is based on her alleged membership in this group, which is not true.”

On February 6, the Supreme Court denied retrial for Pakhshan Azizi, a Kurdish activist, who was also accused of “baghi” based only on her alleged membership in a Kurdish party with an armed wing. Pakhshan Azizi wrote that her crime is being Kurdish and being a woman. Read more on her case and an excerpt of a powerful letter she wrote from Evin.

Pakhshan is a social worker who devoted more than ten years of her life to voluntary work serving refugee camps in Kurdish areas of Iraq and then Syria, where people suffered horrific attacks from both ISIS on one side and the Turkish government on the other. International organizations working in the area, like the Red Crescent, have sent letters verifying that her activity was voluntary social work, not militancy of any kind.

Besides these two women, the number of political and religious prisoners who are currently sentenced to death has risen to 58. At least 99 prisoners have been executed in the first 40 days of 2025. In this context, the Center for Human Rights in Iran reports an alarming rise in bogus charges against human rights lawyers, with 16 arrested in Mashhad and 20 in Yazd since January 27.

Continue to Broaden Grassroots Solidarity

These repressive escalations are happening during the IRI’s anniversary month, when every year, it pardons some prisoners to celebrate the regime’s supposed “humanitarian” ideals. This year, although the regime released a small number of political prisoners, it mainly “drew a line in the sand” making explicitly clear that it would exact revenge even on activists like Pakhshan and Sharifeh, whose campaigns had garnered significant support worldwide from major trade unions and official bodies. In the face of the weakening of Iran’s regional position, the regime may find that it cannot afford to appear weak and must double down on enforcing the compulsory hijab as a key pillar of its theocratic rule, and exacting a brutal price on the women who have risen up and those who dared to stand with women.

What this means for justice-loving people is that we should draw our own line in the sand. In order for us to exact a political price which is capable of deterring the execution of these heroic prisoners, we cannot rely on the international bodies, like various governments and official agencies, that may champion one or the other individual, then just as quickly forget the prisoners, the tortured and the disappeared when it is convenient to their interests. This should not surprise or demoralize. Rather, to see the need to rely on mobilizing ever more broadly and powerfully, supporting those in Iran who continue to stand up and taking this struggle to the people of the world.

Support Actions from Colombia to California

From January 25 to February 1, actions worldwide marked the one-year anniversary of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” hunger strike by prisoners, which has spread to 34 prisons across Iran. A related general market strike shut down completely or in part at least 13 cities in the oppressed Kurdistan region of Iran on January 22 (more on this to follow).

Noteworthy was an action in Colombia by @quemarlajaula (“burn the cage” in Spanish):

Today in Bogotá, promoters of the campaign to free political prisoners in Iran held a march with posters, shouted slogans and spoke with passersby about the campaign and making some agitation stops. The march started at the National Pedagogical University and ended at the National University. [See the January 29 post for more photos and the original Spanish.]

On January 29, up to 20 people grouped in front of the Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco (UUSF) during busy morning traffic to stand with the Iran’s prisoners’ strike. It was called by the IEC together with the UUSF Human Rights Working Group. There was a uniquely internationalist tone to the gathering with banners that said “Iran: Stop the Executions! US: No War Moves on Iran!,” a flag and sign for Palestine, a handwritten “We Stand with the Women and People of Iran!” and a poster copied from those seen on the streets of Colombia last year. Participants listened with interest to the reading of a letter from striking prisoners (excerpted below), and passed out flyers to outstretched hands of commuters, passersby, and truckers (with some honking their horns in support).

At the University of Washington in Seattle, some supporters of IEC postered and passed out flyers near the campus with materials they had downloaded from freeiranspoliticalprisonersnow.org/resources-share-print. More than half of the students took flyers and some stopped to learn more.

On January 25, the Burn The Cage/Free the Birds movement in Europe participated in an action in Cologne, Germany. It also shared a call for an action in Toronto, Canada on January 28, which persevered in spite of a freezing snowstorm.

Other solidarity actions to note during the week included:

In London’s famous Trafalgar Square, protesters held a week-long sit-in, culminating in the hunger strike anniversary January 28. Also on that day, a march was held in Frankfurt, Germany, where protests continue weekly solidarity strikes every Tuesday. In Washington, DC, protesters also gathered on that day, continuing their weekly solidarity Tuesday actions. Actions are also planned for February 1 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Narges Mohammadi: “The ropes of the gallows will be torn by the powerful hands of each and every one of us”

On January 28, during an online forum (Clubhouse) on the prison hunger strike anniversary, Narges Mohammadi offered some inspiring words. Narges is the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is on a temporary medical furlough from Tehran’s Evin Prison, during which she has made many public interviews and statements. The transcript of her full speech is here.

Today, dozens of prisons have joined, and hundreds of prisoners go on hunger strikes every Tuesday to keep the issue of executions in the spotlight. Political and ideological prisoners from diverse backgrounds are actively participating in this campaign…. Many death row inmates are victims of unjust economic, social, and cultural policies. We oppose their executions in principle, and this stance can help build a broader consensus both in society and within prisons…. Finally, we must remember: the ropes of the gallows will be torn by the powerful hands of each and every one of us. I hope for the day when execution chambers and gallows serve only as reminders of tyranny’s cruelty and as lessons for our pursuit of humanity, freedom, and equality. Until that day, I thank you all.

Market Strike in Kurdistan

Inside Iran, as crackdowns on any open resistance to the fascist theocratic regime continue, many merchants in the Kurdistan region boldly shuttered their shops on Wednesday, January 22, in protest of the death sentences against two Kurdish activist women, Pakhshan Azizi and Verisheh Moradi. Social media accounts and regional news recorded block after block of shuttered shops and closed bazaars. The strike, called by a broad array of six Kurdish political parties, was especially widespread in the cities of Sanandaj, Mahabad, Saqqez, and Divandareh, and also took place in nine other cities. In the major cities, authorities spray-painted each of the closed roll-down gates in order to identify and threaten the striking storekeepers. Since then, at least 16 people have been arrested in connection with the strike, and merchants report being threatened.

Significantly, 35 leftist women prisoners in Evin Prison in Tehran supported the above strike in Kurdistan by carrying over their weekly Tuesday hunger strike.

On the same day, the Iranian Supreme Court granted a temporary stay of the death sentence of Pakhshan Azizi while a request for retrial is in process. While many on social media greeted this postponement with relief, they also recalled that last year, 22-year-old protester Mohammad Ghobadloo was executed suddenly while an appeal and retrial was in process, and that only Azizi’s full and unconditional release is acceptable.

Iran: Stop executions, free all political prisoners in Iran!

US: No war moves or threats against Iran!

ENDNOTE: For context, executions by the Islamic Republic regime, according to human rights groups, numbered at least 900 in 2024, and 854 in 2023. According to the group Iran Human Rights, it was at least 84 in the month of January 2025 alone (or nearly 3 per day). Iran's total population is around 90 million.

Letter by Striking Prisoners in Iran, January 28, 2025

Below is an excerpt of a letter published by striking prisoners. The whole letter is posted in Farsi on Burn The Cage.

As we, political and non-political prisoners in chains at 34 prisons across the four corners of Iran enter the second year of the “No to Execution” Campaign… we will hold our 53rd Tuesday hunger strike with energy and enthusiasm. May our voices from behind the thick walls of the prisons be linked to the voices of Iranian women, men, and youth, and play a part in defending human rights and dismantling the gallows….

This protest movement, which has now engulfed most of the country's prisons, has crossed prison walls and crossed geographical boundaries, thanks to the efforts of our compatriots inside and outside the country…In the past weeks, we have seen support through the country, including from students, teachers, workers, and women. The general strike in Kurdistan was a turning point that deserves to be appreciated and should be extended to the whole of Iran…

[U]nder the rule of the theocratic dictatorship, the death penalty has reached unprecedented proportions and has become a tool for intimidating the people, and the public has been held hostage. In Iran, the death penalty has become not a legal punishment but a political tool for repression and revenge against the Iranian people. This fact redoubles our responsibility to confront repression, torture, and execution. We hope to fulfill this duty.

Participating Prisons in Iran included:

Evin (Women's Ward, Wards 4 and 8), Ghezel Hesar (Units 2 and 4), Karaj Central, Greater Tehran, Khorin Varamin (Qarchak), Arak, Khorramabad, Asadabad Isfahan, Dastgerd Isfahan, Shayban Ahvaz, Nezam Shiraz, Adelabad Shiraz (Men and Women Wards), Borazjan Bushehr, Bam, Kahnooj, Tabas, Joveyn, Mashhad, Qaemshahr, Lakan Rasht Men and Women Wards, Rudsar, Haviq Talesh, Ardabil, Tabriz, Urmia, Salmas, Khoy, Naqadeh, Saqqez, Baneh, Marivan, Kamyaran.