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

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