As we go to press, we received the following URGENT ALERT from @burnthecage:
On Saturday July 26, authorities violently assaulted the political prisoners ward of Ghezel Hezar prison. Prisoners were beaten, handcuffed, shackled, and bags put over their heads, and they were moved to an unknown location. Two political prisoners, Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani, were suddenly executed without any prior notice even to their families. Political prisoner Saeed Masouri was forcefully transferred to Zahedan Prison. The lives of all Iran’s political prisoners are in imminent danger.

Over this past week, greater collective resistance by prisoners to executions, and the regime’s attempts to divide and demoralize the prisoners, made headlines in the international media. The death sentences and dragnet of arrests and assaults at checkpoints on trumped-up espionage charges, have all intensified since the unprovoked U.S.-Israeli bombings of Iran in June (the “12 day war”).

July 22 marked the 78th consecutive week of the prisoner-led “No to Execution Tuesdays” hunger strikes, spreading now to 48 prisons across Iran. On July 16, quick action by prisoners prevented authorities from transferring one of the original and steadfast hunger strikers from Ghezel Hesar Prison, where the hunger strike began in early 2024. The attempted transfer of this prisoner, Saeed Masouri, was likely aimed at weakening or breaking the strike that has cohered, persisted and become a mass movement and clarion call for civil society to join in the struggle against the injustice of executions and its use as a means of mass terror.

As reposted by Burn the Cage movement, the attempt to transfer him to a distant prison “was met by protest and resistance from the ward's prisoners. Clashes broke out between the security forces and the prisoners. Ultimately, the prisoner was returned to the prison's general population.” The regime warned that one way or the other, Masouri’s transfer would happen. They posted guards and security agents all around the ward and outside the prison. Masouri is a political prisoner who has been imprisoned without a day of furlough for 25 years. His lawyers filed a lawsuit to prevent the transfer so he is still in Ghezel Hesar Prison as of this writing (7/25). Punishing prisoners through forced transfers is a cruel tactic Iran’s regime frequently employs to make visitation difficult or impossible and to break up prisoner solidarity. Immediately after the attempted transfer, numerous statements against it were issued by both women and men political prisoners in various prisons.

As we go to press, it is reported on July 25 that another political prisoner in Ghezel Hesar, Zartasht Ahmadi Ragheb, was being forcibly transferred into a solitary confinement ward but his fellow prisoners also intervened and prevented it.

Solidarity Actions Around the World

Video caption: July 19 action in Cologne, Germany, against the anti-Afghan policies and the executions by the Islamic Republic regime. Activists in support of the prisoners’ strike, and the Burn The Cage movement, were accompanied by Shekib Mosadeq, the revolutionary Afghan singer,” here performing the “Burn The Cage, Free the Birds” anthem that he composed in 2021.

This determination to stop all executions was amplified by protests in Europe and elsewhere, mainly by Iranians in the diaspora but also other supporters of Iran’s political prisoners, adding an internationalist atmosphere to this crucial struggle.

Last week, a variety of forces held actions in support of the ongoing prison-based protests against executions in Iran and to free political prisoners. Significantly, many of these actions also called for a stop to the mass deportations of Afghan refugees from Iran.

Among these, what stood out was the grassroots solidarity expressed in coordinated actions in ten cities on July 19. As reported by Mansoureh Behkish, (key organizer of Mothers and Families of Khavaran and a signatory to IEC's Emergency Appeal) actions in Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, Frankfort, Hamburg, Hannover, Kassel, London, Strasbourg and Toronto protested “the brutal repression of the Islamic regime in Iran, as well as against Afghanophobia and racism.” In Dublin, they joined a march in support of Palestine and distributed brochures to expose the “oppressive Islamic regime,” which received interest and support from many marchers. The report notes, “We, too, call for an end to war and bloodshed, and for freedom and equality for the people of Palestine, Iran, Afghanistan, and all the people of the world, free from the grip of all oppressive, exploitative and aggressive powers.”

Repression Targets Oppressed and Ethnic Populations in Iran

In April 2023, a Kurdish farmer was arrested for having provided medical aid to protesters wounded during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising. Rezgar Beigzadeh Babamiri was dragged into an interrogation center where, for 130 consecutive days, he endured mock executions, waterboarding, beatings, electric shocks, and sleep deprivation to force him to make false confessions. The torturers “reminded me that I was in a place where, according to them, dozens of ‘rioters’ had previously been tortured to death. They told me I would meet the same fate, and that my body would eventually be dumped like theirs in the Bukan dam lake, sewage canals, or mass graves”—that is, disappeared. He has been given three death sentences for alleged “spying for Israel,” “armed rebellion,” and “leading a rebel group.”

Babamiri and 13 other codefendants, all Kurdish, were convicted in a sham trial entirely based on forced “confessions,” with no credible evidence presented. He and four others received multiple death sentences. Others in the case included satellite dish installers accused of espionage and a pharmacist accused of “financing terrorism” for providing medicine to injured protesters. These co-defendants courageously filed formal complaints against their torturers, to no avail. During their trial, they exposed the torture and the false forced confessions. In response, the judge cruelly sneered, “Did you expect them to feed you kebab?” Read Babamiri’s full letter here.

What all this indicates is a systematic campaign aimed at the oppressed Kurdish and Arab ethnic communities who have faced decades of persecution. The regime seems intent on punishing those who stood at the forefront of many peaceful anti-government protests, especially those protesters from before, during and since the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising of 2022-2023.

One tactic in this state campaign is the use of multiple checkpoints around cities and along highways in ethnic minority regions, some of them manned by paramilitary units. At least eight civilians have been killed at checkpoints since the start of the war with Israel, most recently a whole family riddled with bullets, including a 3-year-old girl, at a checkpoint near a military base in central Iran.

Among at least 700 executions so far in 2025, July 21 saw the gruesome group-hanging of six Baluch men on alleged drug-related charges in Zahedan Prison in southeast Iran. In the first six months of 2025, almost half of the executions in Iran were for drug-related offenses, which disproportionately affect ethnic minorities and impoverished peoples. For example, the Baluch are estimated to be between 2-6% of Iran’s population, yet they accounted for 11% of executions in 2024.

Israeli-U.S. Attacks on Iran are Fodder for IRI

Amnesty International released a report July 22 on Israel’s deliberate, targeted bombing of Evin Prison on June 23, calling it a war crime. It noted that Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister cynically and sadistically tweeted “Long Live Freedom!”—at the same time that missiles were tearing through the bodies of at least 79 employees, visitors, conscripts and prisoners alike, in and around Evin. Israeli strikes in Iran killed more than 1,000 people and injured 4,500 over 12 days of the assault. In Zionist-imperialist parlance, all this death and destruction is justified as “collateral damage.”

Possible acts of sabotage and continuing threats from Israel and the U.S. continue to cause fear and chaos in Iran, and the IRI continues to try using such suspicions to whip up reactionary nationalism among its social base into supporting more murderous repression against “the other,” “foreigners” or “ethnic separatists,” especially Afghan refugees and Kurdish, Arab and Baluch nationalities. But the IRI’s current leap into a more hellish level of repression does not represent simply a propaganda move or one more step down its bloody path. Rather, since the 12-day war, there is a full-scale war by the IRI against Iranian civil society, a war which the mullah regime considers a necessity for its legitimacy and stability in continuing its existence and role as a regional power.

Iran Deports 700,000 Afghans in One Month

“You cannot be both anti-ICE and pro [the] regime in Iran,” comedienne activist Chelsea Hart sharply posted on July 18. “The regime in Iran is in the midst of the largest mass deportation in modern history. But many of those who criticize the brutality of ICE raids [in the U.S.] are notably silent. Or worse, repeat the regime’s lies against Afghans. Since June: 700,000 Afghans have been deported from Iran. Most are legal residents who have not broken any laws. Many of them are Hazara, a Shia minority being sent back to be slaughtered by the Taliban. 80,000 of them are children. Thousands of whom have been separated from their parents with no food or water. Where is the world?...” See full post.

How can you do both?

To this sharply worded contradiction from Chelsea Hart to many in the U.S. “left” who continue to promote Iran as a progressive regime, as the “Axis of Resistance,” we want to ask:

• How can you oppose the horrific racist genocide of Arab people in Palestine BUT ignore the executions of ethnic Arab protesters inside Iran?
• How can you oppose the oppression of women, gay and trans people AND defend Iran’s extreme patriarchal/misogynist regime, especially in light of the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising that lasted for several months and rocked the Sharia law based system?

Our Responsibility

July 2025—As we ourselves are in a life and death struggle to prevent the consolidation in the U.S. of fascism by the Trump regime—and in continuing the struggle to stop the U.S.-sponsored Israeli genocide in Gaza, there is now an even more urgent necessity for us, internationally—and especially for those of us in the U.S.—to take up the message from our 2021 Emergency Appeal that identified the stand and actions we need to boldly take. In the U.S., we have a special responsibility to unite very broadly against this vile repression by the IRI, and to actively oppose any war moves by the U.S. government that would bring even more unbearable suffering to the people of Iran. We demand of the Islamic Republic of Iran: FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW! We say to the U.S. government: NO THREATS OR WAR MOVES AGAINST IRAN, LIFT U.S. SANCTIONS!

All justice-loving people everywhere in the world should unite and link up these struggles in the interest of humanity and confront the stakes in doing so. Many of Iran’s political prisoners continue to stand up and unite across different political perspectives in the fight for a better world—not just for themselves but for other people, defying great odds—even of torture and executions. They stand as an example of implacable courage and hope for humanity that we should defend and emulate, with urgency.

In July 2021, the rebel rapper Toomaj Salehi posted his short track "Unite." It contains a timely and lofty call that is relevant in this fraught moment in world history. It should be heeded by people who aspire for our world to transcend nationalism, especially poisonous xenophobia such as that against Afghan people in Iran. Watch and spread it as part of our fight for the unity of the oppressed against the oppressors in our world.

Thousands of dissidents, journalists, social media users rounded up and fast-tracked for possible execution… 100 transgender prisoners presumed killed in Israeli bombing of Evin prison… 36,000 Afghan refugees deported in a single day… Up against this ramped up state violence, political prisoners, alongside activists and ordinary people, continue to find ways to express resistance and solidarity.

As of July 4, nearly 1,500 Iranians had been arrested in mass sweeps and charged with espionage (spying for Israel) or vague national security charges since June 24, 2025, most without even a semblance of due process. According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, Iran’s Parliament has moved to fast-track legislation that would codify and escalate this repression. The measure’s vague language would equate online activism and information sharing with terrorism and treason. Anyone accused of undermining national security or sharing content with foreign media could face life imprisonment or death.

Death Threats Against Narges Mohammadi

“Warnings” from the Ministry of Intelligence of Iran to 2023 Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi^[1], sent via third parties while she is on medical furlough from Evin Prison, had threatened that “rogue actors” are looking for her whereabouts and are going to “waste” her, and that there is an “ongoing project to eliminate you.” In July, her lawyer was told to relay to her an order of not conducting media interviews, mobilize rights groups, or publish statements.^[2]

Such death threats are taking place in an atmosphere of ever more severe repression by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) in the wake of attacks by Israel and the U.S., including the June 23 Israeli bombing that destroyed Evin, a war crime. The regime confirmed at least 79 people died in that bombing, but many prisoners remain unaccounted for, key among them 100 transgender prisoners housed in a segregated wing, who are all missing and presumed dead.

Regime’s Sinister Threat: “They deserve to be executed in the manner of 1988”

An article in the semi-official Fars News Agency referenced the “secret fatwa” by then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini that led to the massacre of at least 5,000 imprisoned revolutionaries, dissidents and other regime opponents in the summer of 1988.^[3] The article said detainees accused of collaborating with Israeli and Western intelligence agencies “deserve to be executed in the manner of 1988." It also said the 1988 executions were a “brilliant chapter” in the fight against “terrorism” and that “society today recognizes the need for such proper measures against domestic terrorist networks.”^[4] This ominous threat aims not only to drive legislative authority for mass executions on an even more horrific scale than the present, but also to whip up reactionary support among sections of the population.

The IRI, stung by the unprovoked Israeli/U.S. attacks in June’s “12-day war” in which drones were smuggled deep into Iran and private residences of top officials were targeted, wants to turn people’s anger into a reactionary and murderous scapegoating of dissidents, ethnic minorities as supposed separatists, and immigrants for supposedly aiding Mossad, Israel’s secret service. But for decades, Israeli spies have been eavesdropping on IRI command centers, and Mossad agents seemed to have penetrated the most sensitive organs of the regime's military and security apparatus. There are real indications that security breaches had likely penetrated the ranks of the regime itself, and that they should search their own house as to the presence of Mossad and U.S. agents.^[5]

12 Death Sentences for 5 Kurdish Protesters from Woman, Life, Freedom Uprising

A poignant reminder of the regime’s retribution and pre-emptive strike on the people’s potential to rebel is the sentencing of five protesters from the historic 2022-2023 uprising in the province of West Azerbaijan, to a total of 12 death sentences on charges such as “enmity against God,” “armed rebellion” and formation of “rebel” organizations. A separate case was added for “carrying out intelligence missions for Mossad.” The other nine defendants in the case received long prison terms and fines, and all testified in court of being subjected to intense torture in extracting their false confessions.

The “No to Executions Tuesday” hunger strike campaign, in its 76th consecutive week and now in 47 prisons across Iran, denounced the wave of arrests and stepped-up executions and the 12 death sentences of the five Kurdish activists:

…Exposure of exiled political prisoners to greater Tehran [Penitentiary] and Gharchak prisons, is only a small part of the inhumane situation governing the country's prisons…. We demand the immediate abolition of all death sentences in Iran and we believe that the Iranian people, together with other oppressed nations, will continue this path of resistance until victory and liberation.

Urgent Need for General Amnesty of Prisoners

An article in IranWire.com titled “Khamenei Faces Criticism as Calls Grow for General Amnesty” details the legal and moral basis for a general amnesty for prisoners in war times:

Imprisonment during wartime is a double punishment for inmates, who not only endure harsh prison conditions but also suffer anxiety over their families’ safety and are unable to protect them…. As political prisoners have said about Israel’s attack on Evin Prison, such disasters could happen again - making a general amnesty during wartime essential to protect prisoners’ rights and safety, support their families, and demonstrate good governance.... News of prisoners’ conditions following Israel’s attack on Evin Prison and the transfer of prisoners to other Tehran-area prisons has caused deep concern among most Iranians…. No priority ranks higher than passing general amnesty legislation and mass prisoner releases—especially political prisoners.

On July 7, 2025 Amnesty International issued an urgent call for people to urge Iran “to immediately release all prisoners arbitrarily detained and consider releasing other prisoners, especially pre-trial detainees and those eligible for conditional release.” It calls on the IRI to disclose the fate and whereabouts of all held in Evin’s political prisoners wards; grant all prisoners access to their families and lawyers, protect them from torture and other ill-treatment and to take all measures to protect the right to life and health of all prisoners, ensuring that different categories of prisoners are held separately, all are given adequate medical care and are treated humanely in line with international standards, and allow international monitors to conduct prison inspections

One Million Afghan Refugees Deported, and Counting

As part of an overall repressive atmosphere of mass terror, and to divide and conquer the population, Iran’s theocrats whipped up ugly nationalism by targeting “the other” and deporting more than one million Afghan migrants since the beginning of 2025, with nearly 600,000 returned to Afghanistan since June 1, at least 70% of them forcibly, reported the Center for Human Rights in Iran. A staggering 36,000 were deported on one single day after the outbreak of the recent 12-day Israeli attack. Afghan women, men and children were forced onto buses or into locked camps without food or water and then abandoned to desperate conditions in Afghanistan. Especially for women and girls, they are forced back under theocratic fascist Taliban rule.

The Humanity of the Oppressed vs Inhumanity of Theocrats

The regime is using anti-Afghan racism and xenophobia to harden its reactionary social base in contrast to inspiring examples of solidarity among the oppressed. In the province of Sistan and Baluchistan bordering Afghanistan, ordinary people among the Baluchs, one of the poorest ethnic groups in Iran, have organized cooking of food to take to starving Afghans on buses, or are seen passing food under gates or over walls of locked camps. In an interview on @haalvsh, a recent deportee reports that 7,000 Afghans were held in a desert concentration camp under the blazing sun. Trucks brought food and water for sale only. However, Baluch youth forced the trucks to turn around. “They said, either take the vehicles away, or we’ll set them on fire because we provide food to the migrants for free… We will never forget this kindness.”

Shirin Ebadi, Nobel laureate and a signatory to IEC’s Emergency Appeal, published a video showing the armed attack on a Baluch village under the pretext of arresting Mossad spies. When a group of village women opposed them, security agents opened fire, murdering one Baluch woman in cold blood and severely injuring 11 others. After this, groups of women set fires on the road in protest.

“In a time when fascism and reaction grow more rabid, we still believe in humanity and struggle”

In the intense societal tumult indicated above, a group of activist women published an insightful, timely statement in Akhbar-Rooz that you can read in full in English on IEC’s Global Movement page. It concludes:

Now, in a moment of peak weakness and desperation, the regime foolishly imagines it can silence all these voices, break the solidarity between prison and street, uproot existing movements, and distort public unity… It tries to erase the will of a people united in their desire to overthrow it—through widespread arrests, escalated executions, and by passing medieval punishments of torture and long imprisonment under the pretext of wartime conditions. It has even weaponized the expulsion of Afghan migrants, inflicting yet another wound on our society, hoping to crush our collective determination... We women, from the heart of this wounded but radiant history, declare: All political prisoners must be freed! Freedom is neither a privilege nor a favor; it is a human right.

We demand:

* Immediate abolition of death sentences,
* An end to the systemic repression inside prisons,
* Unconditional release of all political and ideological prisoners,
* Humane living conditions for non-political prisoners,
* A full stop to the mass deportations of Afghan immigrants

In a time when fascism and reaction grow more rabid, we still believe in humanity and struggle—because it is still possible to stand, hand in hand, for the liberation of political prisoners, for the abolition of executions, for the freedom of all people, and for the creation of a society free from all forms of discrimination, domination, and power-hunger.

We shout: #WomanLifeFreedom

Mural in Colombia Opposes Both U.S./Israel and Islamic Republic

In a show of global grassroots solidarity, a video from revolutionaries and activists in Colombia shows people collectively painting a large mural that puts forward a refreshingly internationalist view of the struggle of the people in Iran and the Middle East.

The text (translated from Spanish by IEC volunteers) of the mural at the National University in Bogotá reads: Stop U.S./Israeli Aggression Against Iran! Stop the Israeli/U.S. genocide against Palestine immediately! Supporting Israel/U.S. or Islamic fundamentalism is betraying the people of Iran and Palestine and their hopes for a future free of all forms of oppression! STOP imperialist domination and wars for empire.

The Spanish reads: ¡Alto a la agresión de EEUU/Israel a Irán! ¡Paren el genocidio de Israel/EEUU contra Palestina inmediatamente! ¡Apoyar a Israel/EEUU o al fundamentalismo islámico es traicionar a los pueblos de Irán y Palestina y sus esperanzas de un futuro libre de cualquier forma de opresión! ¡ALTO a la dominación imperialista y a las guerras por imperio!