60 women at Tehran's Evin Prison protest death sentence of fellow inmate

Sixty female political prisoners at Tehran’s Evin Prison staged an overnight sit-in on Wednesday to protest the recent death sentence of fellow inmate, Pakhshan Azizi.

The Instagram accounts of Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi, Iranian civil rights activist Golrokh Iraee, and German-Iranian rights activist Nahid Taghavi jointly announced that Evin's women unanimously demand the annulment of the Iranian-Kurdish political prisoner's death sentence.

The political prisoners at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj also stated solidarity, condemning the "violation of the right to life of the Iranian people by the execution machine of the Islamic Republic."

They emphasized that resistance and protest against repression and executions would continue unabated. They urged international human rights organizations to address the new wave of executions.

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Iran's Kurdish minority has experienced significant persecution. The rights organization Hengaw reports that during the first half of 2024, Iran executed at least 266 people as part of an ongoing execution spree. Of those executed, 72 were Kurds, Iran's largest minority.

Azizi is the second woman in the past month sentenced to death for "armed rebellion," following labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi. The Hengaw Human Rights Organization which focuses on Iran's oppressed Kurdish minority, reported that Azizi was deprived of legal counsel and family visits for months, denying her a fair trial.

Hengaw published a letter from Azizi detailing torture and hanging during her detention. Authorities have also refused her family contact for the past two weeks.

The death sentence for labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi, convicted on fabricated charges of armed rebellion, was announced a day before Masoud Pezeshkian's victory in the July 5 presidential runoff. The Campaign to Defend Mohammadi, initiated by her family on Instagram, argues the sentence is unjust based on her decade-old membership in a legal labor organization.

In early July, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO) warned of a probable surge in executions following the Iranian presidential election.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of IHRNGO, noted that Iranian authorities historically decrease executions "to encourage participation in the elections," only to increase them afterward sharply. He urged both the international community and the Iranian public to brace for and appropriately respond to this potential wave of executions.

Amnesty International's annual report on the death penalty, released in May, highlighted Iran's rising execution rates, revealing that nearly 74% of all recorded executions worldwide last year occurred in Iran.

The report found that the Iranian government has intensified its use of the death penalty following the Mahsa movement to "instil fear among the people and tighten its grip on power."