In a clear sign of the Iranian regime’s escalating war on dissent, its repressive forces have launched a new wave of brutal arrests targeting political activists and their families. These raids, carried out with extreme violence and a complete disregard for the law, reveal a regime terrified of its own people and determined to silence any opposition through sheer force.
The human face of this crackdown is stark. On July 21, 2025, a force of 40 security agents staged a violent, raid on the home of Leila Saremi in Borujerd, arresting her without a warrant. Just days later, on July 24, former political prisoner Shahin Zoghi-Tabar was abducted by plainclothes intelligence agents in Tehran and taken to an unknown location, his family left in anguish with no information about his fate or condition. These are not isolated events; they are the frontline actions in the regime’s declared policy of annihilation.
A multi-generational war on dissent
These arrests are part of a calculated, multi-generational campaign of terror aimed at crushing families associated with the opposition. Leila Saremi is the daughter of the PMOI martyr Ali Saremi, who was executed on December 28, 2010, after spending 24 years in the prisons of both the Shah and the mullahs. She is also the mother of political prisoner Farzad Moazami, who was arrested in April 2023, subjected to horrific torture, including being held in a cage, and sentenced in October 2024 to five years in prison for “assembly and collusion against state security.”
Shahin Zoghi-Tabar is a target for his unwavering defiance. A former political prisoner who endured four years in Evin and Gohardasht prisons from 2013 to 2018, he refused to be silenced upon his release. He courageously saluted PMOI-affiliated prisoners, an act of solidarity the regime has never forgiven. His re-arrest is a clear act of vengeance and a warning to all former prisoners.
The chilling context: an official call for mass murder
This vicious crackdown is the direct result of a horrifying new policy directive from the highest echelons of the clerical regime. On July 7, 2025, the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency published a chilling editorial titled, “Why the 1988 Executions Should Be Repeated.” The piece openly praised the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners, the vast majority of whom were members and supporters of the PMOI, as a “‘successful historical experience’” and explicitly called for the same fate for today’s political prisoners. The arrests of Saremi and Zoghi-Tabar are warning signs of the practical implementation of this genocidal decree.
From rhetoric to reality under Pezeshkian’s watch
The regime’s incitement to murder is not mere rhetoric; it is state policy being brutally executed under the watch of Masoud Pezeshkian. Since he took office in August 2024, the regime’s execution machine has gone into overdrive, hanging over 1,300 people, with an astonishing 650 executions in 2025 alone.
This killing spree is increasingly targeting political dissidents. On July 12, 2025, three opposition activists—Farshad Etemadi-Far, Masoud Jamei, and Alireza Mardasi—were sentenced to death in Ahvaz on charges of “waging war on God” for their support of the PMOI. Dozens more face a similar fate, including political prisoners Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, who are at imminent risk of execution after the Supreme Court rejected their final appeal for a judicial review in July.
Political prisoner Saeed Masouri recently sent a letter from Ghezel Hesar Prison warning that the regime’s attempt to forcibly transfer him is a prelude to mass executions, drawing a direct and terrifying parallel to the tactics used before the 1988 massacre. His warning from inside the regime’s dungeons is stark: “a crime is in progress.”
The world must not repeat the silence of 1988
The regime’s actions have sparked a wave of international alarm. An influential coalition of 301 human rights experts and Nobel laureates issued an urgent warning on July 23, declaring that the “risk of another mass atrocity, reminiscent of the 1988 massacre, is alarmingly real.” Their warning is being echoed by parliamentary committees across Europe, who demand that all diplomatic and economic ties with Tehran be conditioned on a verifiable halt to executions.
The international community and all international human rights bodies must take urgent action to secure the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners and stop executions in Iran. The world stood by in silence in 1988 as the regime slaughtered a generation of activists. It must not fail again.