The heightened execution threat to Pakhshan Azizi (as well as to Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, two other political prisoners whose death sentences were confirmed) sparked widespread outrage and acts of solidarity. Statements condemning the death sentences came from diverse forces including the Kurdish Women’s Union. Inside Iranian prisons, 68 prisoners signed a statement7 protesting the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the death sentences of her and two other political prisoners:
We call on the people of Iran, as well as international forums and organizations, especially human rights organizations, to use all their capacities to take effective measures in order to save the lives of political prisoners who are at risk of the death penalty, as well as the abolition of the death penalty altogether.
On January 9, a letter from a member of Iran’s Teacher’s Union was posted by @burnthecage challenging fellow teachers in saying:
…teachers have a duty to speak out against the highest level of violence in society, namely structural and targeted violence such as executions. How can one be against violence in school but remain silent about violence in society?... But the problem is not limited to the government, the silence of society in the face of this repression also plays an important role in the continuation of this trend. A society that is indifferent to executions is practically [complicit] in this violence… Without a doubt, as the striking prisoners in the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign have emphasized, the only way to stop the execution machine is through unity and collective action. Although this path is difficult, by abandoning sectarian behavior and adopting a humane and collective approach, results can be achieved.
On January 10, award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi posted on Instagram a statement condemning the death penalty that said in part, “These executions reflect the political, ideological and economic collapse of the Islamic Republic system.” And rebel rapper Toomaj Salehi’s X account posted these words: “For a free world / For speaking freely / For #PakhshanAzizi / No to executions.” By the next day multiple videos show the same words sprayed onto walls across Tehran, Iran’s capital.
“We cannot and will not remain silent” — Sepideh Gholian
Sepideh Gholian,8 a courageous young journalist and leftist political prisoner held in Evin, responded to the news of Pakhshan Azizi’s death sentence confirmation with a letter posted by @burnthecage. Read this and her second letter in full here.
Pakhshan is a symbol of love for humanity. But now she is facing a death that does not stem from justice but from hatred and revenge…. But this is not just the story of one person…. The story of Pakhshan is tied to the story of all of us, to the story of the expectant mothers whose children's blood is on the streets, to the story of the people for whom "life" has become a dream…. We cannot and will not remain silent. If we do not raise our voices today, tomorrow it will be yet another story. We want you to strengthen this chain. Don't let the story of Pakhshan be an endless story of regret and silence. Be her voice, be her story. We must fight "death" with "life." Let's make a chain out of life, against every loop of the hangman's rope. Will you take my hand to be the next link in the chain?
--Sepideh Gholian, Women's Ward, Evin Prison, January 12, 2025
U.S.: Bloody Hands Out of Iran and the Middle East!
Amidst this situation, the website Akhbar-Rooz reported that former U.S. Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo spoke at a January 9 conference in Paris, organized and sponsored by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). It is important that Iran’s political prisoners call for a non-sectarian approach to defending and freeing all political prisoners, of diverse political perspectives, given the lack of any semblance of due process in Iran’s fascist theocracy. But it should be noted that there is a section of Iran’s political prisoners such as Golrokh who oppose both the U.S. (who backed the Shah) as well as the current Islamic (mullah) regime. Forces such as the MEK have cozied up to fascist ruling forces in the U.S. for years, including during the first Trump presidency, and do not represent any kind of liberating alternative to the Islamic Republic fascist theocrats.
Stand with Iran’s Heroic Prisoners, Mark Anniversary of Weekly Hunger Strike
The end of January 2025 marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the “No to Execution Tuesdays,” the weekly hunger strike launched by political prisoners in the huge Ghezel Hesar prison. It has now spread to 30 prisons throughout the country. People throughout the world should find ways to join or share support for these heroic prisoners. Stay tuned to further news from the IEC on activities in solidarity with this prisoner-led movement against executions in Iran.
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1. The Shah of Iran was a brutal monarch installed through a coup in 1953 led by U.S. and UK espionage agencies after the elected president nationalized the oil resources. See American Crime Case #98: 1953 CIA Coup in Iran.
2. Khosrow Golsorkhi was a revolutionary and communist who famously denounced the regime and upheld the peoples during his 1974 trial, before being executed by the Shah’s firing squad. He is regarded as a hero, and through the years his fierce resistance has been emulated by other revolutionaries who similarly are affectionately known as “Golsorkhis.”
3. Golrokh Iraee was accused of "propaganda against the state" for posting about Woman, Life, Freedom protests and denouncing the state’s killing of minors during the protests. Violently arrested at her home on September 26, 2022, Golrokh Iraee had only been out of prison since May 2022 after serving three years. Previously, she was charged with "insulting the sacred" and "propaganda against the regime." The evidence: she wrote an unpublished story about stoning that was confiscated during a raid of her home by the Revolutionary Guards, aimed at her husband, human rights defender and former student activist Arash Sadeghi. Gallery.
4. The Latest Comprehensive List of 54 Political and Security Prisoners Sentenced to Death in Iran, en-hrana.org, January 9, 2025.
5. Kurds share a common language, history and territory, which was divided by colonial powers between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, where they have been murderously oppressed for decades.
6. Imminent Risk of Execution of Kurdish Woman Activist After Grossly Unfair Trial, iranhumanrights.org, January 9, 2025.
7. Posted in Farsi at Akhbar-rooz.
8. Sepideh is a lifelong civil rights activist and writer who has been in and out of prison since she was 23 years old. In 2018, she was arrested for solidarity with sugar workers' protests and charged with "Propaganda against the state; membership in organizations that aim to disrupt national security," then re-arrested in 2019 for denouncing torture and sexual abuse while in prison. In March 2023, after her release, she famously shouted outside Evin Prison, "Khamenei, the Zahak! We will bury you!" Zahak was a mythological king with serpents growing out of his shoulders which he fed with young people's brains. Just four hours later, the car caravan of her family taking her home was stopped, and she was arrested. Gallery.