On Tuesday, November 25, 2025, the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign marked its 96th consecutive week, expanding its reach to 55 prisons across Iran. In a significant development for the movement, inmates at Birjand Central Prison joined the strike this week, joining thousands of other prisoners in a hunger strike to protest the Iranian regime’s escalating use of capital punishment.
The prisoner’s weekly statement describes a regime accelerating its “machinery of death” in a desperate bid for survival. According to the campaign, the judiciary has executed 1,479 individuals since the beginning of the Iranian calendar year in March 2025. The pace of state-sanctioned killings has intensified dramatically in recent weeks; 59 prisoners were hanged in the past week alone. The statement highlighted that during the month of Aban (October 23 to November 21), authorities carried out 311 executions, a figure the prisoners described as “unprecedented since the 1988 massacre.”
96th Week of #NoToExecutionTuesdays | Nov 25, 2025
Now in 55 prisons as Birjand Central Prison joins.
Since Oct 23, 311 executions—unprecedented since 1988.
59 executed this week, 1,479 since March 2025.
UN’s 72nd resolution cites the 1988 massacre and the regime’s use of… pic.twitter.com/1Nzspmh2xh— SIMAY AZADI TV (@en_simayazadi) November 25, 2025
The striking prisoners condemned the death sentence recently issued for Mohammad Mehdi Soleimani, a detainee arrested during the 2022 nationwide uprising. They asserted that his sentencing is “not an exceptional case, but a fixed pattern of eliminating protesters and the characteristic of an invalid and political judicial process.”
In their statement, the participants of the campaign referenced the adoption of the 72nd UN resolution condemning human rights violations in Iran. They noted that the resolution recognized two critical legal truths: “The recognition of the 1988 massacre and expression of concern over its repetition,” and the condemnation of the regime’s “systematic use of execution as a tool for intimidation and suppression.”
Protests spread to 16 cities
While prisoners staged hunger strikes behind bars, solidarity protests erupted in over 16 cities across Iran, including Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz, Isfahan, Rasht, Karaj, and Shiraz. Despite a heavy security presence, citizens, including students, workers, and families of death row inmates, took to the streets carrying placards and chanting anti-regime slogans.
November 25—Iran
Families of political prisoners on death row led today’s nationwide “No to Executions Tuesdays,” with justice-seeking mothers holding photos of their children and chanting: “No to execution!” Protesters denounce the rising use of death penalty.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/vkaUWs1UWD— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 25, 2025
Demonstrators emphasized that the regime’s intimidation tactics were failing. Banners and chants included slogans such as: “Fire is the answer to execution,” “This is the last message; if you execute, there will be an uprising,” “A regime of executioners will not have a peaceful sleep,” and “Executions and exile no longer work.”
The “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, which began in January 2024, has evolved from a prison protest into a nationwide social movement. By regularly defying the state’s most potent instrument of fear, the campaign has turned the demand for justice into a symbol of collective resistance. As the prisoners stated, “The expansion of executions, in the absence of fair trials… is a blatant violation of fundamental human rights and an evident example of a crime against humanity.”
The prisoners participating in the 96th week of the hunger strike are currently held in the following facilities: Evin Prison (women’s and men’s wards), Ghezel Hesar Prison (units 2, 3, and 4), Karaj Central Prison, Fardis Prison in Karaj, Greater Tehran Prison, Qarchak Prison, Khorin Prison in Varamin, Chobindar Prison in Qazvin, Ahar Prison, Arak Prison, Langerud Prison in Qom, Khorramabad Prison, Borujerd Prison, Yasuj Prison, Asadabad Prison in Isfahan, Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan, Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz, Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz (women’s and men’s wards), Nezam Prison in Shiraz, Adelabad Prison in Shiraz (women’s and men’s wards), Firuzabad Prison in Fars, Dehdasht Prison, Zahedan Prison (women’s and men’s wards), Borazjan Prison, Ramhormoz Prison, Behbahan Prison, Bam Prison, Yazd Prison, Kahnuj Prison, Tabas Prison, Mashhad Prison, Sabzevar Prison, Gonbad-e Kavus Prison, Qaemshahr Prison, Rasht Prison (men’s and women’s wards), Rudsar Prison, Haviq Prison in Talesh, Azbaram Prison in Lahijan, Dizel Abad 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, Kamyaran Prison, Ilam Prison, and Birjand Central Prison.