Breathing in Confinement

30 September 2025
News group: Hunger Strikes by Political Prisoners –

Breathing in Confinement – The “Tuesdays Against Executions” hunger strike by political prisoners was held in its eighty-eighth week across 52 prisons nationwide.

According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, at a time when harrowing reports from Iranian prisons shake the human conscience, the memory of Somayeh Rashidi, a political prisoner deprived of medical care, has become a symbol of the defencelessness of those whose most basic rights are trampled under neglect and repression. Her wrongful death is not only a deep wound for society, but also clear evidence of a policy that targets prisoners’ lives through deprivation and compounded suffering.

Alongside this grief, the continued issuance and implementation of death sentences against both political and ordinary prisoners — including Bahman Chubi Asl, Hamed Validi, Nima Shahi, and Peyman Farahavar — paints a terrifying picture of systematic human-rights violations in Iran. This trajectory is not justice; it is a tool of intimidation and the silencing of dissent. Defending human dignity and resisting the cycle of death and injustice is our human responsibility. Through unity and collective protest, it is possible to halt the machinery of execution and repression and to envision a more humane future for Iran.

Statement by the political prisoners:
The 88th week of the ‘Tuesdays Against Executions’ campaign in 52 prisons

This week, once again with profound sorrow and boundless solidarity, we stand in memory of Somayeh Rashidi, a political prisoner who lost her life due to the denial of medical care. This wrongful death is part of a policy of ‘slow killing’ of prisoners and a stark warning about the situation of the sick in the country’s prisons — people deprived of the most basic human rights. Members of the ‘Tuesdays Against Executions’ campaign express their heartfelt condolences to her family and friends.

At the same time, the execution of Bahman Chubi Asl on espionage charges in an opaque process on 29 September; the issuance of death sentences for two political prisoners, Hamed Validi and Nima Shahi, by the Karaj Revolutionary Court; and the Supreme Court’s confirmation of the death sentence for Peyman Farahavar all point to a continuing, troubling pattern of repression and violence against the people of Iran and its prisoners. These unjust sentences are blatant violations of human rights and tools of suppression that must be stopped immediately.

In this context, the stance taken by Ms Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, once again drew global attention to the appalling state of Iran’s prisons. The figures — 46 executions in the past week, 190 in the past month (unprecedented in the last 35 years), and 871 executions in the first six months of the year 1404 (20 March to 20 September) — present a horrific picture of merciless human-rights violations.

The ‘Tuesdays Against Executions’ campaign condemns these crimes and again calls for the immediate halt of death sentences and an end to this inhuman course. Our voice is one of solidarity with all prisoners ensnared by oppression and injustice. As before, while thanking all supporters of the campaign worldwide, we stress that the machinery of execution can be stopped through unity and solidarity.

Every act of protest against a death sentence is a step towards ending this cruel trajectory. We call on all opponents of the death penalty to raise their voices against these inhuman rulings.

Members of the “Tuesdays Against Executions” campaign staged a hunger strike on Tuesday, 30 September 2025, in the 88th week of the campaign, across 52 prisons in the country: Evin; Ghezel Hesar (Units 3 and 4); Karaj Central; Fardis Karaj; Greater Tehran; Qarchak; Khorin Varamin; Choubindar, Qazvin; Ahar; Arak; Langarud, Qom; Khorramabad; Yasuj; Asadabad, Isfahan; Dastgerd, Isfahan; Sheyban, Ahvaz; Sepidar, Ahvaz (women’s and men’s wards); Nezam, Shiraz; Adelabad, Shiraz (women’s and men’s wards); Firuzabad, Fars; Dehdasht; Zahedan (women’s ward); Borazjan; Ramhormoz; Behbahan; Bam; Yazd; Kahnuj; Tabas; Mashhad; Sabzevar; Gonbad-e Kavus; Qaemshahr; Rasht (women’s and men’s wards); Rudsar; Haviq, Talesh; Azberm, Lahijan; Dizelabad, Kermanshah; Ardabil; Tabriz; Urmia; Salmas; Khoy; Naqadeh; Miandoab; Mahabad; Bukan; Saqqez; Baneh; Marivan; Sanandaj; and Kamyaran.

Week 88 – 30 September 2025
Tuesdays Against Executions Campaign