On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, political prisoners across Iran launched the 76th consecutive week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, expanding their coordinated hunger strike to an unprecedented 47 prisons. This growing protest movement from within the regime’s own dungeons serves as a direct challenge to a new wave of state-sanctioned killings and violent repression.
The campaign’s weekly statement was issued on the eve of the anniversary of the July 1999 student uprising, connecting the current resistance to a long legacy of struggle for freedom in Iran, which it vowed “will continue until freedom and the restoration of the people’s right to self-determination are achieved.”
A lethal response to dissent
The prisoners’ protest comes amid a significant escalation in the regime’s use of capital punishment and lethal force. According to the campaign’s statement, at least 24 people have been executed since June 22 (beginning of the Persian calendar month Tir), bringing the total number of executions to a staggering 428 since the Persian New Year in March 2025.
Beyond the gallows, the statement highlights other recent instances of deadly state violence, including the killing of two young men by government suppressive forces in Hamedan and an armed attack on women in the village of Gunich, which resulted in the deaths of two local women. The campaign described the latter as “a clear example of this regime’s misogynistic nature and its fear of popular protests.”
This surge in domestic repression was recently noted by the United Nations. On July 3, 2025, Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, issued a serious warning that the Iranian regime was exploiting regional conflicts to intensify its crackdown on ethnic and religious minorities and political opponents, accusing it of continuing systematic oppression.
Judiciary weaponized against Kurdish political prisoners
The campaign statement strongly condemned the judiciary’s recent actions against five Kurdish political prisoners arrested during the 2022 uprising: Rezgar Bigzadeh-Babamiri, Pejman Soltani, Suran Ghasemi, Kaveh Salehi, and Teyfour Salimi-Babamiri. In a shocking verdict that epitomizes the regime’s use of the legal system as a tool of repression, the five men were collectively sentenced to death 12 times. The campaign denounced these as “inhuman sentences that are far from a fair trial.”
An urgent appeal for international action
In their statement, the prisoners issued a direct appeal to the international community, human rights organizations, and activists to stand against the regime’s terror tactics and defend the fundamental rights of Iranian citizens. “Let’s not be intimidated and defend the right to life of our compatriots,” the statement urged. It specifically highlighted the case of Swedish-Iranian academic Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, who faces imminent execution after years of imprisonment.
The campaign is also an effort to break through the regime’s information blackout around its prisons. Citing the harrowing accounts from political prisoners exiled to facilities like Greater Tehran and Qarchak prisons, the statement warns, “if conditions are this bad in the capital’s prisons, one can only imagine the atrocities in other prisons, especially against ordinary and unknown prisoners.” The prisoners are demanding that international bodies increase pressure for transparency and be granted access to visit prisons and speak with political detainees.
Prisoners on hunger strike in the 76th week
The prisoners participating in the 76th week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” hunger strike are from Ghezel Hesar Prison (units 3 and 4), Karaj Central Prison, Fardis Prison in Karaj, Greater Tehran Prison, Qarchak Prison, Khorin Prison in Varamin, Choubindar Prison in Qazvin, Ahar Prison, Arak Prison, Khorramabad Prison, Yasouj Prison, Asadabad Prison in Isfahan, Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan, Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz, Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz (men’s and women’s wards), Nezam Prison in Shiraz, Adelabad Prison in Shiraz (men’s and women’s wards), Firozabad Prison in Fars, Zahedan Prison (women’s ward), Borazjan Prison, Ramhormoz Prison, Behbahan Prison, Bam Prison, Kahnuj Prison, Tabas Prison, Mashhad Prison, Gonbad-e Kavus Prison, Qaemshahr Prison, Rasht Prison (men’s and women’s wards), Roudsar Prison, Havigh Prison in Talesh, Azbaram Prison in Lahijan, Dizelabad Prison in Kermanshah, Ardabil Prison, Tabriz Prison, Urmia Prison, Salmas Prison, Khoy Prison, Naqadeh Prison, Miandoab Prison, Mahabad Prison, Bukan Prison, Saqqez Prison, Baneh Prison, Marivan Prison, Sanandaj Prison, and Kamyaran Prison.