On Tuesday, August 19, 2025, the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign entered its 82nd consecutive week, demonstrating a dramatic escalation in coordinated resistance against the Iranian regime’s use of capital punishment. In a powerful show of unity, prisoners across 49 of the country’s most notorious prisons held hunger strikes, while citizens simultaneously took to the streets in dozens of cities to echo their demands.
The protests come amid a horrifying surge in state-sanctioned killings. According to figures released by the campaign, the regime has executed 128 people since July 23. This brings the total number of executions for the Persian year 1404 (since March 2025) to a staggering 619. “This is not just statistical data, but the stories of lives and families plunged into mourning and suffering,” the campaign wrote in its statement.
The prison front: A coordinated act of defiance
The 82nd week of the campaign saw organized hunger strikes in 49 prisons, including Tehran’s Evin Prison and the infamous Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. The prisoners’ statement highlighted the regime’s practice of enforced disappearances, pointing to the dire situation of six prisoners on death row. “The continued lack of information about five political prisoners… (Vahid Bani Amerian, Pouya Ghobadi, Babak Alipour, Mohammad Taghavi, Akbar [Shahrokh] Daneshvarkar) and one security prisoner, Babak Shahbazi, is a clear sign of the flagrant violation of human rights and the increasing pressure on the lives of prisoners,” the statement declared.
The campaign also condemned the regime’s judiciary for upholding the death sentence of political prisoner Sharifeh Mohammadi. The statement asserted that this decision “once again reveals the extent of the lack of justice and the cruelty of the executionist government’s judicial system, a despotic regime that has completely lost its legitimacy in society.”
The public uprising: Streets echo the prisoners’ cries
In tandem with the prison strikes, protests erupted in cities across Iran, including Karaj, Tehran, Zahedan, Rasht, Ahvaz, Shiraz, and Qom. Crowds gathered holding placards with images of prisoners on death row, their chants directly challenging the regime’s authority. Slogans like “Political prisoners must be freed,” “Fire is the answer to execution,” and the defiant warning, “This is the final message; if you execute, there will be an uprising!” resonated through the streets.
These protests have become a national symbol of resistance, drawing participants from all walks of life, with the families of condemned prisoners standing at the forefront of the movement.
August 19—Iran
In tandem with the 82nd week of the "No to Executions Tuesdays" campaign, families of death-row political prisoners held protest rallies, demanding the revocation of the death sentences of their loved ones.#StopExecutionsInIranpic.twitter.com/23X3DIoU6h— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) August 19, 2025
The human toll: Families speak out against regime’s brutality
The families of the condemned have transformed their personal anguish into a powerful public indictment of the regime. In a widely circulated video, the mother of Akbar Daneshvarkar, one of the disappeared prisoners, made a heart-wrenching appeal while holding a picture of her son. “In the name of the great God, they abducted my son,” she said. “I ask international organizations, I beg you, bring my child back. My son is my caregiver, and I need him. I ask international organizations to help us, to address our demands.”
In another act of collective defiance, the families of several disappeared prisoners released a joint video statement, revealing their loved ones have been held incommunicado for 12 days since being transferred to Ghezel Hesar prison. “We, the families of political prisoners, in support of ‘No to Executions Tuesdays,’ demand the abolition of our children’s death sentences and their release from prison,” they stated. “We are in a state of complete uncertainty. No to executions, no to political imprisonment, no to forced disappearances.”
August 19—Iran
Message by mother of death-row political prisoner Shahrokh Daneshvarkar, who was abducted by regime authorities and forcibly transferred to Ghezel Hesar.
"They abducted my son. I suffered a heart attack after hearing this. I had to implant a stent. My husband can't… pic.twitter.com/1xnKo3FBNJ— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) August 19, 2025
A unified national movement
The 82nd week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign demonstrates a new phase in the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom. The clear synergy between the organized dissent within prisons and the public protests outside signifies a growing, unified national movement against the regime’s core instruments of terror and repression.
The campaign’s statement concluded with an appeal that encapsulates the movement’s spirit, urging the public to “express their protest against the unjust sentences and the policy of execution in the country with every available means and tool, and to show their human solidarity against this systematic violence.”