On September 29, 2026, the organized hunger strike campaign “No to Executions Tuesdays” entered its 140th consecutive week, expanding to 66 prisons across Iran. Inmates in Darreh Shahr prison in Ilam province and Meshgin Shahr prison in Ardabil province joined the movement this week. The campaign persists despite severe security pressures, threats, communication restrictions, and punitive measures imposed on the participating prisoners over the past three years.
The striking prisoners highlighted a surge in death sentences targeting political dissidents and protesters. According to their statement, nearly 200 political and ideological prisoners currently face execution. A significant number of these individuals were detained during the massive nationwide uprising of December 2025–January 2026. The prisoners noted that Mahboubeh Shabani, a detainee from the recent uprising held in Mashhad prison, has recently been sentenced to death.
“According to received information, nearly 200 political-ideological prisoners, many of whom are detainees of the nationwide uprising of Dey 1404 [December 2025–January 2026], are under death sentences,” the prisoners wrote in their statement. “This situation reflects the naked suppression of the Iranian people by the religious fascist government, which knows no bounds in suppression, massacre, and execution.”
The campaign’s latest statement detailed the rapid pace of Iran’s execution machine. In the single Persian month of Shahrivar (August 23 to late September 22, 2026), the regime executed at least 79 individuals. Among those hanged were six women and ten members of the Baluch minority.
The expansion of the strikes to 66 facilities demonstrates the society’s deep hatred for the death penalty and underscores the illegitimacy of the regime’s judiciary, which the statement describes as issuing capital sentences in medieval-style courts without granting defendants the minimum right to defense. The prisoners honored the students and educators who have lost their lives in the pursuit of freedom over the past four decades, specifically remembering the students killed during the December 2025–January 2026 uprising as the new academic year begins.
Concluding their statement, the prisoners issued an urgent call for broader resistance: “To stop the execution machine and prevent further tragedies, it is highly essential that the voice of ‘no to execution’ becomes louder and more widespread than ever before. Every street and neighborhood, and every opportunity, must be used to expose the crimes of this medieval government and take practical measures to stop it.”
The prisoners participating in the 140th week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” hunger strike are from 66 facilities, with Darreh Shahr Prison and Meshgin Shahr Prison joining the campaign.