Iran’s ‘No To Executions’ Campaign Marks 90th Week With Nationwide Protests And Prison Uprisings – OpEd

No to executions Tuesdays week 90. Credit: PMOI


October 19, 2025 
By Mahin Horri


This past October 14, 2025, the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign marked its 90th consecutive week of defiance, with prisoners in 52 facilities across Iran participating in coordinated protests against the clerical regime’s escalating use of capital punishment. This grim milestone comes amid a horrifying surge in state-sanctioned killings, with reports indicating that over 1,000 people have been hanged in the first six months and 20 days of the Persian year 1404, including 162 in the first 20 days of the month of Mehr (September 23-October 12) alone.

The regime’s killing spree, intended to terrorize the populace into submission, has instead ignited a synchronized resistance movement that now spans from inside the country’s most notorious prisons to the streets of major cities, signaling a new, unified phase of popular opposition.

A campaign of judicial terror

In a clear bid to crush dissent, the regime’s judiciary has recently handed down a series of new death sentences targeting students, activists, and ideological prisoners. The death sentence for Ehsan Faridi, a student political prisoner held in Tabriz, was recently confirmed. The campaign’s statement condemned the decision as being “lacking due process” and designed to “create fear among youth and students.”

Furthermore, death sentences were issued for three ideological prisoners: Nasimeh Eslam-Zahi, her husband Arsalan Sheikhi, and Amanj Karvanchi. The campaign’s organizers described these verdicts as a “symbol of injustice in the despotic judicial system,” underscoring their commitment to “keep raising our voice of protest against widespread and ruthless executions.”

Rebellion from within the prison walls

The epicenter of the in-prison resistance has been Ghezel Hesar prison, one of the regime’s primary execution facilities. On Monday, October 13, inmates in Unit 2—where over 1,500 prisoners are on death row—staged a mass sit-in and hunger strike after several of their cellmates were transferred to solitary confinement for their imminent executions. The prisoners refused their meals and demanded the return of their fellow inmates.

One prisoner from inside the unit reported, “Ghezel Hesar’s Unit 2 is the unit for prisoners under execution. All prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest the mass transfers and relentless executions.”

This act of defiance inside the prison walls coincides with prisoners in Ghezel Hesar joining the global anti-death penalty day by chanting slogans against capital punishment, turning the regime’s centers of repression into frontlines of resistance.
Nationwide protests echo calls for an end to executions

The courage displayed inside the prisons was mirrored by widespread protests across Iran. Citizens took to the streets in Tehran, Isfahan, Sanandaj, Tabriz, Mashhad, Rasht, and numerous other cities to mark the 90th week of the campaign. Protesters held placards and chanted powerful slogans, including “Our scream is stronger than your noose” and the defiant warning, “This is the final message: if you execute, there will be an uprising.”

A pivotal role was played by “justice-seeking mothers” and the families of political prisoners, who stood at the forefront of the rallies. Holding pictures of their imprisoned loved ones, they led chants of “Don’t execute Iran’s children, Iran’s assets” and “Political prisoners must be freed,” transforming their personal grief into a powerful collective call for justice.

The events marking the 90th week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign demonstrate that the regime’s primary tool of suppression is failing. Instead of silencing the population, the “execution machine” is unifying Iranians from all walks of life in a common cause. The synchronized actions of prisoners, their families, and citizens on the streets reveal a deeply rooted and organized national movement that views the abolition of the death penalty as inseparable from the goal of achieving freedom.

As the campaign’s statement warns, these staggering execution figures have “wounded the public conscience of Iranian and global society and requires immediate and serious global action to stop this criminal process.” The message echoing from Iranian prisons and streets is clearer than ever: “No to executions, for anyone!”