Life of Political Prisoner Pakhshan Azizi is in Serious Danger
Political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi, who is held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, has been sentenced to death by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, and this sentence was issued to her on July 23, 2024.
Previously, she was convicted of Bagh-ye (armed insurgency) and, since early July, had been deprived of visits and contact with her family by order of Evin Prison authorities.
Protest by Women in Evin Prison Against the Death Sentence
On Wednesday, July 24, 2024, the female political prisoners in Evin Prison protested the death sentence of Pakhshan Azizi by staging a sit-in. The majority of female political prisoners in the women’s ward with various beliefs collectively protested in the yard of this ward against the issuance of the death sentence for Pakhshan Azizi.
They announced that from 7 p.m. (Iran time) on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, they would be in the ward’s yard and not return inside for the night.
Women prisoners in Evin Prison symbolically set fire to a noose to protest executions and chanted while the rope burned: “We will stand until the abolition of the death penalty; death to the executioner regime; death to the dictator; from Kurdistan to Gilan, oppression against women; women of Evin Prison, united and determined; we will stand until the abolition of the death penalty…”
PMOI supporters also chanted: “The first and last word is overthrow, overthrow; the executioner’s noose no longer affects Mount Damavand (i.e. the strong and determined nation); fear us, executioner, we are the generation of those who stand tall; by the blood of our comrades, we will stand until the end.”
Political Prisoner Pakhshan Azizi
Kurdish journalist Pakhshan Azizi, a former political prisoner, and Social Work graduate endured over four months of detainment in the Intelligence Ministry’s Ward 209 at Evin Prison. Her relocation to the Women’s Ward at Evin on Monday, December 11, 2023, marked a significant shift after enduring extensive interrogation without legal counsel or communication with her family.
The transfer of the Kurdish journalist Pakhshan Azizi followed her arrest on August 4, 2023, in Shahrak-e Kharrazi, Tehran. This isn’t her first encounter with authorities; she was previously arrested on November 16, 2009, during a Kurdish student protest at Tehran University, which was staged against the execution of political prisoners in Kurdistan. Her prior arrest led to her release on bail on March 19, 2010.