On June 23, 2026, prisoners across 57 facilities in Iran held a hunger strike marking the 126th week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign. According to a statement issued by the participating prisoners, inmates in Kerman Prison are the latest to join the nationwide weekly protest against capital punishment.
The campaign statement highlighted a severe escalation in state-sanctioned killings, noting that 134 prisoners were executed during the Persian month of Khordad (May 22 to June 21, 2026). Among these were two women, 28-year-old Asieh Farahmand and 32-year-old Zeinab Zarini, who were secretly hanged in Qazvin Prison on June 7. Furthermore, on June 16, authorities in Shahroud executed Abolfazl Saedi and Javad Zamani, two political prisoners detained during the nationwide uprisings of December 2025–January 2026.
In their statement, the striking prisoners characterized the regime’s use of capital punishment as a tool for political survival rather than law enforcement. “The death penalty in Iran is not a tool for realizing justice, but a mechanism for spreading fear, silencing dissenting voices, and consolidating the authoritarian structure of power,” the prisoners wrote.
The inmates also criticized the recent preliminary agreement reached between the US and the Iranian regime. They noted that the published terms of the agreement show “no attention to human rights and the horrific repressions and executions in Iran,” concluding that “this shows that the Iranian people must rely on themselves for change.” The statement referenced warnings from Amnesty International and UN Special Rapporteur Mai Sato regarding the international community’s failure to hold Iranian officials accountable and the continued impunity for human rights violators.
Despite the ongoing execution of protesters, the rise in executions will only backfire on the regime.
Echoing this defiance, the prisoners reaffirmed their commitment to their campaign. “We once again declare that the human rights of the Iranian people, especially prisoners, are not negotiable,” the statement read. “In unison with the general public of Iran, we will defend freedom, equality, and the abolition of the death penalty until our last breath.”
The participating inmates in the 126th week of the hunger strike are located across 57 prisons, including Evin (men’s and women’s wards), Ghezel Hesar (units 2, 3, and 4), Karaj Central, Greater Tehran, Qarchak, Chobindar in Qazvin, Dastgerd in Isfahan, Sheiban in Ahvaz, Sepidar in Ahvaz, Adelabad in Shiraz, Zahedan, Mashhad, Rasht, Dizel Abad in Kermanshah, Tabriz, Urmia, Sanandaj, and Kerman.