Balochistan: The Female Face Of Insurgency – Analysis




Baluchistan, Pakistan. Credit: VOA


October 3, 2026
SATP

By Ruchika Kakkar

Key Takeaways:

SATP reports that the banned Balochistan Liberation Front claimed its new all-female Karima Armed Assault Division’s first operation on Sept. 22, 2026, an ambush on an Action Task Force convoy near Jusak on the CPEC highway in Kech; no independent casualty figures were released, and the group also posted training footage.

The piece reads KAAD, named for activist Karima Baloch, as a 2025–26 shift after the BLF’s first claimed female suicide attack at Nokundi on Nov. 30, 2025, catching up with the BLA’s Majeed Brigade, which has publicized female attackers since the April 26, 2022 Karachi Confucius Institute bombing.

Claims about a mixed-gender Saddo battalion, a May 22, 2026 BLA women’s wing, and named attackers in Herof operations are group statements, not verified battlefield facts; the author treats the trend as recruitment and branding under pressure, not proof of a wider social mandate.

On 22 September 2026, the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) – a banned Baloch ethno-nationalist separatist group in Pakistan, waging an insurgency in Balochistan, allegedly from bases in Afghanistan – claimed that its newly formed all-female unit, the Karima Armed Assault Division (KAAD), carried out its first armed operation near Jusak in the Turbat tehsil (revenue unit) of Kech District in Balochistan. According to BLF spokesperson ‘major’ Gwahram Baloch, KAAD fighters ambushed a Pakistani military Action Task Force (ATF) convoy on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Highway. The group stated that the attack damaged military vehicles and left several ATF personnel dead or injured, though it did not release specific casualty figures. At the same time, the BLF’s media wing Aashob released training footage showing more than 20 uniformed women handling heavy weapons in mountainous terrain.

In a subsequent statement demarcating KAAD’s objectives, the BLF declared that its female fighters would operate on dual fronts: militarily against the Pakistani Army, intelligence agencies and military infrastructure, and socially against patriarchy, class exploitation and what the organisation terms regressive traditions within Baloch society. The statement positions KAAD as both an operational combat formation and a deliberate ideological project. BLF portrays its female members as predominantly highly educated and politically conscious, leveraging their involvement to frame insurgency as an intellectual and political movement rather than a purely armed or tribal uprising. It further contends that women’s participation bolsters the movement’s legitimacy and helps transcend regional, tribal and sectarian divides. KAAD, named after the prominent Baloch activist Karima Baloch, a former chairperson of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO-Azad), whose death in suspicious circumstances in Toronto, Canada, in December 2020 became a significant rallying point, is presented by the BLF as an organised unit that combines armed, political, ideological and organisational roles.


The formation of KAAD forms part of a wider strategic and political shift within the BLF in 2025-2026. For years, the group had largely avoided both suicide operations and the systematic recruitment of female fighters. This stood in contrast to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), another Baloch ethnonationalist militant organisation, whose Majeed Brigade had first popularised high-visibility suicide attacks from 2022 onward, as well as the use of female operatives in those missions. The BLF only began employing female suicide operatives later, with its first confirmed case on November 30, 2025, and subsequently formalised this change by creating KAAD as a competitive response to BLA’s tactics. BLA’s methods had generated significant media attention, prompting the BLF leadership under Allah Nazar Baloch to adjust its approach, while also seeking to expand the group’s operational scope.

In 2025, on November 30, Zareena Rafiq, aka Tarang Maho/Trang Mahoo, associated with the BLF-formed Saddo Operational Battalion (SOB), carried out a suicide attack on the Frontier Corps (FC) headquarters in Nokundi, Chagai District of Balochistan. BLF presented this as its first use of a female suicide bomber. The attack resulted in the death of at least one FC trooper and injuries to several others, though casualty figures remain contested. The involvement of a relatively small number of Baloch women in armed and suicide operations has drawn significant attention. SOB is named after Commander Waja Sado aka Saadat Marri / Sado Marri, a veteran Baloch fighter born in 1927 who participated in earlier phases of Baloch resistance during the 1960s, 1970s and later years. He was killed on December 3, 2007, during an attack on an FC post in Kech. BLF messaging describes SOB recruits as highly motivated volunteers selected for discipline and a willingness to undertake high-risk operations. It is labelled as an evolutionary step that moves the BLF beyond traditional guerrilla tactics toward more professional, high-intensity special operations.


Although KAAD and SOB are operational units within BLF, they feature distinctly different structural frameworks and roles. Unlike KAAD, which is an exclusively female unit, SOB is not restricted to women. It includes male members and functions as an elite mixed-gender formation designed for complex, high-intensity missions.

As the South Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR) noted earlier, the participation of Baloch women in insurgent groups, including as female fidayeen (suicide) attackers, has become increasingly prominent in recent years. Women in Balochistan have been prominent in non-violent political activism over the past decade. Much of this activism has centred on issues of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, reflecting a parallel but distinct form of mobilisation within Baloch society. The first confirmed use of a female suicide bomber by a Baloch insurgent group occurred on April 26, 2022, when BLA attacked the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi. The bombing killed five people, including three Chinese nationals, their Pakistani driver, and a security guard. In claiming responsibility, the BLA released the image and identity of the attacker, Shaari Hayat Baloch aka Bramsh, a member of the group’s Majeed Brigade suicide squad. She had joined the Majeed Brigade two years earlier.

Significantly, BLA is also actively expanding its women’s wing. On May 22, 2026, BLA publicly announced the creation of its women’s wing and released a video via its media wing, Hakkal, featuring Shaynaz Baloch as its ‘commander’. In the approximately 11-minute video, Shaynaz Baloch appears in combat gear alongside other armed women, states that she joined the organisation about seven years earlier as an ordinary member, and appeals to Baloch women and youth to join the struggle. She frames women’s participation as equal and rooted in historical Baloch tradition.

During Operation Herof 2.0, a large-scale, multi-district offensive launched by BLA across Balochistan in January-February 2026, the group heavily publicised the front-line involvement of its female cadres. In February 2026, Asifa Mengal, a 24-year-old Majeed Brigade operative, carried out a vehicle-borne suicide attack on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters in the Nushki District of Balochistan.


Similarly, in February 2026, Hawa Baloch, a fighter on the Gwadar front in Gwadar District, recorded a final propaganda video against the Pakistani state hours before dying in combat; and Dur Jan Baloch, a militant within BLA’s specialised Fateh squad, featured in BLA media carrying weapons alongside male fighters during attacks in Nushki.

In recent years, BLA has strategically deployed highly educated women for high-impact suicide missions, exemplified by the actions of Summiya Qalandarani and Mahal Baloch. On June 24, 2023, Qalandarani, a 25-year-old Computer Science student and BLA media propagandist, executed a suicide bombing targeting a Pakistani military convoy near Chakar Azam Chowk in Turbat, killing a police constable and prompting the BLA to officially declare the “era of women’s active participation in the armed struggle.”

Building on this tactical shift, law student Mahal Baloch aka Zilan Kurd, participated in BLA’s coordinated “Operation Herof” on August 26, 2024, driving a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) directly into the gates of the FC Headquarters at Bela in Lasbela district to breach the military infrastructure.

The emergence of female suicide bombers marks a departure from traditional patterns in the Baloch insurgency. Using women enhances operational effectiveness by exploiting gendered assumptions in security protocols while expanding the recruitment base available to insurgent organisations. Sustained military operations, arrests, and targeted killings often shrink the pool of available male recruits, prompting groups to seek alternative sources of manpower. The present shift combines tactical innovation, ideological rebranding, and gendered symbolism in an effort to reposition the organisation within the increasingly competitive landscape of Baloch militancy.

KAAD is significant primarily because it may signal a tactical shift from the occasional participation of women in Baloch militancy toward a more institutionalised female combat structure. It reflects an organisational strategy shaped by the pressures of prolonged conflict. The growing presence of women in militant violence highlights the capacity of these groups to adapt, innovate, and reshape social norms to ensure their own survival.

Ruchika Kakkar, Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management

Source: This article was published by SATP

About SATP
SATP, or the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) publishes the South Asia Intelligence Review, and is a product of The Institute for Conflict Management, a non-Profit Society set up in 1997 in New Delhi, and which is committed to the continuous evaluation and resolution of problems of internal security in South Asia. The Institute was set up on the initiative of, and is presently headed by, its President, Mr. K.P.S. Gill, IPS (Retd).
View all posts by SATP →

 

Attacks on mining operations on the rise in Pakistan: report

Marina Meireles | September 20, 2026 | 

(Reference US Army photo by Pfc. Joshua Kruger | Flickr Commons.)

More than 30 mining operations have been attacked in Pakistan’s resource-rich Balochistan province in 2026, raising security risks as the country seeks investment to develop some of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits. 

Balochistan recorded 38 attacks connected with extractive operations between January and September, bringing the total over the past three years to more than 130, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) report.  

“This risks undermining Pakistan’s drive to attract international investment and develop its mineral sector amid the global scramble for critical minerals,” ACLED South Asia assistant research manager Pooja George said in a news release. 

Balochistan is a region swarmed by conflict between separatists and the government especially around extraction of copper, gold, chromite, coal and natural gas. For separatists, extraction equals exploitation of the country’s wealth, causing them to target operations for what they signify. 

The attacks make it more difficult for Pakistan to leverage its untapped mineral and fossil fuel wealth, as well as find safety solutions for all parties involved in the conflicts.   

Transport targeted 

Balochistan has reported over 130 attacks in the last three years directly connected with extractive operations, with 38 being just between January and September 2026.  

Attacks on mineral projects occur predominantly during transportation, where militants can bypass the heavier security surrounding mine sites, according to ACLED. 

Flagship projects such as the Reko Diq copper mine and Saindak copper-gold mine involve foreign partners and receive protection from private and state security forces. 

Publicly-owned oil and gas operations face a different pattern. More than half of the attacks against those operations take place on extraction sites, a result of less security when compared to mineral projects. Coal operations have experienced most of its attacks during transportation and about a third on site. 

Nature of conflicts 

With less than 17% of attacks involving roadside bombs or landmines, ACLED suggests that the purpose of attacks is to disrupt operations by creating an insatiable atmosphere, rather than harming workers and civilians.  

Nearly 90% of separatist attacks against mineral projects happen on roads.  Gunmen typically fire at vehicle tires to disable trucks and sometimes set the vehicles ablaze after allowing drivers to leave, according to ACLED.  

“Most attacks impacting mining involve property destruction rather than fatalities. The aim appears to be disruption: creating and amplifying a sense of instability around mining operations and making the environment increasingly difficult for companies to operate in,” George said.  

Militants have also increased roadblocks and checkpoints in the region to facilitate attacks, aiming to show how the state’s authority has decreased and that fear is spreading especially along remote areas. ACLED data show that the number of such events in 2026 is on track to surpass 2025 levels.   

Attacks on extractions sites can carry greater human costs because militants are more likely to encounter security forces,  increasing the potential for lethal clashes. 

Source: ACLED.

Operations workers and companies have felt this increase in instability, with privately-owned mining operations warning about shutdowns or slower operations and workers going on strike. 

Impact on Pakistan’s mining future 

The stakes are rising as Pakistan courts international investment to develop Balochistan’s largely untapped mineral wealth.  

Lack of well-developed and secured transportation infrastructure and the need for state security bring more risks to foreign investors, as separatists are more likely to attack their operations as the government is their biggest adversary.   

ACLED also adds that another risk that comes with increased security, is the abuse of those forces, that can carry reputational costs for companies and impact local community engagement, which is key to safe operations. 

Continued attacks could also draw more international attention to the separatist insurgence, giving militants a larger platform while potentially exposing them to a stronger state crackdown.  

Pakistan has deployed additional security forces to Balochistan, but ACLED argues security measures alone are unlikely to resolve a conflict rooted partly in political disputes over resources, autonomy and the distribution of economic benefits. 

“Opposition to resource extraction lies at the heart of the Baloch separatist insurgency, meaning attacks may escalate further as Pakistan seeks to leverage its untapped mineral wealth,” George said. 

Pakistan: Tormenting Baloch Women – Analysis



September 8, 2026
SATP
By Tushar Ranjan Mohanty

Key Takeaways:

On 27 August 2026 Balochistan put 1–1.5 million-rupee bounties on nine named women from Gwadar, Jiwani, and Turbat, alleged to be linked to Baloch insurgents (“Fitna al Hindustan”). The SATP piece treats the posters as a distraction from a rise in alleged enforced disappearances of women.

Cited cases: 

Safia Baloch, 20, taken in Quetta on 23 August; Aqsa, 17, taken with her father in Khuzdar on 5 August; Rafia Bibi, Tania, and Javeria held at Lak Pass on 30 July and then unaccounted for.

 HRCB: 23 women disappeared January–July 2026; BYC listed at least 12 in 2025. Groups say women are held without charge, then sometimes shown in “confession” videos (Mahal Baloch, 2023, is the template cited). Wider tallies: BYC 1,223 disappearances/killings in 2025; PAANK 556 disappeared and 227 killings in H1 2026; VBMP 6,207 days of protest and 7,000+ missing since the insurgency began.
The state points to women in BLA Majeed Brigade suicide attacks (Karachi Confucius Institute 2022; Turbat 2023; Mastung 2024; Kalat and Nokundi 2025).

 Rights groups say most women are in non-violent protest—Mahrang Baloch’s BYC, the Turbat-to-Islamabad march—and that treating that as a security problem widens repression instead of answering the grievance.

On August 27, 2026, the Balochistan Government announced bounties, ranging from 1 million to 1.5 million rupees, on nine Baloch women, for their alleged linkages to Fitna al Hindustan (A state term for Baloch insurgents. These women hail from Gwadar, Jiwani and Turbat. The announcement was made by Babar Yousafzai, Adviser on Media Affairs to the Balochistan Interior Minister, who said the Government considered the women highly wanted and urged members of the public to provide information to the authorities. Officials added that the identities of informants would be kept confidential. A poster published by the Government identified the suspects as Hanifa Bibi, daughter of Sher Muhammad; Ayesha, daughter of Abdul Rasheed; Iqra, daughter of Ali; Ruqayya, daughter of Waleed; Hafsa, daughter of Iqbal; Zahra, daughter of Malik Muhammad; Amina, daughter of Abdul Rashid; Zareena, daughter of Wahid Baksh; and Aziza, daughter of Ibrahim.

This announcement came at the heels of recent cases of “enforced disappearances” of Baloch women, and appeared to be intended to distract attention from these state atrocities.


On August 23, 2026, a 20-year-old woman, Safia Baloch, the daughter of Abdul Khaliq, a student and resident of the Killi Zayak area of Basima in the Washuk District of Balochistan, was “forcibly disappeared” by personnel of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) from provincial capital Quetta at approximately 1:00 a.m.

On August 5, 2026, a 17-year-old woman, Aqsa, was “forcibly disappeared” along with her father, Abdul Qudoos Zarakzai, by Security Forces (SFs) during a raid on a residential quarter in the Civil Colony of Khuzdar District in Balochistan. At approximately 10 p.m. in the night, personnel from CTD and plainclothes officials carried out a joint raid and took away Abdul Qudoos Zarakzai and Aqsa.

On July 30, 2026, three Baloch women, identified as Rafia Bibi, Tania and Javeria, who belong to the Nechari tribe, were reportedly detained at the Lak Pass FC checkpoint near Quetta and later “forcibly disappeared”. Their family said no information had been provided about their whereabouts and that they had not been informed of the reasons for their detention.

In a statement citing the “enforced disappearance” of Safia Baloch, Dr. Shalee Baloch, an organizer of the Baloch Women’s Forum (BWF), stated on August 26, 2026, that the continued abduction and enforced disappearance of Baloch women had reached an “alarming and intolerable” level. In her statement, Dr. Shalee named several women, Habiba, Mahjabeen, Nasreena, Humaira, Najma and now Safia Baloch, who represented a growing pattern of Baloch women being forcibly disappeared. Dr Shalee added that the targeting of Baloch women reflected a “colonial logic of domination”, alleging that militarisation, arbitrary detention, surveillance, collective punishment and intimidation have historically been used to subjugate colonized peoples.


Organisations including the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) and the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB) have repeatedly raised concerns over women who they say were detained by SFs and intelligence agencies and subsequently remained unaccounted for, with some later being presented before the media as suicide bombers after months of detention. In recent years, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) and other Baloch human-rights groups have documented what they described as an increase in enforced disappearances involving women, and have repeatedly called for detainees to be produced before courts if there are criminal charges against them.

According to an HRCB report released on August 27, 2026, 23 women have been “forcibly disappeared” by SFs between January and July 2026. According to rights organizations, these incidents mark a critical and dangerous escalation in the region, where enforced disappearances historically targeted men, but have increasingly targeted women directly. HRCB and other human rights organizations have raised an alarm over these abductions, which targeted women from diverse backgrounds, including human rights activists, healthcare workers, students, and housewives.

Earlier, on January 13, 2026, BYC released a report highlighting the pattern of enforced disappearances of Baloch women and girls across Balochistan during 2025, emphasising the use of collective punishment and gender-based human rights violations. Titled Enforced Disappearances of Baloch Women in 2025: Collective Punishment and Gender-Based Human Rights Violations in Balochistan, the report noted that at least 12 women and girls were forcibly disappeared across different Districts of Balochistan over the course of the year. BYC underlined that these cases did not represent isolated incidents but pointed to a systematic practice in which enforced disappearance is used as a tool of repression. The report states that the victims included female students, woman health workers, minor girls, and an eight-month pregnant woman. In several instances, multiple members of the same family were targeted during single operations, causing long-term psychological, social, and economic harm to entire families and communities.


Over the years, enforced disappearances in Balochistan have predominantly targeted men, leaving women to bear the social, economic, and psychological consequences within their families and communities. Since 2025, however, the pattern appears to have shifted, with women increasingly emerging as direct targets of state action. This development marks a significant expansion in the nature and scope of alleged State repression in Balochistan.

Forced confessions have become a recurring practice used by the state in Pakistan to shape public narratives around dissent in Balochistan. Women are first subjected to enforced disappearance, held in custody for prolonged periods without due process, and exposed to coercion and abuse. After weeks or months in detention, they are suddenly brought before the public, often through staged appearances or recorded videos, to “confess” to acts they have consistently denied. The case of Mahal Baloch was one of the earliest examples of this pattern. In February 2023, Mahal Baloch was taken into custody by CTD during a late-night raid on her home in the Satellite Town of Quetta, without a warrant. Authorities later claimed she had been arrested with explosives and accused her of links to militant activity, including involvement in a suicide attack, allegations her family strongly denied. Despite being kept on physical remand for fifty-five days, authorities failed to present any substantial evidence against her. Instead, a video later surfaced in which she appeared to “confess” to militant involvement. This statement was made while she remained in police custody, not before a court of law.


The participation of some Baloch women in insurgent groups, including female fidayeen (suicide) attacks on SFs and state establishments, has forced to government to resort to its ‘regular’ method of disappearances targeting women, which it has been following with Baloch men since decades. The first use of female suicide bombers by the Baloch insurgent groups was reported in April 26, 2022, when the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) carried out a suicide attack at the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi, which resulted in the deaths of five persons, including three Chinese nationals, their Pakistani driver and a security guard. While claiming responsibility for the attack, BLA released the image and name of the attacker, female suicide bomber Shaari Baloch aka Bramsh, who was a member of BLA’s Majeed Brigade, a suicide squad. She had joined Majeed Brigade two earlier ago.

The second woman suicide attack came on June 24, 2023, when a BLA-Majeed Brigade bomber, Sumaiya Qalandrani Baloch, attacked a VIP Army convoy that was going from Turbat Airport to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters in the Turbat city of Kech District. The attack resulted in the death of one FC trooper and injuries to another five.

On August 26, 2024, a third female suicide attack was reported when BLA-Majeed Brigade suicide bomber Mahal Baloch carried out a car-bomb attack at the gate of an FC camp in the Bela area of Mastung District.

The fourth female suicide attack was reported on March 3, 2025, when Majeed Brigade suicide bomber Mihikan Baloch attacked a military convoy on the national highway near the Mughalzai area of Kalat District, resulting in the death of FC trooper Attaullah, and injuries to four others.


The last female suicide attack in this series was on November 30, 2025, when Majeed Brigade suicide bomber Zareena Rafiq aka Tarang Maho attacked the FC Headquarters in the Nokundi area of Panjgur District, resulting in the death of one FC trooper and injuries to another seven.

While the participation of a small number of Baloch women in insurgent attacks has drawn attention, women in Balochistan have also become increasingly visible in non-violent political activism over the past decade, particularly around the issue of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killing. They have led prolonged protests over “missing family members,” relatives they accuse security agencies of forcibly disappearing. Hundreds of women and family members undertook a massive march covering roughly 1,000 miles from Turbat town (Kech District) in Balochistan to Islamabad, and staged sit-ins outside the Islamabad Press Club, demanding the recovery of missing persons, drawing national attention. BYC, a civil rights movement founded by Dr. Mahrang Baloch, was led the effort. Protesters faced Police blockades, tear gas, water cannons, and temporary detentions upon reaching the capital. Despite of state atrocities, Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Sammi Deen Baloch organized and spearheaded these non-violent demonstrations.

Mahrang Baloch founded BYC in July 2018, as a grassroots movement advocating the rights of the Baloch community, with a particular emphasis on mobilising women and the families of individuals allegedly subjected to forcible disappearances. In its annual report released on February 3, 2026, BYC documented 1,223 cases of forcible disappearances and extrajudicial killings across Balochistan and adjoining regions during 2025, including affected areas in Sindh and Punjab. On August 26, 2026, the Baloch National Movement’s (BNM) human rights wing, PAANK (Tr: Shield or Protection), reported at least 556 people were forcibly disappeared and 227 others were subjected to extrajudicial or custodial killings across Balochistan between January and June 2026. A PAANK statement added that a further 171 individuals were released during the same six-month period, describing the figures as amounting to an average of roughly 93 enforced disappearances and 38 killings every month. The Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB) recorded 1,455 disappearances, with 1,052 persons remaining missing. The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) estimates that more than 7,000 persons have disappeared since the insurgency began, even as its continuous protest against enforced disappearances in Quetta had reached 6,207 consecutive days by June 26, 2026.

While describing the growing involvement of Baloch women in the Baloch resistance movement, BYC leader Sammi Deen Baloch told Arab News in an interview on February 25, 2025: “We see that our men, our brothers and sons, were systematically taken from their homes, from educational institutions, dragged away while they slept at night. In such circumstances, the only option left for Baloch women was to take this fight into their own hands, to step forward and lead the battle for justice themselves.”

This shift among Baloch women, from the quiet grief to active resistance, has significantly altered the nature of the state’s response. Rather than addressing the underlying drivers of Baloch resentment, the SFs have increasingly sought to suppress dissenting voices among women, treating their growing mobilisation as a security challenge rather than a manifestation of longstanding political and social grievances.

About the author: Tushar Ranjan Mohanty, Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

Source: This article was published by SATP


About SATP
SATP, or the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) publishes the South Asia Intelligence Review, and is a product of The Institute for Conflict Management, a non-Profit Society set up in 1997 in New Delhi, and which is committed to the continuous evaluation and resolution of problems of internal security in South Asia. The Institute was set up on the initiative of, and is presently headed by, its President, Mr. K.P.S. Gill, IPS (Retd).
View all posts by SATP →

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BALOCHISTAN

Iran

Our Support for the Open Letter: To Iran’s political prisoners, trapped ‘between two blades of a scissors’

Friday 28 August 2026, by Collective

The following open letter has been published online in Overland literary journal. To endorse, and add your name, collective or political group as a signatory, fill the form below or email anticolonialiran@proton.me or anticolonialiran@gmail.com The form contains our statement of support in both English and Spanish. A German translation of our letter can be found here. The names of signatories are at the very end of this text and will be updated as more names are added. If you have a language that you’d like to add to this form, email us!

Please share the form widely with individuals, collectives and political parties who support the sentiment of this letter. Also note, the below text is not the final version as it still requires copy editing and hyperlinks.

Our Support for the Open Letter: To Iran’s political prisoners

As migrants and refugees in diaspora and in exile from Iran, who have our loved ones suffering in the Iranian state’s prisons and facing its gallows, we salute the signatories of the open letter to “Iran’s political prisoners, trapped ‘between two blades of a scissors’”, published in The Guardian on 20 August 2026. With us stand comrades and organisations from across the world who see this struggle as bound up with their own.

The open letter was signed by a number of current and formerly incarcerated political prisoners, political organisers and scholars, including Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Yasin al-Haj Saleh, Ricardo Jiménez, Michael Löwy, and Walden Bello, among others, who wrote to incarcerated people in Iran, “we stand in solidarity with you”. In response to the letter, some on the left have since called on signatories to withdraw, describing the letter as “imperialist-sympathetic”, and three names have been removed. We wanted to respond with an open letter, demonstrating the widespread support from people across the world for those who stand unapologetically with the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated political prisoners of Iran.

As collectives and individuals who have for years organised against western and zionist imperialist wars and occupations, as well as against the Islamic Republic’s state violence inside and outside Iran’s borders, we know how difficult it is to step outside mainstream geopolitical framings, familiar but dehumanising, and stand in solidarity with communities whose reality and struggle do not fit the binaries of “good vs evil”, “us vs them”, “west vs the rest”. Yet the communities across the globe who are oppressed by multiple local-global forces at once cannot afford the privilege of choosing between their oppressors as the “lesser evil”.

At a time when the historical struggle for collective liberation across Iran is besieged by the US imperialist zionist war and the Iranian government’s mass executions on one side, and pro-war Iranian monarchist zionism led by Reza Pahlavi on the other, the international solidarity articulated by the statement has brought an unexpected fresh breeze of hope and opened new horizons of liberation beyond borders, especially coming from current and formerly incarcerated political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Yasin al-Haj Saleh and Ricardo Jiménez, among others.

As is to be expected, the open letter has led to a wave of condemnations from vanguards and gate keepers of “anti-imperialism” who have long abandoned the very basic principles of the anti-imperialist tradition: international solidarity in support of lives crushed under the hammer of global capitalism, colonialism and imperialism. Instead of calling for the abolition of capital punishment, these vanguards justify the mass imprisonment, torture and executions of our people.

In the midst of US military and economic war on Iran, the Iranian state has been intensifying the execution of prisoners as a matter of “national security”, by framing the imprisoned protestors as “foreign agents” and “spies” without providing any evidence except forced confessions under torture.

Meanwhile the real “foreign agents” and collaborators have been operating from within the top layers of the IRGC ruling class, providing US and Israel with intelligence regarding the location of assassinated officials and their meetings. This is not a conspiracy, it has been admitted publicly by high ranking officials such as Araghchi who framed it as an ongoing "security breach" within the system. In other words, in a classic scenario scripted by ruling classes, the wretched of the earth in Iran are being scapegoated and sacrificed as “foreign agents”, so a new arrangement of power in the region could be built on the blood of the oppressed and the colonised.

The minoritised communities in Iran bear the heaviest brunt of Iranian carceral and border violence. Nearly two million Afghan migrants and refugees have been deported from Iran since the 12-day zionist war on Iran. The government used the zionist war as a pretext to intensify the racist and xenophobic campaign of mass deportation against Afghans, committing to the ethnic cleansing of a people who have lived and moved on these lands long before the establishment of the Iranian nation-state and its borders.

While the prison system in Iran affects the poor and marginalised from all communities, prisoners from minoritised, racialised and internally colonised regions such as Kurdistan, Balochistan, Ahwaz, and Lurestan, are disproportionally targeted by the Iranian state’s system of mass incarceration and executions. In a manner that is not dissimilar to the US where Black, Latinx, Muslim and Indigenous communities are targeted disproportionally by the white supremacist settler colonial patriarchal dual system of mass incarceration and racial capitalism.

While our position against US imperialism and IRI executions may seem unusual to some, it is in fact a common position among labor unions, student collectives, feminist, racialised and minoritised groups inside Iran and in exile. The most recent statement by the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company reads as follows:

Today, as our country struggles under the weight of devastating economic crises, runaway inflation, the collapse of rial, U.S. and Israeli military attacks, the continuation of a devastating war, economic sanctions, widespread and severe repression, and warmongering policies, the authorities are once again responding to people’s demands for bread, work, justice, freedom, and human dignity, with the most brutal instruments of terror and intimidation: the gallows.

The statement ends by declaring:

The death penalty must be abolished immediately! Political prisoners must be released! No to war, intervention, military aggression, and warmongering policies! The path forward for workers and the toiling people is unity and organisation.

A day doesn’t pass without the families and supporters of prisoners on death row risking safety to gather in front of prisons pleading to stop the execution of their loved ones. Mostly to no avail.

Between 13 to 28 July 2026, as US bombs were falling on the already racialised and marginalised southern regions of Iran, over 1,500 brave prisoners from Ghezelhesar prison held a mass hunger strike against executions of their fellow prisoners. This happened alongside the weekly prisoner strikes of the “No-To-Execution Tuesdays” campaign, which has been ongoing for 134 weeks across more than 60 prisons, demanding an end to all executions.

On 28 July, the site of public execution in Isfahan turned into a spontaneous popular protest by people who had gathered to prevent the execution. The protest was suppressed and the execution took place. Even though the executions have continued, the prisoner’s hunger strike together with the families brave resistance and spontaneous protests in Isfahan have empowered a fast growing movement for the abolition of the death sentence, as a unifying demand among different social and political movements inside and outside Iran even as US bombs fall.

The confidential information published by The Intercept regarding ICE and Iranian state collaboration on deportation in the midst of the war, reveals how police-states work together, and hold diplomatic talks behind closed doors to coordinate mass deportations of migrants and refugees, even as they wage war against each other. The same point holds for recent normalisations of relations between European powers and the Taliban and Al-Sharaa regimes, with the aim of deportations of Afghans and Syrians from fortress Europe.

Lastly we want to affirm the simple and universal truth that the collective liberation of all war torn, occupied and colonised communities of the MENA/SWANA region and beyond are interconnected.

From the Palestinian liberation struggle against genocidal Israeli settler-colonialism backed by western and US imperialism, to the Sudanese revolutionary struggle against the RSF’s genocidal and SAF’s counter-revolutionary war, backed by different regional and global imperial powers, to the Afghan liberation struggle against the Taliban put back in power by the US after 20 years of “war on terror”, to the Kurdish anti-colonial struggle for self-determination, to the Baloch anti-colonial struggle against Pakistani and Iranian colonial occupations, to the Ahwazi Arab anti-colonial struggle for self-determination, to Congo’s struggle against Rwanda’s military invasion and imperial extractivism, to Haiti’s historical struggle against slavery, debt, and terror backed by western colonialism and imperialism, to Venezuela’s struggle against US neocolonialism and state authoritarianism, to the Zapatista struggle against Mexican mal gobierno (bad government) and US imperialism, to Lebanon and Syria’s struggle against Israeli colonial expansion and sectarian political elites, to West Papua’s struggle against Indonesian colonialism backed by imperial powers, to the Saharawi struggle against Moroccan colonialism backed by Israel, to the Uyghur struggle against the Chinese state’s mass incarceration and surveillance, to the Rohingya struggle against Myanmar’s military genocide, to the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination against Indian and Pakistani military states, to the Ukrainian struggle against Russian imperialism and invasion, European self-serving hypocrisy, and the Ukrainian state’s anti-worker policies; these and all other struggles for collective liberation are inherently interconnected.

For us the popular slogan “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free” means forging, articulating and building solidarities that may seem to some confusing or unusual in a world where hegemonic and normative politics is defined by a multipolar, (neo)colonial and patriarchal capitalist nation-state system and its borders, borders that have been, and continue fragmenting, dividing, conquering, hierarchising the lands and the peoples of our planet.

Fannie Lou Hamer’s statement “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free” means rejecting hierarchies of liberation and selective solidarities, even when violent binaries present themselves as common sense. A new world requires new solidarities, rooted in revolutionary imagination and radical love beyond borders and prison walls!

We take up the demands of the Tehran Bus Drivers and of prisoners organising across Iran: an immediate end to the war and to sanctions, the abolition of the death penalty, and the release of every political prisoner. Each demand needs the other.

Long live peoples’ struggles everywhere against imperialism, colonialism, statism, capitalism, patriarchy and militarism of all colours!

Freedom for all prisoners facing tortures and executions in the prisons of Iran, Israel, US, China, Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia!

Freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal, Fred “Muhammad” Burton, Veronza Bowers and all other Black and Indigenous prisoners in Turtle Island!

Freedom for Varisheh Moradi, Pakhshan Azizi, Zeinab Jalalian and all imprisoned revolutionary Kurdish women!

Freedom for Mahrang Baloch and other revolutionary Baloch prisoners in the colonial prisons of Pakistan and Iran!

Freedom for Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, Khalida Jarrar, Marwan Barghouti and all other Palestinian prisoners fighting for liberation from inside colonial zionist prisons!

Freedom for Saadia Mosbah and all other prisoners in Tunisia fighting against the Tunisian state’s anti-Black and anti-migrant policies dictated by European extractivism and border imperialism!

Freedom for all South Asian & Filipino migrant and domestic workers affected by the war in the region!

No to war! No to genocide!
No to executions! No to prisons!
No to militarism! No to imperialism!
No to zionism! No to patriarchy!
No to campism! No to statism!

No to imperialist regime change, yes to revolution from below!

Yes to international solidarity!
Yes to collective liberation!
Yes to peace, justice and self-determination for all colonised, oppressed and exploited people globally!
Yes to Land Back!

Jin Jiyan Azadi!

Further readings and statements against US zionist imperialism and Iran’s militarised authoritarianism

* EZLN statement on Iran and US imperialism
* Ward. Gaza. Queer
* Mobadara
* Sudanese Anarchists Gathering
* Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda, Collective for Black Iranians, published on Africa is a Country

anti colonial iran

The above statement was written by anti colonial iran, a collective that seeks to translate, publish and circulate statements and political actions taken by marginalised, currently, and formerly incarcerated, colonised and revolutionary voices from inside Iran. These are voices which have been historically erased, censored and sidelined, internally by the Iranian state (first Pahlavist and later Khomeinist), and externally by the diaspora elite, as well as Western state and corporate media.

Our aims are to internationalise voices from below which reject statism, militarism, reformism, racism, patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism and borders in all their forms.

Our project began with the Jina Amini uprising under the title of "Translators4Jina" and, after a short break, we resumed our project as anti colonial iran. Statements we have translated over the years from @collective98, Roja Collective, @Sarkhatism, and many more, can be found at https://anticolonialirancom.wordpress.com/

Our statement is supported by: (names will be updated as responses are submitted so there will be a time delay with when names appear.)

1. anti colonial iran
2. Kamran Matin, University of Sussex
3. Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda, Collective for Black Iranians
4. Prof. Abbas Vali
5. Assoc Prof Maryam Saeedi, Carnegie Mellon University
6. Shahrzad Arshadi, filmmaker & playwright
7. Prof. Nayereh Tohidi, California State University, Northridge
8. Prof. Fatemeh Shams, Professor of Persian Studies & Intersectional Feminist Collective
9. Samira Rashti, Health Not Punishment Collective, UCLA
10. Naeimeh Doostdar, Women Revolutionary Council & Amsterdam Vrij University
11. Amir Ahmadi Arian, Binghamton University
12. Nazan Üstündağ, Alice Salomon Hochschule
13. Zhaleh Sahand, former political prisoner
14. آناهیتا رحمانی ، زندانی سیاسی سابق و فعال زنان و علیه اعدام / Anahita Rahmani, former political prisoner, women’s rights and anti-execution activist, Toronto
15. Shokoufeh Sakhi, Ph.D, Adjunct faculty, University of Toronto
16. Shahrzad Mojab, Professor Emerita, University of Toronto
17. Haideh Moghissi, Emerita Professor, York University
18. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo
19. Sina Zekavat
20. Prof. Saeed Rahnema, (rtd) York University, Canada
21. Farhad Nomani, Emeritus Professor of Economics, AUP, Paris
22. Dr Mohammad-Reza Nikfar, IranAcademia
23. Omid Shekari, University of Pittsburgh
24. Assoc Prof Manijeh Moradian, Barnard College, Columbia University
25. Darya Kharabi, Transnational Iranian Antifascist Collective
26. Azadeh Momeni, Toronto Metropolitan University
27. Fataneh Farahani, Professor in Ethnology, Stockholm University, Sweden
28. Dana Orkideh, Illustrator & Graphic Designer
29. Ozlem Goner, Central European University
30. Assist Prof Gulay Kilicaslan, Carleton University
31. Kazem Alamdari, California State University
32. Siyavash Shahabi, journalist and writer
33. Nima Sabouri
34. Sanaz Azimipour, Writer
35. Aso Javaheri, Simon Fraser University
36. Nastaran Saremy, Simon Fraser University
37. Gita Hashemi, Artist, T’karonto
38. Daria Jehani
39. Damoun Jehani, PhD Student and political activist
40. Nima Chalangar, "No To Execution Campaign”, Human Rights Activist
41. Babak Salari, Photographer, Montreal
42. Saeedeh Niktab Etaati, Curator, Canadian Museum of History
43. Arash Ghiassi
44. Muborak Sharif, Independent scholar
45. Mana Khosrowshahi, Development Studies PhD Candidate at University of Ottawa
46. Mina Mahmoudian
47. Suzan Karimi
48. Avishan Chanani
49. Yeganeh Khoie
50. Dr Maryam Palizban, Iméra – Institute for Advanced Study, Aix-Marseille Université, France
51. Mina Fakhravar, University of Ottawa
52. Elham Hoominfar, Northwestern University
53. Kiana Dashtbazi
54. Mona Hadisi, Iran Freedom Congress
55. Dr Mahdi Ghodsi, wiiw, WU, CMEG, Iran Freedom Congress
56. Dr Raha Sabet Sarvestany
57. Dr Zahra Khosroshahi, Lecturer in Film & Television Studies, University of Glasgow
58. Shahla Zendegani Feminist Social Activist
59. Negin Shiraghaei, Azadi Network
60. Hanieh Khosroshahi
61. Mitra Saffari, human rights activist
62. Shahrzad Roshan Zamir, student, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley
63. Ali Robaei
64. Mehrdad Samadzadeh, University of Toronto
65. Mahtab Mahboub, PhD candidate at Essen-Duisburg University
66. Hajar Moradi, Multidisciplinary Artist
67. Ashkan Hashemipour, University of Oxford
68. Dr Homa Fathi, PhD Candidate, McGill Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences
69. Sepideh Shariati
70. Sahand Mehraeen, Vandad Educational Centre
71. Reza Akbari, Political Activist and Writer
72. Sedigheh Haj Mohsen, Political activist
73. Dr Azam Khatam, University of Toronto
74. Dr Ali Akbar Mahdi, Professor Emeritus, Ohio Wesleyan University, Retired Lecturer, California State University, Northridge
75. Negin Behkam, Women Revolutionary Council and journalist
76. Bahar Almasi, Independent Cultural Activist
77. Fouad Roueiha, Un Ponte Per, Rome, Italy
78. Ak-A
79. Prof. Homa Hoodfar, Emerita, Concordia University, Montreal
80. Prof. Azadeh Kian, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
81. Houshang Sepehr, Solidarité Socialiste avec les Travailleurs d’Iran, France
82. Farkhondeh Ashena, former political prisoner
83. Nasrin Parvaz, writer and artist, former political prisoner, “One Woman’s Struggle in Iran, A Prison Memoir”
84. Roxanne Shalkouhi-Coutteure, Union Activist in the health sector, Gauche Anticapitaliste, Brussels, Belgium
85. Chowra Makaremi, researcher in Anthropology, CNRS Paris
86. Babak Kia, Solidarité Socialiste avec les Travailleurs d’Iran, France
87. Roya Rastegar, New Center for Research & Practice
88. Ali Sayyah, Simon Fraser University
89. Morteza Samanpour, Kingston University, CRMEP
90. Dr Roxana Khoshravesh (Toronto)
91. Mehran Esfandiari, Human Rights activist
92. M. Fard, Toronto-Canada Iranian Republican Association (TIRA)
93. Behnam Daraeizadeh, Journalist & Human Rights researcher, Ottawa, Canada
Collectives & organisations
1. No To Execution Campaign
2. Roud Collective
3. Voice of Iran Revolution
4. Osyan Women’s Collective
5. Kaargaah.net (تحریریه‌ی کارگاه دیالکتیک)
6. هم یاری Iran Solidarity - Toronto
7. Transnational Iranian Anti-Fascist Collective (TIAC)
8. Javaneh Verein
9. Global Prison Abolition Coalition
10. Judíxs Antisionistas contra la Ocupación y el Apartheid, Chile
11. Flüchtlingscafé Göttingen / Refugee Café Göttingen
12. AK Asyl Göttingen
13. Solidarité Socialiste avec les Travailleurs d’Iran (S.S.T.I-France)
14. New Bloom 破土, Taiwan
15. Burmese Atheists
16. Solidarity US
17. Editorial Board, New Politics
Signatures in solidarity
1. Prof. Gary Foley, Aboriginal History Archive, Victoria University
2. Prof. Tony Birch, The University of Melbourne
3. Dr Carlos Eduardo Morreo, Victoria University
4. Dr Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak, Victoria University
5. Prof. Juan Tauri, The University of Melbourne
6. Dr Shakira Hussein, The University of Melbourne
7. Assoc Prof Amanda Porter, The University of Melbourne
8. AOM Debbie Kilroy, Sisters Inside & National Network of Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls
9. Rebecca Ruth Gould, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Poetics and Global Politics, SOAS, University of London
10. Peter Bohmer, former political prisoner, faculty emeritus in political economy, The Evergreen State College, Economics for Everyone, USA
11. Prof. Gilbert Achcar, SOAS, University of London
12. Prof. Sean Purdy, Universidade de São Paulo
13. Federico Fuentes
14. Karim Safieddine
15. Ammar Abboud, researcher, Lebanon
16. Sara Abbas, City University of New York
17. Curtis Levy, filmmaker
18. Tania Melnick, Judíxs Antisionistas contra la Ocupación y el Apartheid, Chile
19. Robin Yassin-Kassab, writer
20. Michael Albert, RevolutionZ, United States
21. Joseph Daher, Independant Academic and Researcher
22. Paul Le Blanc, member of Solidarity, Tempest Collective, Democratic Socialists of America, Pittsburgh
23. Olivier Besancenot, NPA-l’Anticapitaliste, France
24. Christine Poupin, NPA-l’Anticapitaliste, France
25. Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz, UC Berkeley
26. Shuddhabrata Sengupta, artist & curator, Raqs Media Collective, Delhi, India
27. Vicki Nguen
28. Nancy Holmstrom, prof emerita, Rutgers University, USA
29. Balasingham Skanthakumar, co-editor Polity magazine / director Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka
30. Dr David Barkin, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, Mexico
31. Prof Ricardo Dominguez, UCSD, Visual Arts
32. Marco F. Navarro, Queens College, CUNY
33. Suraia Sahar
34. Howie Hawkins, Green Party, United States
35. Charles Post, City University of New York
36. David Finkel, managing editor of AGAINST THE CURRENT
37. Dr Aragorn Eloff, South Africa
38. Ashley Smith, Tempest Collective, United States
39. Stephen R. Shalom, Wm. Paterson University, USA
40. Mohammed Elnaiem
41. Gina Lee Robbins
42. Lazy Rosario, Musician & DJ
43. Ammu Abraham, Feminist & civil liberties, Forum against oppression of women
44. Mark LeVine, Department of History, UC irvine, California, USA
45. Rashmi Varma, University of Warwick
46. Armaan Singh
47. Brian B+ Cross, UCSD Vis Arts
48. Ceylan Hassan, PhD University of Kent, Decolonial Cypriot
49. Dr Scheherazade Bloul, Deakin University
50. Melissa Corbett, Socialist Alliance
51. Dr Benjamin H. Abbott, University of New Mexico
52. Juan Pachon, Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET)
53. Joanna Wren, Archaeologist, Ireland
54. Wayne Heimbach
55. Doita Datta
56. Donovan Ward
57. Leila S. Taha, Human Rights Attorney
58. Hugo Le Gourrierec, director, assistant director cinéma, France
59. Dr Geoff Jordan
60. Sarah Sather, Assistant Editor, New York
61. Orla de Díez
62. Danisha, Sai University
63. Dr Christy Adeola Braham
64. Sam Wallman
65. Dr Elese Dowden
66. Marissa Walker
67. Jon Tjhia
68. Mitchell Plitnick, ReThinking Foreign Policy
69. Prof. Barbara Taylor, Queen Mary University of London
70. N Jayaram, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, India
71. Kerrigan Hayes
72. Dr Simone Jeger
73. Choo Chon Kai
74. Amina Ali, writer, New York, NY
75. Lea G
76. Simón Rodríguez, journalist, Venezuelanvoices.org
77. Dr Carolyn D’Cruz
78. Amaury Rodriguez, writer
79. John Michael Colón, Writer & Editor, Strange Matters Magazine
80. Dr S.N, UCL
81. Michael Karadjis, Western Sydney University
82. Nicholas Bray
83. Antonios Tiganis, Aarhus University
84. Wil Sahar Patrick, PhD Candidate, University of Victoria
85. Ian Parker, Anti-Capitalist Resistance Manchester
86. Simon Pearson, Anti Capitalist Musings & Anti Capitalist Resistance
87. Harald Etzbach, Journalist
88. Ian Townson, Anti Capitalist Resistance
89. Shaun Cohen, Leeds
90. George Gray, UCU
91. Prof. Matthew Klugman, Victoria University
92. Tori Ball, Durham University
93. María Paula Hernández, PhD Candidate, La Trobe University
94. Juan-Camilo Riano-Rodriguez, PhD Candidate, Victoria University
95. Imogen Lambert, University of Warwick
96. Caroline Carney Marxist Disability Network ACR
97. John Garvey, Brooklyn, NY
98. Clarice Kuhling, Wilfrid Laurier University
99. Michèle Hehn, Québec Solidaire, Montreal, Quebec
100. Andriy Movchan, International Network for Solidarity with Ukraine
101. Andy Richards - Anti Capitalist Resistance, England
102. Noémie Emmanuel, Sociologue, UCLouvain
103. Kelly Grotke, Writer
104. Vietnam Young Marxist, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
105. Assoc Prof Lucia Sorbera, The University of Sydney, Australia
106. Traven Leyshon, Solidarity U.S., Bread & Roses DSA
107. Sam Friedman, AIDS researcher, USA
108. Ted Zuur
109. Richard “Rick” Sklader, Disability Activist
110. J. Talmadge Wright, Sociology Professor Emeritus, Loyola University Chicago
111. Sam R, Unison/Greater Manchester Tenants Union
112. M. Andre Doucet, Montreal, Canada
113. Steve Ongerth
114. Richard Hornsby, Tempest Collective, United States
115. Dr Müge Akpinar
116. Shivam Chadha, antiwar and decolonial activist, هم یاری Iran Solidarity - Toronto
117. Dennis Kortheuer, emeritus CSULB, United States
118. Michael Sideris, writer and teacher, Naarm/Melbourne
119. Rodrigo Oliveira Fonseca, Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia, Brasil
120. Kavita Krishnan, New Delhi, India
ٖ121. Farooq Sulehria, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore
122. Phil Gasper, Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame de Namur University, USA
123. Eric Toussaint, PhD, University Paris 8 and Liège Belgium
124. Steve Leigh, Red Spark, Seattle Revolutionary Socialists
125. Ugo Palheta, University of Lille, France
126. Siân Vate, Victoria University
127. Alex de Jong, IIRE Amsterdam
128. Tassos Anastassiadis, journalist, Athens, Greece
129. Kit Wainer, United Federation of Teachers
130. Jordy Cummings, York University, Toronto, Canada
131. Bong Fenis, Alyansa ng mga Mamamayan para sa Karapatang Pantao, Philippines
132. Hari Prasad, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
133. Dr Ruth Marshall, Political Science, University of Toronto
134. Ethan Young, moderator, Global Left Midweek @ Portside.org, Brooklyn, USA
135. Hein Htet Kyaw (Abu Bakr), Director of Australasia, Atheist Alliance International
136. Alip Moose, writer, Malaysia
137. Harsh Kapoor, Editor, Mainstream Weekly
138. Keith Michael Estrada
139. Dr Katharine Hodgkin, London, UK
140. Anita Dube, artist, India
141. Penelope Duggan, Editor International Viewpoint
142. Béa Whitaker, militante anti-raciste altermondialiste, France
143. Prof. Martin Gallié, UQAM, Québec
144. Bill Balderston, delegate, Alameda Labor Council, Oakland, USA
145. Fabrizio Burattini (refrattario.link), Italy
146. Marianne Ligou, France
147. Claudine Duplissy IV internationale France
148. Jon Bekken, Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, Philadelphia USA
149. Dianne Feeley, UAW Local 235 retired, Detroit, MI, USA
150. Athena Moss Sypsa, artist, Greece
151. Greg Williams, LFI, France
152. Thomas Harrison
153. Pete Dolack, New York City
154. Criage Lynnette Althage
155. Marco Fonseca, Independent Scholar
156. Kristofer Petersen-Overton, Brook Farm Institute for Critical Studies
157. Allie Levin
158. Kim Scipes, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Purdue University Northwest (affiliation listed for identification purposes only)
159. Guy Rundle, editor and writer
160. Peter Saxtrup Nielsen, Baker, Aarhus, Denmark
161. Dr Gerald Roche, La Trobe University
162. Joel Geier, Revolutionary Marxist, Evanston, Il, USA
163. Teacher, Ystads Municipality, Sweden
164. Elizabeth Lawrence, UCU activist and Anti-Capitalist Resistance, England
165. Tony Iltis, warehouse worker, Western Sydney
166. M. V. Ramana, University of British Columbia, Canada
167. Leigh Kendall, Asia Pacific Sub-Secretariat of the International Workers Association
168. Giannis Felekis, Greece
169. Elea Foster, Greece
170. Charlotte Valloe
171. Lily Fox, York
172. Franck Gaudichaud, Historian, Toulouse University, France
173. A.C. Bayran, Manila
174. Dr Simone Davis, retired, University of Toronto, Canada
175. Jason Pike, Poland
176. Dr Thomas Rieger, Historian, "Die Linke", Germany
177. Prof. Jean Batou, University of Lausanne
178. Stefanie Prezioso, former Swiss MP
179. Dan La Botz, Editorial Board member, New Politics
180. Wendy Thompson, retired former Pres., L. 235 UAW, Detroit, Michigan, USA
181. Helen Scott, Professor Emerita, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
182. David McCullough, DSA, Atlanta, USA
183. Eric Feinblatt, co-chair Sullivan County Organizing Committee/Democratic Socialists of America, USA
184. Michael Mersereau, artist, United States
185. Alex Chis, East Bay DSA, Union City, CA
186. Claudette Bégin, Teamsters Local 2010, retired, Union City, CA
187. Jason Dawsey, Historian, Arizona State University
188. Alex Larsen, Denmark

Currently 298 signatures (30 August 2026)

Attached documents

• our-support-for-the-open-letter-to-iran-s-political_a9705.pdf (PDF - 1.1 MiB)
  Extraction PDF [->article9705]

Iran

• Resumption of Bombing and Internal Crisis in Iran
• A (temporary) calm before the storm in Iran
• Trump-Netanyahu Debacle: A World of Collateral Damage
• Iran’s shockwave in Asia
• The Reasons for the US-Israeli Aggression against Iran

• Collective