Defiant Actions Mark Persian New Year Celebrations

Raucous crowds, sometimes in the thousands, filled urban streets and rural valleys in Iran in celebrations of the eve of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which defied prohibitions by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). Some videos on social media show crowds chanting or singing against the regime, and clashes with authorities who tried to stop the celebrations in Tehran, West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan.[2]

In significant actions, political prisoners chanted or sang inside Evin and Ghezel Hesar prisons, while support actions took place outside the gates of Evin Prison in Tehran (the capital) and Lakan Prison in Iran’s northern Gilan province.

In front of Evin Prison, Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace laureate who is on temporary medical leave and in imminent danger of being dragged back into Evin, bravely burned a noose outside the prison gates. Here is an excerpt from her statement.

For many years in Evin Prison, we the prisoners used to burn sticks and jump over it and joyously sing-like the rest of the people of Iran and shout:

"Your redness will be mine and my yellowness be yours."[3]
Tonight I decided instead… to burn nooses next to the Evin Prison walls.… I shout: We will not rest till we put an end to the Execution Republic! We will not rest till we free all political and prisoners of conscience! We will not rest till we defeat the Islamic Republic and bring victory for the people of Iran!

From behind those same prison gates, political prisoner Golrokh Iraee issued a hopeful New Year’s message and wrote:

The women of Evin, and the prisoners of Wards 4 and 8, welcomed the New Year with one heart and one mind, singing revolutionary songs and chanting slogans in the prison yard in solidarity with all freedom fighters against tyranny and oppression over the last 120 years, and with the families of the victims.
May we welcome the Spring on the path of, and in memory of, those who —[were] heedless of their own comfort and safety— sacrificed their lives to bring the Spring of Liberation and Equality to the oppressed masses.
Political prisoners must be freed!
Year [4] 1404 — The Year of Revolution to Overthrow this Whole System!
Year 1404  — The Year to End this Evil Regime!
No to Execution!
#Revolution

In the huge Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj, where prisoners say thousands are on death row and where the “No to Executions Tuesday” hunger strikes began (now in its 60th week, the strike has spread to at least 38 prisons across Iran), political prisoners chanted “Freedom, Freedom, Freedom,” "Red flames say no to executions,” “The message of Chaharshanbe Suri is down with dictatorship,” “Khamenei, Zahak, I will bury you under the ground.[5]” They managed to send the audio out to the world via cellphone.

Activists in the Iranian diaspora posted a video on March 17 (the eve of “No to Executions Tuesday” and Chaharshanbe Suri) in which they burned nooses.

Executions Accelerate

On March 18, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran delivered a report which said, “The pace [of executions] is accelerating with at least 169 known executions identified in January and February alone. Should this alarming rate remain consistent, the total number of executions could exceed 1,000 this year, a chilling threshold that demands a collective global response.” In 2024, at least 975 people were executed in Iran, a 17% increase from the at least 834 executions recorded the previous year, according to a joint report released by the Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO) and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM).[6]

In the dangerous swirl of the IRI’s executions and bloody repression at the same time as Trump orders deadly attacks and issues threats against Iran and the whole Middle East region, the orientation from the IEC’s Emergency Appeal is more urgent than ever:

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.