BREAKING! JUNE 11: SEPIDEH RELEASED FROM PRISON!

‍

^{Celebrating a Memoir/Cookbook by Sepideh Gholian: Evin Prison Bakers’ Club: Surviving Iran’s Most Notorious Prisons in 16 Recipes}

The UK Guardian reviewer said of the book that: “In every line and in every moment it attempts to recreate, it is entirely and unconditionally defiant.”¹

“A fighting woman cannot be imprisoned because her voice is louder than prison walls. This book is proof”—This quotation from Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize winner,² accompanied the announcement of the publication of The Evin Prison Bakers’ Club: Surviving Iran’s Most Notorious Prisons in 16 Recipes, by Sepideh Gholian. Thirty-year-old Sepideh is a political prisoner held behind Evin’s walls, but her profound empathy with fellow prisoners, her fury at oppression, her joy in comradeship, and her hope for the future, ring loud and clear around the world with this new book released in April, 2025 by OneWorld Publications. It calls for readers to try out the 16 recipes that accompany stories of 16 political prisoners, some including harrowing accounts of prison abuse and torture. She has been repeatedly imprisoned by Iran’s theocratic regime since 2018 when she was 23 years old (see her heroic background story in the on this website under #FreeSepideh).

Here’s just one tidbit to whet your appetite — recipe for madeleines with which she highlights the story of Marzieh Amiri, a journalist sentenced to over 10 years in Evin and 148 lashes for “collusion against national security” (i.e., covering labor strikes in front of parliament):

‍

Bake it the night before, stick it in your pocket, stride down the pavement, let your hijab [headscarf] hang lopsided so you’ll feel some wind in your hair, and take a bite out of the madeleine with the rap playing for you. Carry out a tiny act of feminism in the name of Marzieh Amiri… One day, when our people are victorious, I’ll bake you a cake in the streets of Ahvaz [her hometown in oppressed Khuzestan province]. That day isn’t far off now. I hope we can bring it about together.

The story of how sections of the book were smuggled out of prison in pieces and images is also fascinating.³ It was a determined collaborative feat sent out of Evin prison in scraps of paper or via phone calls, patched together, translated and then published.

Download book in PDF

Prisoner Strike and Protests against Executions Continue

Prisoners in Iran on weekly hunger strike against executions announced that their weekly “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign has entered its 71st consecutive week, spreading now to 46 prisons across Iran.

Below is an excerpt of the June 3, 2025 post by @no_to_execution_Tuesdays on IG (also reposted by @BurnTheCage).

Since the beginning of June, there’s been an average of 7 people who have been hanged per day… With greetings and gratitude to the families of prisoners who have been shouting "No to Execution" in different parts of the country for weeks and supporting this campaign, we once again call on the general public, especially the families of prisoners sentenced to death, to support the "No to Execution Tuesdays" campaign in any way possible and not to leave the protesting families alone. The voice of "No to Execution" must resonate in every city and street, because this government is daily causing grief to families in every corner of the country. Our strength lies in our unity and solidarity.

They also posted their support for a massive truckers’ strike⁴ now in its third week (with 40+ strikers arrested).

Iran Targets Afghan Migrants

Amid the horrific rise in executions overall,⁵ the execution of one particular oppressed, ethnic group stands out: Afghan migrants who are often undocumented laborers in Iran.

In 2024, the Islamic Republic of Iran executed at least 80 Afghans, reportedly three times as many as the previous year. And in the first five months of 2025, it executed 32, according to a statement by 84 human rights organizations. They noted: “Iran is home to one of the world’s largest Afghan migrant populations, many of whom fled after the Taliban's return to power in 2021. The spike in executions comes amid worsening economic conditions in Iran and an increase in anti-migrant rhetoric from officials, who have increasingly blamed Afghan migrants for the country’s social and economic challenges.”⁶

The regime’s strategy of scapegoating the most oppressed and vulnerable sections of people in Iran, in this case Afghan refugees fleeing from one fascist theocracy of the Taliban into another of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). Also, oppressed nationalities like Baluchis, Kurds and Arabs, are scapegoats in the IRI’s attempt to solidify a social base of reactionary misogynists and Great-Persia nationalists. This in turn helps them to hammer into silence sections of the population. In this way, Iran’s Execution Republic uses the noose not only to spread terror, but also to normalize and numb people to state murder, femicide and repression of minorities. In this light, the struggle to end executions, and in particular the steadfast growth of the prisoners’ hunger strike, takes on great importance and calls for solidarity from all justice-loving people of the world.

In a sick irony, this whipping up of a narrow, reactionary nationalism among sections of Iranians feeds into the much more dangerous, and much more reprehensible, anti-Iran and anti-Muslim gangsterism of the U.S. imperialists, now on disgusting display with Trump’s travel ban on 12 countries including Iran, and the open threats which lie just below their current nuclear negotiations.

Support and Emulate the Spirit of Entire and Unconditional Defiance

We call on everyone to reflect on the beam of light and hope against repression and oppression emanating from the prisoners in some of the deepest hellholes on our planet—the infamous and murderous prisons of Iran, especially the historically savage torture prison called Evin. It is a challenge to everyone on our planet who find ourselves facing off against fascist regimes like that in Iran, and now in the U.S., to raise our sights with righteous anger and courage and forge the road forward in the interest of a better world and future for humanity.         

_______________

FOOTNOTES:

1. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/11/the-evin-prison-bakers-club-by-sepideh-gholian-review.  

2. A human rights activist and lawyer in exile from Iran, Ms. Ebadi is a signatory to IEC’s Emergency Appeal.  

3. See, for example, Recipes from an Iranian prison: ‘If there is one book that shows the power of words, it’s this one’, hyphenonline.com, April 8, 2025.  

4. “A nationwide truck drivers’ strike in Iran has entered its third week, spreading to at least 163 cities, making it one of the country’s largest labor protests in recent years. Despite arrests and intimidation by authorities—at least 40 drivers and supporters had been arrested as of June 3—the truck drivers have remained steadfast, disrupting major transport routes and gaining broad public support throughout Iran… Drivers are protesting against mounting economic pressures, including low fares, rising insurance costs, low freight rates, a proposed fuel price hike, deteriorating livelihoods, and the Iranian government’s disregard for their demands.” Iran’s Truck Drivers’ Strike Sweeps 163 Cities, Dozens Arrested, Center for Human Rights in Iran, June 4, 2025.  

5. Iran Executes 163 People in May, a 143% Increase from Previous Year, iranwire.com, June 2, 2025.  

6. Rights Groups: Iran’s Executions of Afghans Triple, iranwire.com, June 6, 2025.  

‍

Update June 1, 2025: English translation of Bamdad Bidar #1 by IEC volunteers and versions for print available here.

We are honored to share the announcement of a new magazine, Bamdad Bidar, launched by Evin prisoners in a journey of resistance and hope.

The title in Farsi has multiple meetings. “Bamdad” often signifies a new day.  It is also the time that executions are carried out in Iran, the punctuation point to their cellmates’ all-night vigil. The word “Bidar” means “Awake,” but when used as two words, “Bi Dar,” it means "No Noose." Our translation as “Awaken at Dawn / No to Nooses” aims to convey the richness heard by readers of the Farsi.

Bamdad Bidar was first posted online on Tuesday, May 20, and shared by Burn the Cage/Free the Birds movement, on social media accounts of political prisoner Golrokh Iraee, and many others.

The magazine is a work of art and heart from prisoners in Evin Prison. It is full of visceral and poetic words, with hand-drawn illustrations full of the pain and rage of injustice but also full of humanity and the joy of righteous resistance. The hard reality and context are that the regime reportedly executed at least 7 people the very next day.¹

Bamdad Bidar emerges on the heels of 69 unbroken weeks of “No to Execution Tuesdays” weekly hunger strikes among prisoners. This resistance has now spread to 45 prisons across Iran, involving many hundreds if not thousands of prisoners. Human rights groups have reported 900-1000 executions in Iran in 2024 and over 430 since the start of 2025. “No to Execution Tuesdays” is a prisoner-led movement that is fiercely calling to the rest of Iranian society to rise up against such an atrocity.

Bamdad Bidar is a remarkable achievement for such a collective intellectual and cultural work to be produced anywhere, but especially from behind the walls of a hellhole dungeon called Evin.

Please do take a moment to simply reflect on the tremendous difficulties these prisoners have to overcome to transfer their thoughts and emotions to send out these stories over prison walls for supporters to post. It shows initiative, organization and a spirit of defiance against injustice of the murderous regime, but also going against the odds in a determination for a life of the mind even in captivity.

Bamdad Bidar Intro “The Silences Louder than a Thousand Screams”

In the heart of the dark nights of prison, in the silence of solitary confinement, amidst the shuddering of the nooses, and in the hopeful and anxious gazes of prisoners, there are stories that need to be heard. Bamdad Bidar shares the voices that were whispered in silence. We speak of the suffering that took place behind locked doors. Of the nights when the lights were on but hope was extinguished. Of the silences that were louder than a thousand screams. This is not a bid for tears or condolences. This is to stand up against oblivion, against execution, against the official narrative. We want to record and honor the names, faces, suffering. These are stories that the official media shuns, but we reveal them like a hidden treasure. Bamdad Bidar‍ is an attempt to record, retell and awaken. We present these pages to prevent dehumanization from becoming normalized. This is a place for storytelling, for awakening, for rethinking the meaning of justice in life and human dignity. Join us on this difficult but necessary journey. — From the introduction of Bamdad Bidar

The Concluding Page Starts the Journey to a New Dawn

This is not the end. This is just the first issue. This is our first attempt to write from the darkness, looking toward the light, from separation in hope of connection; from the forgotten ones whose names must not be forgotten. Bamdad Bidar is…a struggle to document the voices of suffering from the hearts of resistance, the heart of life. We do not seek immediate results nor common consensus. We have come to write, to read, and to remain. The next issue is on its way, with louder voices, with new stories. The time is now, if these lines speak to you, if an image, a word, a story lingered in your heart, write to us, read, recount. We build Bamdad Bidar not in the [prison] editorial office but in the hearts and minds of its readers. We are grateful to all the writers and designers who helped us create this first issue.

Names and Thoughts in Between the Pages

In the journal’s 20 pages of graphics and stories, there are personalized and personable portraits of, and of interactions among, different prisoners. There is a section describing Qarchak in which the terror of Tuesdays is vividly spelled out:

When I entered the women’s prison in Qarchak… I didn’t realize that a deeper tragedy was unfolding beneath the surface of this prison every day and every moment: a terrifying nightmare known as the death sentence, and many women enduring this inhumane decree with multiple offenses. Tuesdays were the days when death row inmates were transferred to solitary confinement, carried out at midnight through the back door for the implementation of the sentence… Tuesdays would turn into a night of horror when, with each time the lights were turned on, everyone would wait. Whose name was going to be read aloud?… One day on a fateful Tuesday…. Around 1 a.m., the piercing sound of hysterical screaming and a scuffle from solitary took hold of all of us. No one slept until after noon. For years, the sound of those screams rang in my ears… Dictatorial governments may prefer to choose the easiest way to prevent crime, but is human life so worthless? What if the law is wrong?

Another entry described the cruel torment of awaiting the execution of oneself or one’s cellmate/friend and the fight to make NO TO EXECUTIONS a societal outcry and mass struggle in Iran:

Half asleep and half awake, everyone looked at each other wordlessly. [Cigarette] lighters would come out one by one, and the cellmates would take turns. We would blow the smoke toward the bathroom, and the smell of cigarettes would mix with the nauseating odor of the toilets. But who would give that any thought in these circumstances?  No one, but those who have experienced them, can imagine what these nights were like. We experienced them, we who had been imprisoned alongside those who were executed. We have experienced death by edict, death legally ordained by Sharia law of a human being at the hands of another human being ... Public opinion has not yet come to the realization that executions are state murder.  But once we do realize that executions are a type of murder, that these authorized murders are committed daily have put us [in Iran] at the top of the list of [executioner] countries in the world, everything will change. Can’t we think of alternative punishments to the death penalty? Have you thought about it yet?

“The Savagery of the Rulers”

There are four vignettes by this title that challenge the reader to think about where humanity has come to and has yet to go as the powerful in society still rule over others with “creative” tools of death and torture in order to “intimidate the people”. It traces how the guillotine was invented in France as a supposedly more humane way to kill people where the victim avoids seeing the hangman’s rope. The writer points out that

This intimidation only includes the lower class and ordinary people of a society…petty drug dealers are executed, while the murderers of a [whole] nation become heroes but the murderer of an individual is executed…..Just tell me, did the hungry person who is executed actually kill hundreds of thousands with just one signature or not?!

NO TO EXECUTION OF ANYONE, ANYWHERE

This is the lofty demand of a section of Iran’s prisoners, especially among some far-sighted political prisoners and their supporters in the Iranian diaspora (see call for May 31^st global protests). As the pages of Bamdad Bidar indicate, theirs is not a call for revenge but a cry of humanity to reach for a brighter dawn, one with no more nooses, guillotines, electric chairs, firing squads, burnings at the stake, crucifixions, or drownings at sea. They extend their hand for us to join them on this journey and awaken into a new dawn. We reach out our hand in return, proceeding in the interest of humanity, and demand that Iran stop the executions and free all the political prisoners NOW. At the same time, in the midst of threatening “nuclear talks,” more than ever we say to the US, no war threats and moves against Iran and lift the sanctions.

____
FOOTNOTE

1.  https://iranwire.com/en/news/141410-irans-2025-execution-total-hits-434-after-seven-more-people-hanged/.  

‍