Statement of a group of political prisoners from the women’s ward of Evin Prison
A group of political prisoners from the women’s ward of Evin Prison in Tehran sent out a statement today, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, announcing that they stand with other political prisoners in the Tuesdays Against Executions Campaign. Following is a translation of their statement:
The regime aims to suppress and block the rebellion and uprising of a people exhausted by systematic censorship, oppression, and executions by imprisoning liberated women—those free from exploitative thoughts and those who have gained the strength, power, and ability to break all barriers and shatter every chain of oppression and servitude.
We, a group of female political prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers in the dreadful prisons under the mullahs’ Supreme Leader. As we mark the 27th Tuesday Against Executions, we have received the news of the death sentence issued for our dear cellmate Pakhshan Azizi, and the conviction and threat of execution for our other cellmates, Nasim Gholami and Varisha Moradi. This news is enough to shake any free human to the core.
Through their struggle and steadfastness, these women have struck a blow to the hideous face of reactionary forces. They have inflicted such a powerful hit that, out of sheer weakness, the regime resorts to these measures, issuing unjust and inhumane sentences against political prisoners, especially women, to prevent others from rising.
The regime fails to realize that these buds have grown away from the eyes of the dictator Sheikh, the filthy measures of the Shah, and the fake reformists. These buds have now borne fruit. They are set to burn down the evil regime from its roots, alongside the heroic people of Iran.
We, the centers of rebellion and uprising within this regime’s dreadful prisons, now stand united against both the mullahs and the Shah. We join hands with other prisoners on Tuesdays against executions, intertwining our shouts to make our voices heard worldwide.
Let the disgraceful reactionary and colonial media continue their dark deeds and censor our voices. What will undoubtedly come is the shining sun of liberation and freedom, whose unparalleled rays will turn all darkness and filth to smoke.
A group of political prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin Prison
July 30, 2024
27th Tuesday Against Executions
In the meantime, political prisoners in 17 prisons across Iran, observed their 27th Tuesday Against Executions by refusing to eat. This week, political prisoners from Nezam Prison of Shiraz joined the campaign. In part of their statement, these political prisoners said:
In the past week, political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi was sentenced to death by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. We witnessed the sit-in and protest of female prisoners in Evin Prison and other prisons against these sentences. Now, the women’s ward of Evin, including political and ideological prisoners, has announced that they will join the “Tuesdays Against Executions” movement and go on a hunger strike. The death sentence for Pakhshan Azizi, following those for Sharifeh Mohammadi and the accusation of rebellion against Nasim Gholami Simiyari and Varisheh Moradi, is a continuation of the double oppression and creation of fear, and an ongoing war against women.
The issuance and execution of these inhumane sentences, which violate human rights, especially the “right to life,” are expanding in the prisons of the Islamic Republic. This is happening even as Mr. Javaid Rehman, the “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran,” in his latest report, condemned the Islamic Republic for its arbitrary killings in the 1980s and in 1988 as crimes against humanity and genocide. The UN Special Rapporteur in his latest report called for the prosecution of those responsible.