International Emergency Campaign Calls for Global People's Outcry in Support of Iranian People, Freedom for Iran’s Political Prisoners
No U.S. Intervention or Military Threats!
The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance—We Must ACT Now …A brutal campaign of arrests, torture and executions is now taking place in Iran. This is an emergency. The lives and dignity of hundreds of political prisoners are in imminent, mortal danger. All those who stand for justice and yearn for a better world must rally to the cause of freeing Iran’s political prisoners NOW.
Those words, from the Appeal by International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran's Political Prisoners NOW, were written in March 2021. Since then, the grave, immediate danger to Iran’s growing thousands of political prisoners has increased exponentially. So has our need and responsibility to act!
“Today the streets of Iran are stained with the blood of demonstrators and the prisons are filled with thousands of brave protesters, freedom fighters, and revolutionaries,” says Mariam Claren, the daughter of Iranian political prisoner Nahid Taghavi. “I ask all people to raise their voices, speak out, and join protests around the world in support of the Iranian people. Woman. Life. Freedom."
“We call on all people of conscience and progressive organizations to raise their voices and speak out forcefully on behalf of Iran’s people and its political prisoners,” says International Emergency Campaign (IEC) spokesperson Larry Everest:
"Demand the Islamic Republic end its vicious repression, imprisonment, and murder of protesters. Demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and detainees – from those illegitimately imprisoned for years to those swept up during the current uprising. Endorse the Emergency Appeal to Free Iran's Political Prisoners Now. We must create a global people's outcry that Iran’s regime - and the world - cannot ignore.”
The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance—We Must ACT Now …A brutal campaign of arrests, torture and executions is now taking place in Iran. This is an emergency. The lives and dignity of hundreds of political prisoners are in imminent, mortal danger. All those who stand for justice and yearn for a better world must rally to the cause of freeing Iran’s political prisoners NOW.
Those words, from the Appeal by International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran's Political Prisoners NOW, were written in March 2021. Since then, the grave, immediate danger to Iran’s growing thousands of political prisoners has increased exponentially. So has our need and responsibility to act!
“Today the streets of Iran are stained with the blood of demonstrators and the prisons are filled with thousands of brave protesters, freedom fighters, and revolutionaries,” says Mariam Claren, the daughter of Iranian political prisoner Nahid Taghavi. “I ask all people to raise their voices, speak out, and join protests around the world in support of the Iranian people. Woman. Life. Freedom."
“We call on all people of conscience and progressive organizations to raise their voices and speak out forcefully on behalf of Iran’s people and its political prisoners,” says International Emergency Campaign (IEC) spokesperson Larry Everest:
"Demand the Islamic Republic end its vicious repression, imprisonment, and murder of protesters. Demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and detainees – from those illegitimately imprisoned for years to those swept up during the current uprising. Endorse the Emergency Appeal to Free Iran's Political Prisoners Now. We must create a global people's outcry that Iran’s regime - and the world - cannot ignore.”
Since the September 16 killing of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s notorious “morality police” ignited massive, nationwide protests, the Islamic Republic has responded with illegitimate, often murderous, force and mass arrests. At latest count,
- Over 400 have been killed, including at least 51 minors, and thousands more beaten or injured according to human rights organizations
- At least 15,000 – and perhaps thousands more - have been detained, arrested, or disappeared ,including prominent musicians, artists, actors, journalists, lawyers, and women’s and human rights activists
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khameini has demonized and threatened the protests, which reflect the just demands and hopes of millions of Iranians, labeling them creations of foreign powers
- On November 10, 227 of 290 members of Iran’s parliament voted to brand protesters as “moharebeh” —“enemies of God” — a charge that can be used to justify a death sentence
- So far at least 19 protesters face charges that could result in the death penalty, and at least five have been sentenced to death
- Ominously, the Islamic Republic recently unleashed its military forces against protesters in the city of Mahabad in Kurdistan
The Islamic Republic has a vicious track record of torture, extended solitary confinement, floggings, forced confessions, denial of legal rights, sham trials, and mass executions – some 5,000 in 1988 alone. Now the regime is escalating its atrocities against detainees, including sexual torture and rape, threatening family members, denying medical care to injured protesters, and more.
"Speaking out against the Islamic Republic is not a call for foreign intervention or military action!” Everest emphasizes.“In fact, those of us living in the U.S. have a special responsibility to support the Iranian people given the enormous suffering this country has inflicted on them for decades, from the 1953 CIA coup, to U.S. support for Iraq in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, to ongoing sanctions and military threats. Ignoring the Iranian people's just, heroic struggle is unconscionable chauvinism. Refusing to support them amounts to condoning the barbaric suffering and injustices being inflicted on over 80 million human beings, especially women.”
Urgent Alerts:
Nov 19: Imprisoned Rapper Toomaj Salehi Tortured, on Hunger Strike at Isfahan Prison
Nov 11: PEN America Denounces Harsh Sentences, Torture for Iranian Artists and Writers in Custody
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The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance– We Must ACT NOW!
This Emergency Appeal from the International Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now, launched last year in the U.S., has been endorsed by over 4,500 people from 40 countries, including Germany, the UK and France. Signers include former Iranian political prisoners, relatives of current prisoners, the Burn the Cage/Free the Birds movement, and prominent voices of conscience including Shirin Ebadi, Cornel West, Noam Chomsky, Gloria Steinem, Ariel Dorfman, Jody Williams, Daniel Ellsberg, Judith Butler, and Raymond Lotta. It appeared as an ad on the back cover of the Summer 2021 issue of The New York Review of Books, as well as in the Summer issue of Ms. Magazine and has been translated into Farsi, Turkish, French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.
Endorse the Emergency Appeal to Free Iran's Political Prisoners