Siamak Amini witnessed the 1988 massacre of thousands of fellow political prisoners when he was imprisoned by the Islamic Republic from 1984 to 1989. He is now in Evin Prison serving a four year sentence for social media messages of support for the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in 2022. He has been repeatedly denied medical treatment for a painful autoimmune disease. We want to share his letter below, posted by @burnthecage on October 4, as it stands as a clarion call and a challenge to all political dissidents and justice-loving people in the oppressive world today. (Translation to English is by IEC volunteers)

I do not want anything that is tainted with begging, not even life!

Greetings to the noble people of Iran:

I, Siamak Amini, a political prisoner from the 1980s, am writing to you from Evin Prison.

In a country where, according to official statistics, 40% of the population lives below the poverty line and millions cannot afford even bread; where 43,000 people die each year from absolute poverty; where every day the environment such as seas, forests, and jungles is being wiped off the map; where 2–3 million children are deprived of school at the start of the academic year; where government hospital walls are covered with ads for selling body organs; where rusty, decrepit cars take the lives of my fellow citizens daily; where theft, discrimination, inequality, corruption, and looting are rampant, in such a society the people are suffering from hunger, thirst, and lack of electricity, clean water, and gas.

Anyone who speaks out against it and shouts slogans for freedom and equality is sent to prison, executed or tortured. My friends are being executed with their hands tied and the innocent women of my country are sentenced to death (Verishe Moradi, Pakhshan Azizi and Sharifeh Mohammadi). My friends and comrades were executed en masse and exiled, and their children, fathers, mothers are still grieving their loss, after more than thirty years.

I will never write a plea for clemency or beg for mercy. Instead, I am honored to be on the list of those excluded from amnesty.

At a time when the Zahhak [mythical monster king] of our times has turned all of Iran into a prison, my release from this prison does not matter to me. Although I am sick and Article 10 of the amnesty directive for incurable diseases applies to me, I will remain with honor until the last day of my unjust sentence and fight for freedom - in memory of the Mahsa, the women and men of my country.

They have denied me treatment, but at a time when the people of my country die in hospital queues, I will fight like them. They forbid me from seeing my family in person, but I will endure, remembering all my compatriots who have been forced into exile and have lived for years separated from their families. I too will be a small drop in the ocean of resistance. I will not bow down to the tyrants; our resistance signals and stamps the oppressor's destruction.

In the name of Woman – Life – Freedom.

Greetings to the heroic people of Iran, in the hope of freedom for Iran and all its people.

Siamak Amini
Political Prisoner, Evin Prison