Iran’s Political Prisoners Exemplify Resilience in Resisting Theocratic Regime
Activist Sharifeh Mohammadi was arbitrarily and suddenly sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic of Iran on July 4. In the days since, there has been widespread protest against this vile injustice by broad sections of society inside and outside Iran; especially heroic are actions by other political prisoners.
Inside the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, 85 political prisoners refused food on July 11 to protest the death sentence of activist Sharifeh Mohammadi – 30 in the women’s ward and 55 in two men’s wards. Two days earlier, 16 women political prisoners signed a letter against Sharifeh’s death sentence that warns of the danger it represents. Participants in the “Tuesday No to Execution” weekly hunger strike in 9 prisons across Iran also messaged, “One of the allegations against Sharifeh Mohammadi is that she distributed leaflets declaring ‘No to execution’; trying to stop the execution machine is not only not a crime but should become a public demand".1 These collective actions and statements to stand with Sharifeh are being organized in the face of great risks by Iran’s vengefully repressive regime.
Activist Sharifeh Mohammadi was arbitrarily and suddenly sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic of Iran on July 4. In the days since, there has been widespread protest against this vile injustice by broad sections of society inside and outside Iran; especially heroic are actions by other political prisoners.
Inside the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, 85 political prisoners refused food on July 11 to protest the death sentence of activist Sharifeh Mohammadi – 30 in the women’s ward and 55 in two men’s wards. Two days earlier, 16 women political prisoners signed a letter against Sharifeh’s death sentence that warns of the danger it represents. Participants in the “Tuesday No to Execution” weekly hunger strike in 9 prisons across Iran also messaged, “One of the allegations against Sharifeh Mohammadi is that she distributed leaflets declaring ‘No to execution’; trying to stop the execution machine is not only not a crime but should become a public demand".1 These collective actions and statements to stand with Sharifeh are being organized in the face of great risks by Iran’s vengefully repressive regime.
“Today and the future belong to us because we are united and unbreakable”
In response, the Campaign to Defend Sharifeh Mohammadi replied with an inspiring message filled with determination and hope for a better future that has much broader implications:
To the dear ones who are in chains but free in spirit in Evin Prison, the freedom-loving and equality-seeking men and women behind Evin’s bars, the men and women who are the awakened conscience of our time. We, the members of the Campaign to Defend Sharifeh Mohammadi, composed of Sharifeh’s family members, have received your courageous and encouraging messages, your voices of protest, and your decision to go on a hunger strike. Our entire beings are filled with pride and honor, and you have made us a thousand times more resolute in the path we have chosen. You, who are imprisoned by the system of oppression and exploitation, stand bravely and exemplarily beside Sharifeh and those like her, sacrificing your safety and freedom… Inspired by your actions and character, we will strive to the utmost of our ability for the freedom of dear Sharifeh and all of you prisoners [who are] free in spirit. We kiss your hands and faces and declare that hearing your support for Sharifeh and the Campaign has filled us with pride and renewed energy. Today and the future belong to us because we are united and unbreakable.
In struggle to put an end to executions,
In struggle for the freedom of all political prisoners,
#womanlifefreedom|
Standing with you for the freedom of dear Sharifeh
Women Prisoners Lead Resistance to Iran’s Hyper Male Supremacist Repressive Regime
For many years now, women political prisoners have played a frontline role in the fight against the regime, at the cost of great personal danger and sacrifices. In a letter by 16 women political prisoners in Evin, posted on IG by the accounts of Golrokh Iraee and 2023 Nobel Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, they put Sharifeh’s death sentence squarely in the context of the regime’s murderous and desperate repression of the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, and points to its dangerous precedent. In this, as they’ve consistently done, these women prisoners are striving to lead in both analysis and action. By highlighting the images of these prisoners along with their letter, IEC emphasized the need to get these prisoners free, to be among the people taking part in the urgent debate over how to overcome this oppression and get to a better world.
Sharifeh Mohammadi, a labor activist, has been sentenced to death on unjust and baseless charges, after enduring seven months of torture and interrogation in various cities’ detention centers.
This is not only a death sentence for Sharifeh but a death sentence for all “us” labor, political, civil, human rights, and women’s rights activists.
We see this sentence as a potential danger and a precursor to issuing more severe sentences in the future.
What is most apparent in this death sentence is a policy of repression intended to silence the voices of protest and the demands that had reached a significant level with the revolutionary uprising of 2022, and to intimidate and force back women who have stepped forward with a louder voice than before to demand their “rights.”
We stand with Sharifeh and all those threatened with execution and demand an end to the death penalty.
Signed,
Sarvenaz Ahmadi, Anisha Assadollahi, Hasti Amiri, Reyhaneh Ansari-Nejad, Golrokh Iraee, Sakineh Parvaneh, Nahid Taghavi, Nahid Khodajo, Nasrin Kohdari- Jovadi, Vida Rabani, Mahboubeh Rezaei, Mahnaz Tarrah, Sepideh Gholian, Narges Mohammadi, Varisha Moradi, Maryam Yahyavi"
Support for Sharifeh Mohammadi and Opposition to Execution Grow
As we reported in last week’s update, Sharifeh Mohammadi was sentenced to death on charges of “armed rebellion” based only on her membership 13 years ago in the Coordinating Committee for the Formation of Labor Unions, which has always stated its independence of any political group or ideology. Coming on July 4, one day before the election of the supposed “moderate”, “reformer” new president Masoud Pezeshkian, this outrageously unjust conviction and sentence sent a message to Iranian society that regardless of any attempted minor cosmetic “rebranding” of the Islamic Republic of Iran, executions, repression of dissidents and of women are pillars of the theocracy based in ancient Sharia law that will not be questioned.
Over the past week, support for Sharifeh, spotlighting the fight to stop ramped up executions in Iran, has mushroomed in broad sectors of Iranian society. Support for Sharifeh has ranged from independent labor coalitions, formerly and currently imprisoned labor activists, mothers of murdered protesters, a retirees’ union, 15 religious denominations, and even a mountaineer collective in her native province of Gilan (Sharifeh and her husband are avid mountain climbers).
Outside Iran, smaller groups in the diaspora (Iranians living outside Iran) have been active. For example, the Global Campaign to Stop Executions in Iran has called actions on July 13 in Sweden, France, and Frankfurt, Germany, and on July 20 in Koln, Germany. Of particular note is the still initial solidarity by non-Iranians, such as five French trade unions on July 12 and the DGB University Group Berlin in Germany on July 8.
In the Shadow of US-Israeli Genocide in Gaza…A Fight for the Future
The IEC is encountering some who are active in the righteous struggle against the US/Israeli imperialist/Zionist atrocity in Gaza but are sidestepping (some even support) the crimes of Iran’s Islamic fundamentalist regime in the guise of its “anti-imperialism”. This is wrong and dangerous, confounding friends and enemies. Today and the future belong to THE PEOPLE of the world, especially those who risk it all to stand up against oppressors by any other name in the fight for a better world. Iran’s political dissidents have steadfastly been part of this fight including through the historic 2022-2023 uprising that was a cry of oppressed humanity, and especially the half of humanity who are female. The future cannot be left to the reactionary governments of the world be it, West or East, or their loyal international organizations like the UN. Many of Iran’s political prisoners are setting an example of what that fight for the future should look like by relying on ourselves, the ordinary people of the world, the nobodies “WHO ARE NOT BUT CAN BE."2
Donate and join the IEC as part of this urgent fight to mobilize a needed global grassroots movement based on the shared interests of the people, not the interests of the governments of US or Iran, to free Sharifeh, Toomaj Salehi and all Iran’s political prisoners now with urgency.