The “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, a defiant movement of hunger-striking prisoners across Iran, has marked its 71st consecutive week, expanding its reach to 46 prisons nationwide. This growth in organized resistance from within the regime’s penal system comes amidst a horrifying surge in state-sanctioned killings, with reports indicating a dramatic increase in the number of prisoners being sent to the gallows.
In their statement for the 71st week, which commenced on Tuesday, June 2, 2025, the prisoners announced that Firuzabad prison in Fars province had joined the campaign. This development underscores the growing determination among inmates to protest the Iranian regime’s rampant use of capital punishment. The campaign, active since January 2024, has seen detainees in an ever-increasing number of facilities participate in weekly hunger strikes every Tuesday.
The prisoners’ statement highlighted their solidarity with other segments of Iranian society facing oppression, explicitly saluting the “hard-working truck drivers who have passed their twelfth day of strike.” They called on “other strata of society who are oppressed in various ways to join the drivers’ strike and support them in any way possible.”
This expansion of prisoner resistance is set against a grim backdrop of escalating executions. According to the campaign’s statement, “since the beginning of Khordad (May 21, 2025) until now, at least 67 prisoners, including three women, have been executed.” This translates to an average of “seven people hanged per day.” The statement chillingly notes that “on May 28 alone, 20 prisoners were ruthlessly executed.”
Corroborating this alarming trend, a statement from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) dated May 30, 2025, reported that “Forty-one people were executed on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday—May 26, 27, and 28—an average of nearly 14 per day, or one execution less than every two hours.” The NCRI further noted that since July of the previous year, during Masoud Pezeshkian’s tenure, “the number of executions has now reached 1,275.”
The “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign directly addresses the regime’s motives, stating, “In the current conditions where we witness heartbreaking events and tragedies across the country every day, the government of slaughter and execution, in its dungeons, executes prisoners in batches in complete secrecy and, by mocking international laws and leveraging religion for these governmental crimes, whose groundwork they themselves have laid, seeks to quell justice-seeking and popular uprisings.”
The prisoners also point out the systemic denial of due process: “Let us not forget that this level of use of the inhumane punishment of execution has been accompanied by widespread violation of the right to a fair trial.”
The campaign’s statement concludes with a powerful message of resilience and a call for broader societal action against the death penalty: “The voice of ‘No to Execution’ must resonate in every city and street, because this government makes families mourn in all corners of the country daily. Our strength lies in our unity and solidarity.” The prisoners assert that “history has shown that the fall of such dictatorial governments is certain.”
The NCRI statement echoes this sentiment, attributing the regime’s actions to fear: “Driven by fear of uprising and the regime’s downfall, Khamenei has descended into a frenzy of bloodshed and violence.”
The 46 prisons participating in the 71st week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” hunger strike are: Evin Prison (women’s ward, wards 4 and 8), Ghezel Hesar Prison (units 3 and 4), Karaj Central Prison, Fardis Prison in Karaj, Greater Tehran Prison, Khorin Prison in Varamin, Choubindar Prison in Qazvin, 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), 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), Rudsar Prison, Havigh 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, and Firuzabad Prison in Fars.