In response, support for the “No to Execution Tuesdays” weekly prisoners’ strike against executions saw an “unprecedented expansion,” as reported by Burn The Cage (a campaign in support of Iranian political prisoners, based in Europe) on November 25, with simultaneous protest rallies in more than 16 cities inside Iran. The next week, on December 2, Burn the Cage noted that families of political prisoners sentenced to death, or of those who were killed by the regime’s police forces in recent years, played a powerful role in the front lines of these weekly protests. This is a much needed and welcomed development in response to the horrific dizzying rate of executions in Iran for some time, notably since the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising (2022-2023) and since the unprovoked Israeli-U.S. bombing of Iran in June 2025. The courageous prisoners’ weekly hunger strikes have now grown to 55 prisons across Iran in its unbroken 97th consecutive week. January 28, 2026 will mark its remarkable two year anniversary.
“Silence in the face of injustice is betrayal”—Mother of Student on Death Row
One of the thousands on death row is Ehsan Faridi, a 22-year-old student initially charged with the generic “propaganda against the state” and released on bail. Then, with no evidence, the fascist theocratic regime’s judicial system suddenly changed the charge to “corruption on Earth” and sentenced him to death.
His mother posted a painful video appeal to the public:
I am a mother who for two full years, with hope of proving my child's innocence, anxiously climbed the steps of the prosecutor's office and the court. I remained silent because I am certain of my child's innocence. But from today, I will no longer be silent. Because I believe that silence in the face of injustice is betrayal…I hope that no mother, to save her child's life, the piece of her flesh, should have to throw herself into fire and water in such agony and torment.
Human rights activist and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, currently on medical furlough, is again facing serious threats from Iran’s regime. In November, she had requested permission to travel to France to celebrate the 19th birthday of her twins, whom she has not seen since they were 8. She still faces 10 more years of prison when she is returned to prison.
Two separate judicial bodies issued bans on her travel outside Iran, one of which was marked “permanent”. Narges summarized sharply the intensifying situation in a November 3 interview:
The repression has intensified. The fact is the executions reflect the degree of violence and cruelty the IR has unleashed against the Iranian people. Arrests have been far more widespread and have now reached layers of society that although always under threat, had not been directly targeted like this before. I see the repression now as extremely serious. The establishment’s violence against its own people is a naked one and I know people are deeply angry.
The alarm being sounded about, and by, Narges Mohammadi and her supporters needs to be heard. In the world we inhabit today of naked capitalism and imperialism with its attendant fascism and unabashed state repression, the determined struggle of Iran’s political dissidents and prisoners stands as a beacon to all who hate injustice. It is an urgent clarion call to rise up in commensurate resistance and the fiercest fight for a far better world than this.
In these challenging times, there are sparks of struggle for dignity and humanity that emerge out of the deep dungeons of Iran’s prisons to be appreciated. One such ray of light is the art of Morteza Parvin, an Azeri activist in Evin prison whose art behind the prison walls rejects despair and serves the indomitable free-thinking human spirit that our world needs much more of right now. As reported by @iranprisonatlas on November 18,
A one-day exhibition of abstract paintings by Morteza Parvin, a political prisoner and artist in the visual and performing arts field, was held.... 50 of Morteza Parvin's paintings, which were painted with minimal facilities and in just 5 days, were displayed to the prisoners… [Several other political prisoners] gave speeches about the value of an artist not giving up even in prison and continuing his artistic work despite all the restrictions. Morteza Parvin also held exhibitions in Evin Prison on the occasion of International Workers' Day and International Women's Day last year…
The text of Morteza Parvin's speech to political prisoners visiting his painting exhibition is: “I paint because I consider it necessary to leave my works for this time and of course for future generations; perhaps by those whose expressive lips and artistic hands are forbidden by the locks and shackles of silence. For my countless fellow human beings and sisters and brothers...for whom freedom is the most beautiful and worthy description. For Taher Naghavi, Vadood Asadi [imprisoned Azerbaijani activists], who are currently on hunger strike and whose families are sitting outside the doors of Evin Prison every day. I dedicate this exhibition to these dear ones.”
FREE ALL IRAN’S POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW! STOP EXECUTIONS! NO TO U.S. THREATS AND WAR MOVES!
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See also "Oppose Persecution of the People's Artist, Jafar Panahi".